Domestic violence agencies face mounting costs
Pandemic safeguards force increased expenses, including housing victims in hotels
Not only is domestic violence up during the pandemic, but providing emergency help for victims has become far more costly and difficult, according to experts in Connecticut.
Emergency shelters can’t operate at full capacity because of social distancing precautions, so every night dozens of endangered spouses and their children are housed in hotels across the state.
That system protects them from further abuse, but adds a hefty expense for nonprofits that rely on government funding and foundation grants for most of their budget, experts said.
“Since last spring, we’ve had to use emergency assistance money — hoteling means everything is more. Food costs more, even basic transportation — the costs grow exponentially,” said Tonya Johnson, vice president of the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Johnson’s organization works with 18 nonprofits to provide emergency shelter, counseling referrals, advocacy and other services for abuse victims across the state. The pandemic has seriously strained their budgets.
“In (an average) six months, we might spend $30,000 on hoteling. For six months last year, we had to spend $340,000,” she said.
Hartford-based Interval House, the largest member of the coalition, was spending between $500 and $1,000 a month on hotels when it could make full use of its 21-bed group safe home. But when the coronavirus hit, the agency had to move some residents to hotels to reduce density. And new victims needing help were directed immediately to
hotels.
“It went up to $5,000, $7,000 a month in March and April, then to $10,000. Now we’re close to $20,000, and that doesn’t include food and other services,” said President Mary-Jane Foster.
“And these aren’t luxuries. These are just necessities,” she said.
Like the other 17 domestic violence agencies in Connecticut, Interval House is turning to private donations to help cover some of its budget gap in 2021. Major foundations and federal CARES Act aid have helped, but Foster projects Interval House needs another $100,000 to get through this year.
“Another expense for us has been equipping all of our staff to work remotely. Many of them didn’t have cameras on their home laptops or didn’t have firewalls and security software,” she said. “The Hartford Foundation was incredibly generous in providing $39,000 for that. And the Petit Foundation has funded tablets so our kids in the safe house and at hotels have the ability to access programming.”
Shelters can feed families economically from a central commissary-style kitchen. When those people are dispersed to hotels, agencies pay more to feed them — either through gift cards to local fast food restaurants, or with individual groceries for those whose rooms have kitchenettes.
The cost of providing advocacy is also higher, since the staff must travel between various locations to see victims in person. As a health precaution, many agencies are providing Uber or Lyft rides to victims who need transportation. In non-pandemic times, they just have staff or volunteers drive them.
Interval House serves domestic violence victims from Greater Manchester, the Farmington Valley, East Hartford, Hartford, Newington, Rocky Hill, South Windsor, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor.
“We’re working very, very hard to make sure we don’t run into the red. I think expenses will run more than $100,000 past what we budgeted,” Foster said.
Donations to domestic violence agencies in Connecticut can be made directly or through the coalition at ctcadv.org.
Johnson emphasized that all domestic abuse victims in the state are being served, and said anyone who is at risk should contact the statewide hotline at 800-7997233.