For Immediate Release
Contact: Claudia Wrazel (916) 445-5957
September 24, 2002
Sacramento, CA – Governor Gray Davis today signed into law SB 1894, authored by Senator Martha Escutia (D - Montebello). The bill would require the Department of Health Services to restore a total of $750,000 to five domestic violence shelters that lost their usual DHS grants through no fault of their own, due to a change in the department’s funding priorities in 2000.
The five affected shelters, which will receive $150,000 each, are Tri-Valley Haven (Alameda County); WomenShelter of Long Beach (Los Angeles County); Victor Valley Domestic Violence, Inc. (San Bernardino County); La Casa de San Mateo (San Mateo County); and Haven Women’s Center (Stanislaus County).
Senator Escutia introduced SB 1894 after chairing a Senate hearing on a shelter funding crisis occurring earlier this year, when DHS, in an effort to expand shelter services, redirected some of its grants to new domestic violence shelters. As a result, some longestablished shelters that had spent years building ties to their communities lost their grants and were threatened with drastic reductions in services, or even having to close their doors.
Since the bill requires DHS to use existing training funds to restore the older shelter’s grants, it will neither increase state spending nor take funds from the newer shelters. Senator Escutia noted, “due to the epidemic of domestic violence in our state, we need to expand services wherever we can, but not at the expense of longstanding shelters that have come to be relied upon in their communities.”