Victims See Glimmer of Hope

Since the advent of the O.J. Simpson trial, the issue of domestic abuse has received a more public hearing. However, programs and services directed to women and children caught in this dangerous cycle remain woefully limited. So announcement last month of the start of construction on a residential facility, Harbour Community, is a bright star on an otherwise dark horizon.

As the largest transitional housing facility to operate in the northeast Valley, Harbour Community will enable 39 women (with as many as eight children each) to have safe and comfortable housing for as long as 1 1/2 years.

The facility will offer a variety of programs, including job training and placement, educational opportunities, computer classes, legal assistance, financial management courses, nutrition and fitness classes and medical aid. The program also will conduct group therapy sessions geared to helping abused women identify some of the “red flags” in a potentially violent mate, as well as a few of the elements of a healthier relationship.

Throughout the country, the bulk of housing services available to victims of domestic abuse are of the temporary kind, also known as crisis or emergency shelters. This type of facility is an important step in breaking the cycle of violence. But as many social service providers have discovered, women may return as many as eight times to live with their batterers before eventually moving out.

The reasons for this pattern of behavior are as varied as the victims, but without question a major determinant is the lack of affordable housing.

Mothers’ concern for their children’s safety makes public housing, with all of its attendant pitfalls, a poor option. This, coupled with rusty employment skills and declining levels of public assistance, feeds into the decision to remain with their abusers.

It is also known that once a woman has sought temporary shelter and then returned to her mate, her chances of being maimed or killed dramatically increase.

Although temporary housing is a valuable haven in the escalating cycle of domestic violence, the length of time permitted there--usually 30 to 60 days--rarely offers a woman a chance to rebuild and rehabilitate her life.

By contrast, transitional housing, in which the client typically may remain for from six months to 1 1/2 years, provides the woman a chance to develop the skills to become independent, and without the menacing proximity of an abuser.

The exact scope of domestic abuse remains under debate, but according to FBI statistics for 1995, an American woman is battered every nine seconds.

Lynn Moriarty, director of the Family Violence Project for Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles, estimates that of all women living in the Valley now, at least 100,000 will be confronted with some form of domestic violence at some time during their lives.

In addition, every month about 200 women file restraining orders in one of the Valley’s three courts, Burbank--San Fernando and Van Nuys--and about 50% of these women eventually seek emergency housing. Another 5% need long-term transitional housing.

Hope Cottage was the Valley’s first transitional facility for battered women and their children. The program is small, however, and can house only four families for six months. It always has a waiting list.

For a Valley woman needing longer residential assistance, there has been no choice but to apply to a larger facility in the South Bay.

Another transitional facility, operated by Haven Hills Inc., is scheduled to open soon in the Valley, but even this will not be enough to meet current needs.

The Harbour Community project is the brainchild and joint collaboration of Women Advancing the Valley through Education, Economics and Empowerment, or WAVE, and the city’s housing department. A driving force behind the project has been Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, who represents the northeast Valley. His wife, Corina Alarcon, a co-founder of WAVE, also has been an adamant supporter.

As Richard Alarcon noted, “Domestic abuse is a dilemma for the entire country and remains no less for the northeast Valley.”

Harbour Community’s doors will be open to women from all over, but one focus of the program will be to assist the Spanish-speaking community because women from this community have been reluctant to access such services.

With funds acquired from a Housing and Urban Development Department program, WAVE will refurbish a $1.7-million apartment building that has been empty since the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Harbour Community’s annual operating budget, about $300,000, will come from grants, donations and public funding. To date, the organization has secured seed money from several corporations and, according to Janet Crook, WAVE’s executive director, is awaiting response to a number of applications.

Harbour Community will be a step in the right direction in assisting women who in the past have too often had no choice but to return to abusive situations. Hopefully, the success of this program will mushroom in more facilities around the Valley and the entire city.

For the here and now, it will serve a community in desperate need of assistance.