Domestic Violence Programs Struggle Under the Effects of the Spill

Posted: Aug 31, 2010 10:03 AM by Katie Durio
Updated: Aug 31, 2010 10:03 AM

Baton Rouge, Louisiana - The Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence (LCADV) recently gathered statistics from Louisiana's 20 state-funded domestic violence agencies in an effort to understand the effects of the oil spill on the state's domestic violence service providers. Fourteen of the 20 state-funded domestic violence agencies in Louisiana are located in the southern portion of the state. LCADV compared the number of shelter beds occupied and hotline calls received at each agency for the periods April - July of 2010 and April - July of 2009. Prior to the oil spill, many domestic violence programs had recorded a slight decrease in service requests compared to 2009. Since April, many of the programs located in the southern portion of the state have reported significant increases in service requests while programs in the north seem to be showing no such increase. Predictably the programs serving Terrebonne, Lafayette, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Jefferson, Lafourche and St. Mary Parishes seem to be suffering the worst. Preliminary reports from those areas show that Jefferson parish had an 86% increase in persons sheltered while St. Bernard reports a 43% increase in crisis calls. Many of the programs already operate at capacity on a regular basis. Some have been forced to turn away survivors or locate alternate shelter. That trend was also visible in the state and national hotlines. Calls routed in the New Orleans area by the statewide hotline showed an 81% increase from April to June while the National Domestic Violence Hotline showed a 13% increase in calls from Louisiana in the first few weeks after the spill. Unfortunately the programs are suffering double effects as many of them are losing funding daily. Some of the southern agencies can tie as much as 70% of their resources directly to oil and fishing industries. Local funders have cut dollars to programs, donations and fundraisers are down between 30 - 60%. Programs are reporting $20,000 - $70,000 in lost revenue. 5 programs have laid staff off or reduced staff hours. Beth Meeks, Executive Director of LCADV says this was not unexpected. "We knew that Alaska experienced an increase in domestic violence after the Exxon Valdez spill and we often have increases here after disasters so we knew it might happen but that doesn't make it any easier to manage." Unlike other disasters there has been almost no outpouring of donations to assist the agencies. Programs are hopeful that they will receive some aid from the recent mental health allotment set aside by BP but those details are still being worked out.