In Georgia — sixth in the nation in the number of women killed by men — family violence shelters such as Safe Haven in Statesboro have not been immune to funding cuts. But the Georgia Legislature restored some funding this year and last, using state money to partly offset federal cuts.
    Greg Loughlin, the executive director of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, came to Safe Haven on Tuesday to present Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, the commission’s Legislative Leadership Award. Hill chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
    “We’re trying to honor legislators like Chairman Hill who for years now has been the right person in the right place to do the right thing around domestic violence and family violence centers and funding,” Loughlin said. “And I think a key to that is the relationships that he’s got with the domestic violence advocates in the communities that he serves.”
    Executive directors of four shelters from around Georgia, including Mary Harden of Safe Haven, were on hand for Tuesday’s presentation. They credited Hill for supporting their efforts, and he called them dedicated and courageous, “with a passion that’s grounded in real life.”
    Two years ago, the state tried to shift the cost of family violence programs to the federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. But shelter advocates discovered that federal regulations barred TANF funds from being used for many of the shelters’ needs and called on Hill to replace the TANF funding with state money.
    “Without their help, you could have had 46 programs nonexistent today,” said Michele Girtman, the director of both The Haven in Valdosta and Magnolia House in Waycross.
    That would have closed off a path of escape from violence for adults — usually women, but also a few men — and children around the state. With its six-county service area of Bulloch, Candler, Effingham, Jenkins, Screven and Washington, Safe Haven provided emergency refuge to 104 women, one man and 157 children in 2011, with stays of up to 90 days.
    In addition to the 21-bed dormitory-style emergency shelter for women and children, Safe Haven has a transitional living program with leased apartments for another 16 families, who can remain as long as two years while meeting certain requirements. The organization also provides outreach and legal advocacy programs with a 24-hour crisis line. Safe Haven logged 521 crisis calls in 2011.
    “It’s just unfortunate that these shelters are even necessary, and we have gone through some very difficult budget times,” Hill said. “I will say in the Senate, we’ve tried to keep our eyes  focused on some very critical areas.”
    He added that his counterpart, Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, had shared the opinion that if “a few extra coins” turned up, they should go to a few programs that do a lot of good.
    With Hill’s help, shelter funding has been restored to about the 2007 or 2008 level, Girtman said.
    Meanwhile, the shelters have seen increased demand for their services. A weak economy has deprived family violence victims of other means of refuge. The center she operates in Valdosta remains full and “turned away” 188 women this year, sending them to other shelters and sometimes to other states, she said.

Federal funds redirected
    This past legislative session, according to the Commission on Family Violence, Hill helped add $300,000 from state taxes to the funding for family violence shelters. This money is being divided evenly among the 46 shelter programs to make up for half of a $600,000 loss in federal funding that came on top off earlier federal cuts, Girtman said. But federal officials redirected that $600,000 to other programs addressing family violence.
    For fiscal year 2013, Georgia’s family violence services budget totals a little more than $14 million, including $2.28 million in federal funding and $11.8 million in state general funds.
    The shelter directors also credited Hill with helping protect other funding sources that play a role in family violence services, such as $1.7 million budgeted for grants used to pay attorneys for low-income domestic violence victims. The shelter Julia Burch leads, Fair Haven in Jesup, received a $9,000 grant this year used to pay for legal assistance for 132 women and children.
    “When a client comes in, that is just such a huge part of her being in the shelter, her legal issues,” she said. “And we’re there and we have experience, but we’re not attorneys, so we can’t help her if she wants to get a protective order, or press charges, or keep him in jail. So this grant allows us to hire attorneys that represent the lady and they go to court.”

Safe Haven
    Like the other family violence shelters, Safe Haven is operated by a nonprofit corporation and receives money from a variety of sources. Governed by the 15-member local board of Citizens Against Violence Inc., Safe Haven has an annual budget of about $950,000. About $300,000 of that comes from the state and the rest from various federal and private grants and donations, Harden said.
    In particular, Safe Haven receives a $265,000 grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in support of the transitional housing program. This is separate from the federal portion of the regular family violence shelter funding. Safe Haven also gets grants from the federal Safe and Stable Families program and the Avon Foundation for women in support of after-school and summer programs for children.
    Safe Haven hopes to raise $50,000 with its Freedom Campaign in July and welcomes in-kind donations of items such as clothing and room furnishings. The organization counts in-kind donations toward a 25 percent local match required for its main federal and state funding.
    The attempted shift to federal TANF funding in 2010 resulted in an $85,000 loss for Safe Haven until Hill helped replace it with state money. Still, Harden said, Safe Haven reduced its staff by three people and operates with the minimum needed to meet grant requirements.
    “I just can’t cut any more,” she said.