A Step Against a Nasty Problem : L.A. County will gain a 110-bed shelter for battered women

Over the last year the nation’s attention has been drawn to the problem of domestic violence and battered spouses. U.S. Justice Department statistics show that roughly 3 million women nationwide are subjected to domestic abuse each year. In California and some other states, the result has been welcome pressure from local law enforcement officials and legislatures for more active policing and tougher sanctions against abusers.

But America still lags badly in the construction of emergency, transitional and long-term shelters for abused spouses and their children. Los Angeles and Orange counties are no exception. Consider, for example, the fact that the House of Hope, operated by the Orange County Rescue Mission and rated one of the largest facilities of its kind in the nation, has only 45 beds.

Statistics show a strong need in rural areas as well as cities and suburbs. In the Antelope Valley, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office files as many as 4,000 misdemeanor cases of spousal abuse per year. However, the valley has just one shelter. Although it can handle 72 cases at a time, the maximum stay is only 60 days. So when the announcement was made that funding had been put together to build Los Angeles County’s largest long-term shelter for battered women--110 beds--it was big news.

Harbour Community, in the northeast San Fernando Valley, will allow women to remain as long as 18 months as they attempt to put their lives back together. The project is administered by Women Advancing the Valley through Education, Economics and Empowerment (WAVE). It will be financed in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Projects like Harbour Community take a long time to get off the ground. In San Clemente, it took two years of charity fund-raising such as fashion shows and golf tournaments, along with a $425,000 state grant, to open that city’s first women’s shelter in 1995. It has 16 beds.

Perhaps President Clinton said it best in 1995: “If children aren’t safe in their homes, if college women aren’t safe in their dorms, if mothers can’t raise their children in safety, then the American dream will never be real for them.”

Shelter is the answer, and there is far too little to go around.