[R]UTLAND — Victims of domestic violence in Rutland County will be able to find emergency housing from one centralized service.
As part of a $222,000 state grant, the Rutland County Women’s Network and Shelter will administer the motel voucher program and facilitate services for those fleeing violence at home. Historically the Economic Services Division of the Department for Children and Families has managed the emergency housing program. The shelter is set to take over in September.
The administrative move is designed to bring victims into contact with a social service agency at a critical moment: when they’ve left an abusive and potentially life-threatening situation. About half of all homicides in Vermont are domestic violence related, according to a 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sarah Phillips, chief administrator in the Office of Economic Opportunity, says the program “is a much better service delivery model.” The Office of Economic Opportunity is the division of the Department for Children and Families that is providing the funding through the Housing Opportunity Grant Program.
“Instead of women or men fleeing violence and going to Economic Services to get a motel room, they can go to the Rutland County shelter, whose staff is experienced and can provide the services and advocacy they need to help them get re-established,” Phillips said. “It’s a no-brainer in some ways to make that connection.”
The shelter will continue to accept referrals from Rutland District Economic Services office and 211, a hotline for social services information.
A similar grant was awarded to the Women’s Freedom Center in Brattleboro in January to oversee the motel voucher pool there. According to Phillips, that partnership has been very successful in providing shelter and motel overflow to victims of domestic violence.
The Rutland County grant will also provide funding for the shelter — the only domestic violence service provider in the county — to meet operational costs and hire additional staff. Through separate funding the shelter is also in the process of expanding its housing capacity from five rooms to nine. Currently, the shelter can accommodate roughly 23 people at one time. After the expansion, it will be able to house at least 40.
According to Avaloy Lanning, executive director of the shelter, current capacity doesn’t come close to meeting the region’s needs. Rutland County has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the state — in 2015 there was a 40 percent increase in the number of reported cases of aggravated assault in the city of Rutland alone. The vast majority of those cases were domestic violence incidents, according to a report by the Crime Research Group. The number of victims of domestic violence seeking emergency housing in the county, according to the Economic Services Division, has also increased over the past year.
In Fiscal Year 2016, 185 families with children in Rutland County applied for emergency housing; 89 of those families were fleeing domestic violence. In the same period, 265 individuals sought emergency housing; of them, 149 cited domestic violence as the reason.
According to DCF Deputy Commissioner Sean Brown, those individuals and families were primarily placed in motels.
“Given the increase in families seeking assistance, this is clearly an issue that’s not going away,” Brown said.
Even under the auspices of the shelter, motel beds will continue to play a key role in meeting emergency housing needs. The grant stipulates that some of the funding be used for a part-time motel stay coordinator who will serve as a liaison between the shelter and area motels to “negotiate rates, length of stay, mediate problems and process payments.”
According to Lanning, the shelter will also work closely with individuals or families living in motels — their stays are limited to 84 days a year — to provide case management services and counseling. The women’s shelter, in partnership with other community organizations, is also hoping to expand the number of non-motel family shelter accommodations in the area.
Victims of domestic violence, usually women and children, often leave their homes with little more than the clothes on their back, Lanning said, and no savings. Oftentimes women have been forced to give up their jobs and are starting over from scratch, she said, so finding a clean, safe place to stay is essential.
That isn’t always easy.
Rutland Mayor Chris Louras said about two years ago two women told him they returned home to abusive relationships after being placed in a Rutland motel that was dirty and littered with drug paraphernalia. That motel, the Economy Inn and Suites, has just reopened after a year and a half long renovation. According to Louras part of the problem was that the hotel did not have 24-hour staffing. Police chief Jim Baker and the city sent the hotel a letter threatening to revoke their license if they did not have 24 hour staff and improve conditions at the hotel.
An employee reached at the hotel said they are currently participating in the emergency housing program.
Lanning said such cases of women or families returning to an abusive relationship because of conditions at area motels are not common but that it does happen.
The state’s motel voucher program has come under scrutiny in the past for not monitoring conditions in establishments that accept state funds. The program serves vulnerable populations such as the elderly or homeless; families who have lost their homes due to natural disaster; and victims of domestic violence.
A VTDigger investigation in 2014 found deeply troubling conditions at many of the motels participating in the state-run program. A motel in Barre, for example, was infested with bedbugs and mold, had dangling outlets, missing carbon monoxide detectors and holes in the wall. The same story reported that police in Rutland responded to calls on a regular basis from one motel frequently used to house voucher recipients.
Brown said the use of motels is far from an ideal model for serving the needs of the homeless population or victims of domestic violence. Economic Services and the Office of Economic Opportunity are working to develop community-based alternatives, which tend to not only provide better services but also are more cost-effective, said Phillips. According to a legislative report midway through fiscal year 2016, as of February the state had spent more than $2.28 million on emergency housing.
The longer term goal of grants such as the one provided to the Rutland Women’s Shelter and the Women’s Freedom Center in Brattleboro is to move away from motels as the primary source of emergency housing for victims of domestic violence.
Lanning said hotels that participate in the program and receive state money need to be held accountable. In its new role, she said, the shelter will be a fierce advocate on behalf of domestic violence victims.
“People deserve a safe, clean place to be free of violence,” Lanning said.
