By Jennifer Edwards
Enquirer staff writer
Domestic violence shelters have been overflowing or at capacity this year in most of the region, officials at the shelters say.
The problem is so bad, a larger shelter is under construction in Northern Kentucky, and in Hamilton County, the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati is considering whether to expand its 60-bed shelter, one of the largest in the nation.
"This is a very dangerous situation for women in our community," said Charlene Ventura, the YWCA's president and CEO.
"The most dangerous time for a woman is when she is wanting to leave the abusive relationship. Women need to have shelter and safety planning," she said.
Fueling the crowding: an increase in reports of domestic violence because of mandatory arrest policies, a rise in alcohol and drug abuse, and the downturn in the economy. Experts say whenever jobs are hard to come by, crime rises, including domestic violence.
And, officials at some shelters say, women are staying at shelters longer because of a lack of other affordable housing.
In Warren County, that has left shelter officials scrambling this year to find beds for women in other shelters outside the county, said Jean Dorgan, the adult program coordinator for the county's Abuse and Rape Crisis Shelter.
"Our target date used to be 30 days and now we keep them probably anywhere from 45 to 60 days," Dorgan said. "We try to get them into a transitional program with (public) housing but their budget is such that they have cut back, and we just have to wait until there is an opening now."
Northern Kentucky's Women's Crisis Center has a capital campaign under way for a new shelter in Maysville slated to open early next year, said Kim Adams, new director of the center, which covers a 13-county area.
Expansion of the crisis center's other Northern Kentucky shelter isn't in the forecast yet.
"But there is a lot of growth in Northern Kentucky, so who knows what our needs may be in the future," Adams said.
For many battered women, the shelters are the difference between life and death. They provide a haven for women and their children as they escape abusive relationships, and then struggle to rebuild their lives with new housing and/or employment, counseling and other services.
"The only way I could win was to vanish," said a woman last week who fled her abusive husband and is staying at one of the YWCA's shelters. She and the YWCA requested she not be named.
"I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to do. I just had to get away from this guy," said the 46-year-old mother of four children and grandmother of five.
She went to the shelter after winding up at a rest stop out of state, calling a national hot line for help because she had nowhere else to turn.
If she hadn't made that call, she said, "I would probably be driving around from town to town....They offered me a safe place, and you're guaranteed a bed and food."
Now she has a new job, is rebuilding her life and lives for the day when she can get a place of her own so her children and grandchildren can join her.
"You learn so much about yourself, it's amazing the things people take for granted," she said.
Packed regional shelters come as Hamilton County experiences a spike this year in domestic-related killings.
Eight women have been killed in Hamilton County so far this year in domestic situations, according to the Rape Crisis & Abuse Center of Hamilton County, formerly known as Women Helping Women. That number is double the four victims in 2003.
Overflowing shelters are common across the country, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, based in Denver.
The coalition represents more than 2,000 shelter programs and domestic violence prevention programs nationally.
Crowded shelters often result from a lack of funding and/or staff or a rise in reports of domestic violence and prosecution of such cases in some areas, said Jill Morris, public policy director at the coalition's Washington, D.C., location.
"We have seen a huge leap in the number of people coming forward," she said.
"So if we don't start putting our money where our mouth is, then we will go back to the way things were 10 years ago, when women were afraid to call the police, or they called the shelter and the shelter turned them away and they gave up."
Area shelters
• The YWCA of Greater Cincinnati operates shelters in Hamilton and Clermont counties. A 15-bed Clermont shelter also serves Brown County. On Friday, there were 60 women and children at the YWCA's Hamilton County shelter and 14 women and children at the Clermont County shelter.
