Domestic violence programs examine advantages closing, supplementing traditional shelters

Oct. 28, 2015, 6:45 a.m. ·

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Nebraska domestic violence programs rethink traditional “safe house” model for emergency shelters, shifting clients in need to temporary hotel space.


Data from the Nebraska Crime Commission (Chart: Bill Kelly/NET News)

Last year Andrea knew she had to get away from her husband. She needed to escape her own home. Not only had the level of emotional abuse gotten worse but the timing of the physical assaults could be tracked on a calendar.

And nearly every attack was in view of the couple’s toddler daughter.

She recalls “by the third time it happened, I said, ‘that’s enough.’”

As bad as it got, 27 year old Andrea (her name has been changed for her protection) never relied on any of the shelters in eastern Nebraska on her list of options for escape. She had heard about crowded facilities that made her “kind of leery about considering a shelter.”

She felt there was even a stigma about showing up for help at a safe house.

“For me personally, going to a shelter was an admittance that this was happening to me and it made it more real,” Andrea said. “I just couldn’t admit it to myself. There was a heavy haze of denial over me that this was even happening.”

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE DEFINED


Domestic assault in Nebraska consists of intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing physical injury to an intimate partner. An intimate partner is:

  • a spouse of the offender
  • a former spouse
  • someone with whom the defendant has children, or
  • someone whom the defendant is dating or dated in the past.
  • Domestic assault can be a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the offender’s intent and the injury caused by the assault.

    Intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily (physical) injury to an intimate partner is a domestic assault in the first degree. This crime is a Class III felony if it is the offender’s first offense. If the defendant has a previous conviction for domestic assault in the first degree, the offense is a Class II felony.

    (Definition from CriminalDefenseLawyer.com)

Since the1970s service agencies providing help for abused women concentrated on creating emergency shelters in secretive locations. The combination of providing shelter and counseling slowly changed the way law enforcement, families and political leaders viewed the problem of violence in the home. Stand-alone shelters continue to be an important part of the response to domestic violence in Nebraska and across the country.

Lately there has been a reevaluation of shelters emphasizing shared space with multiple victims and their families. In Nebraska at least two groups helping victims of domestic violence, in Scottsbluff and Fremont, closed the old safe house and replaced it with providing temporary safe, refuge in hotels and apartments.

The Scottsbluff, Nebraska-based DOVES program made the switch over two years ago.

“It was a big leap for us,” said Hilary Wasserberger, executive director of DOVES. “I’m really glad that we did it.”

“It gave people more of that comfortable home environment where they could live like we would normally live but sometimes it was communal living, which is kind of challenging.”

Until the staff and board elected to make the shift in approach DOVES maintained several homes for abuse victims in nine panhandle counties. They’ve all been shut down. Currently if a client needs an emergency escape in the panhandle, the individual or family are given temporary shelter in hotel rooms reserved by the DOVES program.

“We really feel like its more respectful of the way most of us as adults want to live,” Wasserburger said. “It gives them an opportunity to stay together as a family unit.”

The goal is to provide short term shelter in a motel room and move as quickly as possible provide victims with assistance to transition into more permanent housing they can call their own.

Nationally, shelters originally focused on women categorized at the time as “battered wives.” With societal changes including divorce, same-sex couples, and care for aging parents, the needs of clients became more diverse and challenging. It became understood that men were also at times victims of domestic violence. Attempting to accommodate so many variations of family became overwhelming for towns where there was only one house available regularly.

DOVES Executive Director Hilary Wasserburger consults with staff member Yolanda Ponce.

The groups offices in Gering, Nebraska. (Photos: Bill Kelly/NET News)

“It was a big leap for us. I’m really glad that we did it,” Wasserburger said. “I won’t say it’s perfect. We are always working through the best way to do it but it’s something I would recommend for other people to consider.”

The flexibility to serve clients spread over hundreds of square miles has been another advantage of the change, since no one can predict one day to the next where calls for help will concentrate. DOVES has served up to 25 families in a single day.

“If someone called from Chadron right now, we could get her into a hotel right this minute, as long as there is one available,” Wasserburger said “With our (now-closed) shelter facility, someone needed to drive there and unlock the door so it sometimes lengthen how long it took to get somebody services.”

Lynne Lange of the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic violence says flexibility is important to domestic violence service agencies,

“Now we have seen a progression to really looking at the needs of the survivors that we are serving and not trying to make a one-size-fits-all approach work for everybody,” Lange said.

The Nebraska Crime Commission reports a general trend of increasing reports of domestic assault cases. In 2010 4800 cases of home-based violence were reported, resulting in 2800 charges being filed. Last year the number of reported cases passed seven thousand. The number of arrests remained about the same.

Lange said the increased number of reports may arise from an increased willingness to report and prosecute these cases.

“That’s why I’m here. That’s what I do,” said Yolana Ponca with the DOVES program helps place clients in the motel shelters and connects them with other needed services and educational opportunities.

“Until nobody walks through that door or we aren’t getting any phone calls, it’s needed.”

Ponca sees one very tangible advantage to hotel rooms providing more private space to those in fear of returning to their own homes.

“It’s a respite,” she explained. “That’s one thing I always tell a client first, their first night in shelter, try take tonight to get a good night’s rest because you are going to have plenty to think about, plenty that you have to plan or do here in the next couple of days while you are there.

And whether it’s a traditional shelter or a hotel room Ponca sees the benefit of getting the family she’s seen “away from all the craziness; away from all the fighting; away from the abuse. It’s a break.”

There have been a few instances around the country of domestic violence victims being put up at seedy motels in dangerous neighborhoods. The Domestic Violence Coalition has heard of no instances in Nebraska.

“I personally haven’t heard that as a complaint from survivors or the voices of our local programs,” said Linda Lange of the Domestic Violence Coalition.

That transitional housing, away from the communal living of a large shelter house is what Andrea found for herself a year ago when she sought the help of friends. It was several weeks before she was able to stop moving her now two-year old daughter from one place to another after a few nights.

“My whole idea of safety was turned upside down,” Andrea said recently. “I didn’t even know what I would have done without my friends at that time in my life.”

Earlier this year Andrea moved into own place and has a steady income to pay the rent. Her Facebook is filled with selfies of her and her daughter, both showing big, relaxed smiles

Told about the option of short-term hotel rooms replacing some shelters, the 27 year old sees the advantage to any women facing frightening choices like she had a year ago.

“I many times would lie awake in one of my friend’s beds and my daughter sleeping next to me and I feel safe and I know that my husband didn’t know where I was,” she said. “I was in a place that was safe. Safer than my own home, which I thought was safe.”