Signal Staff Writer
Posted: Jan. 31, 2010 10:39 p.m.
As the governor's proposed budget makes its way through the Legislature with no funding for domestic violence services, the Domestic Violence Center of the Santa Clarita Valley is sitting tight in a small office space in Valencia.
The already cash-strapped center faces cuts next year that could decimate its ability to serve battered women and children, said Nicole Shellcroft, its executive director.
At 700 square feet for a $500 monthly rent, the new space is less than half the size and a quarter of the cost of its Newhall facility.
The center provides therapy and other services for domestic violence victims, and operates a four-bedroom shelter at a secret location.
The center moved to the Valencia Industrial Center on Avenue Stanford in October after state budget cuts priced them out of the old one, where staff helped walk-ins daily.
Now, the center gets one or two walk-ins a month, Shellcroft said. Signs listing the its hotline are still posted at the old location, so calls have increased, Shellcroft said.
The center's annual budget was cut last year from $450,000 to $305,000.
The bulk of that is $156,000 in one-time money secured through legislation co-authored by Assemblyman Cameron Smyth, R-Santa Clarita.
Smyth said he is again ready to go to bat to secure funding for the facility, which is the only one of its kind in the Santa Clarita Valley.
"I believe supporting domestic violence shelters is something that should have government support. It certainly warrants a place in the budget," he said.
Even while the state budget so far dedicates no money to domestic violence services, such violence is on the rise and research suggests it is because of the down economy, Shellcroft said.
She noted four domestic violence related deaths in the Santa Clarita Valley last year.
The area's first apparent domestic violence death of 2010 was Jan. 14, when a Canyon Country woman was fatally shot. Her husband was charged in the crime.
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February 01, 2010 - 09:19 AM
Chevron earned $24 billions in excessive profits in 2008, as per www.tyrannyofoil.com. Schwarzenegger should put an excessive profits tax on these profits, instead of protecting the oil corporations from fair taxation, then, there would be sufficient public funds for all the vulnerable, people programs. Big business lost the fight to eliminate domestic violence funding, so now they are coming back with a vengeance. There is no domestic violence funding provision in the proposed budget.
February 01, 2010 - 12:12 PM
Um...... non sequitur, Earl?
Are you saying that "Chevron" beats its wife? Or that if Chevron made less money there would be less domestic violence? Or that "big business" in general is in favour of domestic violence?
I've got to question your thinking there.
Though we clearly need these centers, I'd much rather see my tax $ go toward prevention of domestic violence in the first place.. In the second place I'd like to see wife beaters arrested and locked up. Don't we already have a bunch of guys with guns and uniforms running around town setting up speed traps? Maybe we could re prioritise them towards crime prevention instead of law enforcement.
February 01, 2010 - 12:29 PM
Garyr: Chevron does not battered women, it uses its influence from in behind the scenes to veto-cut funds for battered women shelters and other vulnerable, people programs. Yes, it appears that big business is in favor of wife-beating, and letting vulnerable, people becoming more vulnerable. Shelters are absolutely required to stop a women from being beaten or killed, because most women are smaller than men. Prevention of domestic violence in the first place is great, after a battered wife is safe in a shelter. How can a 97 lb. women, who is seven months pregnant, defend herself from being killed by a 300 lb., muscle-bound terminator?
February 01, 2010 - 01:03 PM
Why can't she call 911?
I know why, but why don't we do something about that?
I know most of the worst violent bullies in my high school class went into law enforcement. Santa Ana PD was a favorite - those guys could get away with stuff that would make LAPD blanch. That's probably just Orange County though. None of our Sheriffs would look the other way at a wife beater.
So we put them in jail. Menace to society. A guy that beats his pregnant wife? How do you think that guy is going to react when he thinks you cut him off in traffic? Sure, the prisons are overcrowded - but there are plenty of harmless people in prison. Kick them out and put the violent people in.
you could get restraing orders, but those are useless. Maybe we could put some resources towards making them less useless?
February 01, 2010 - 01:59 PM
Garyr: I do not understand what you are saying in your second comments. A battered wife could be killed or beaten before she gets to a phone to make a 911 call. It can happen that fast. I agree with you that restraining orders are useless, because how can battered wife defend herself with a piece of paper?
February 01, 2010 - 02:15 PM
Just clear one thing up for me...rent $500 per month...budget $350,000...one to two walk-ins per month..12-24 families per year... can we not work this in with another agency and save a little money?
February 01, 2010 - 03:32 PM
A shelter isn't "faster" than calling 911. It's well after the fact. The need demonstrates that the things we "ought" to do have all failed miserably.
If I had a $350k annual budget to try to address the problem I would try to spend is as early in the problem process as possible.
Our criminal justice system doesn't work for this problem, but $350k isn't going to do anythng to fix it.
The police are fairly useless, but that's a political problem not financial.
For $350k a year you could take a stab at restraining orders. It's not like battered women don't know they are going to be battered. For $350k you could develop a variation on the home arrest ankle restraints that set off a loud alarm and called 911 if the person got within 100 yards of the victim or their home.
No. I think if I only had that budget I put it toward early intervention and education. We are raising boys/girls to be men/women with messed up cross wirings between love/sex/protecting/being protected/strength/weakness/dominance/submission. We put resources towards getting a 10 year old boy out of a house where his father beats himn bloody, but how much to helping him not grow up to BE that father? How about that "bad boy" boyfriend that takes the girl away from her abusive homes Same guy?
February 02, 2010 - 02:11 AM
SCHWARZENEGGER IS BAD NEWS AGAIN. It is against the law to physically harm another person, including wives. Schwarzenegger's government is not enforcing this law. The funding priority for battered women shelters (BWS) should be the highest because human life is at risk, and because BWS's keep the good people in, and the criminals and the murderers out. During a recession with its higher unemployment, government funding for BWS's should be increased, not eliminated. The Governor's proposed budget, with the backing of Big Oil (Chevron Corp. of San Ramon), are very dangerous for women and children, who are victims of domestic violence and it is sub-human. Obviously, this budget picks on the most vulnerable and it endangers children. If a battered wife is murdered in front of a closed-down BWS, then, Schwarzenegger and his oil industry tyrants should be charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment, because that's the law. If the mother suffers, then the children suffer.
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