Domestic violence funds lost

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

Federal funding for a statewide program that gives free legal assistance to victims of domestic violence has been eliminated, leaving thousands of poor women, many of whom are immigrants, more at the mercy of abusive husbands, advocates of the program said.

The program, which has been funded for the past four years in Clark County and since the mid-1990s in other parts of the state, provided "the only long-term safety net" for women threatened by physical and emotional abuse, said Paul Elcano, executive director of Washoe Legal Services, the nonprofit agency that received the grant.

Nevada ranks fourth in the nation in women killed by men, with most of those deaths due to domestic violence, according to a recent study published by the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based nonprofit group.

Additionally, 15 percent of the criminal homicides investigated by Metro Police in 2003 were related to domestic violence, or 21 of 141.

The news that the money is not coming is "shocking, an incredible setback," said Amber Batchelor, director of special programs for Safe Nest, a Clark County shelter for domestic violence victims that she estimates will refer more than 1,000 women this year to the program.

Batchelor said shelters can only offer "immediate safety" to domestic violence victims.

"Long range, however, they need to have access to legal remedies in order to take their lives back," she said.

Those remedies include gaining legal custody of children and protection orders. The program also offers free legal classes in Spanish and English.

Elcano's organization applied earlier this year to renew the funds for the 2004-2005 period -- which began Oct. 1 -- but only received the denial notice two weeks ago.

The most recent two-year installment of the grant, which ended Sept. 30, was for $650,000 statewide, about $340,000 of which went to Clark County Legal Services, the local group that provided legal assistance to domestic violence victims.

Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, who is also executive director of the Clark County organization, said the sudden notice sent her organization scrambling to find funds to keep the program going.

She said the timing of the news was ironic -- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, designated so by the Bush administration in 2003.

"What do they expect us to do, after we've assured so many people we'll be there for them?" Buckley said. Buckley said the program assisted 1,003 women in 2003, up from 608 in 2001.

Countywide, there were 19,608 calls in 2003 to Metro Police regarding domestic violence, up from 17,886 in 2001, according to Buckley.

She also said domestic violence advocates will launch "a full-court press to not leave Nevada's victims in the cold" by pleading the program's case to the federal government.

Eric Holland, spokesman for the Justice Department said the grant was denied because the state's application was not competitive with other states that did receive the funding.

Elcano said, "It appears to me they're grossly underfunded."

The letter of denial from the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women said 237 requests for funds nationwide totaled $105 million, and total funds available to meet requests were $39.3 million.

It also said that "(f)inal selection was made based on scores, with consideration given to demographics and geographic distribution."

Elcano said that if funds are not found to back the program, about eight out of 10 victims of domestic violence statewide who are too poor to afford an attorney will lose access to legal help.

One of those who was helped by the Clark County program in recent months was Maria Arreola.

She alleges that she endured physical abuse for nine years at the hands of her former husband and finally went with her two children to a local shelter in August.

The shelter put her in contact with Clark County Legal Services. Arreola, who is from Mexico, said she didn't understand the legal system here.

"I didn't know I had any rights," she said.

Buckley's program helped her gain a protective order and is helping her work through the legal process of gaining full custody of her children, Arreola said.

If that's successful, she wants to move to another state, out of harm's way, she said.

About one in five women in the program are Hispanic, Buckley said.

"It would be unfair to take this away," Arreola said.

"There are a lot more women like me out there ... and I don't know how we would defend ourselves."