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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Crisis shelters forced to turn victims away Advocates push Legislature for more funding

Portsmouth Herald - 5/28/2017

ROCHESTER - For survivors of domestic and sexual violence, it's an understatement to say it's a difficult decision to leave their partner and abuser.

Doing so can mean leaving behind a home, as well as their bank accounts and lines of credit because they don't have full control over their own finances. It can also mean uprooting their children and, often, their entire lives.

But New Hampshire victims also face what officials call "extraordinary" and "heartbreaking" problems with emergency shelter availability and homelessness that victims in others states don't. The Granite State is among the worst at funding social service agencies that aid this vulnerable population.

"The numbers are horrifying," said Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public affairs for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. "I just can't imagine sitting there for years in an abusive relationship and then, when they do say, 'I'm going to leave,' find out there's nowhere that can take them."

Over the last two years, the state's 13 crisis centers - including shelters in Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester - have collectively turned away 2,520 adults and 1,204 children, while serving 24,926 individuals. Shelter officials say adults and children were turned away due to a lack of capacity, limited funding and the fact most victims now stay for as long as four months to a year, an average that has risen sharply in recent years.

Kathy Beebe, director of Haven, which operates a 12-bed Rochester shelter and is the state's largest violence prevention agency, reported her agency had to turn away approximately 1,000 individuals in 2016 alone.

Around the Seacoast, one of the contributing factors to the rise in average length stay at emergency shelters is skyrocketing rent prices and housing demand. The demand in highly competitive cities, Dover and Portsmouth in particular, has dramatically squeezed domestic and sexual abuse survivors to the point of homelessness.

The New Hampshire Housing Authority and housing authorities throughout Strafford and Rockingham counties, all of which are independent agencies, reported they currently have waitlists of anywhere from 1 to 7 years for all individuals looking for subsidized housing.

Traditionally, most of those housing options are designed as transitional or temporary options, but housing authority officials reported most now use it as semi-permanent and permanent housing because there are no other options available to them.

There are handfuls of landlords and property management companies around the area who specifically subsidize rent for survivors, although the Dover Housing Authority stated it is starting to see that number decrease because they're realizing they can make substantially more by raising rent and targeting the general public.

For Carol, a Seacoast native whose real name is being withheld due to safety concerns, the situation is all too familiar.

Carol and her teenage child have been couch-surfing throughout the area for more than a year after Carol's abuser choked her at gunpoint. They're currently staying in a location more than an hour away from their home, and Carol has spent most of her days completing housing agencies' waitlist applications, contacting landlords and searching for affordable Seacoast housing that can accommodate them.

What makes matters more challenging for Carol is that she is on permanent disability and has lingering medical issues due to a spinal fracture she suffered a few years ago during an unsolved hit-and-run motor vehicle collision.

"I have nothing," said Carol, who was also physically and sexually abused as a child and has fought cancer multiple times. "I just want my own place. I don't even care if it's a studio apartment. I just want something to call my own and decorate my own way, and to be back in the area I grew up in."

Seacoast Media Group was able to confirm Carol's abuser served jail time for the aforementioned domestic violence incident.

Survivors of domestic violence have faced emergency shelter and safe housing shortages for years, although Sexton, Beebe and others said it has worsened since the Legislature gutted social service agency appropriations in the state's Fiscal Year 2012-13 general fund budget.

Despite the fact domestic violence is the most lethal crime in New Hampshire, according to Sexton, the collective total allocated to the state's 13 shelters was cut from $330,000 in FY11-12 to a mere $2,275 in FY12-13.

While funding jumped in FY15-16 to $162,498 and Gov. Chris Sununu's proposed FY17-18 budget calls for $143,456, officials say those funds barely cover basic operational costs once the total is split 13 ways. The funds are divided unevenly using a weighted formula that factors in shelter size, which straps small shelters in rural areas.

"It's not even a drop in the bucket," Sexton said. "I haven't see any program in New Hampshire more streamlined than our crisis centers. It's amazing how far those dollars are able to be stretched."

Lyn Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, agreed.

"The reality is almost all states allocate more than New Hampshire does for domestic violence," she said. "The question isn't the infrastructure. The member programs do fantastic work. It's really just a capacity issue. If they had more funding and space, they'd know what to do with it."

There are funding measures underway that could improve the situation, though.

After survivors and advocates flooded state budget hearings, the Senate Finance Committee voted this week to allocate $500,000 for each of the next two years for the state's 13 crisis centers. The committee also voted to allocate $125,000 for each of the next two years for prevention programs that cover both sexual and domestic violence.

Neither of those allocations are finalized as they must still be approved by both the full Senate and House.

Also, New Hampshire has received a federal Victim of Crime Act grant in the amount of $400,000 per year for the next three years. The money is generated through fines and fees assessed to convicted criminals.

Schollett said the grant will be largely be used to support a sexual assault nurse examiner program, which will help ensure there are nurses available in each region who are trained to collect forensic sexual assault evidence. It will also provide substance abuse and mental health care for victims, while a small portion will be divided among the 13 crisis centers.

According to Sexton, though, the problem with both the proposed state funding and the federal grant is that none of them fill the gaps in core programs and services that were cut by the House in FY11-12, nor do they provide funding to help the shelters do more to transition survivors into sustainable housing.

They also don't directly address what Sexton said is the biggest need in combatting domestic violence: prevention education and services.

The state has never appropriated funding solely for domestic violence prevention. All of New Hampshire's crisis centers are also mandated to serve as dual sexual assault and domestic violence centers, which can often limit program funding on the domestic violence side.

Sexton called this prevention-less approach a Band-Aid solution, and likened it to how the state has focused too heavily on combating the aftereffects of other epidemics, like drug addiction and alcoholism.

"This money is not earmarked for fixing the root cause," she said. "The shelters will still have to fund-raise to do what they are best suited to do and need to do to stop the (domestic violence) cycle."

Jane Downes, shelter manager at Haven, said what community members can do to help the situation is either donate to their local shelters or step up and provide affordable subsidized housing options for survivors.

"There are 400,000 people between Strafford and Rockingham counties," said Downes, whose agency serves both counties. "We need landlords to step up and say, 'We'll help you.' We need to look at investing in people . We'll either pay for this in the beginning or pay more for it in the end when they're abused. This issue can be solved if everyone can come together and commits to actually doing something."

Stewart Property Management and Alliance Property Management are among the larger property managers that Seacoast Media Group was able to identify as participants in programs to subsidize rent for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Neither could be reached for comment for this story.

If you need help

The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence's website has detailed information about the state's 13 crisis centers. It also has many other resources, including information for a number of agencies. The coalition's website is www.nhcadsv.org.

Haven also has many resources. Its website is havennh.org.

Local housing authorities encourage individuals to fill out housing waitlist applications with as many housing offices as possible. Electronic applications for all of New Hampshire's waitlists can be found at affordablehousingonline.com/open-section-8-waiting-lists/New-Hampshire. Packets of information and other housing resources are also available by visiting any housing authority office.