Feminist Looking Glass

Yesterday I had my first day of graduate school. During my Financial Management class, my professor showed an example of a not-for-profit organization’s budget. “In an economy like this, we can tell how important the government believes something is, based on how quickly its funding gets slashed, ” he said. He circled a line item showing endowment for the arts. “The arts are always the first to go.”

My professor was pretty much right, though he did omit one thing: Aid for women’s services is also among the first to go.

Gov. Schwarzenegger recent;y eliminated all state funding for domestic violence shelters. Already, six shelters have closed, and the AP reports that many more are on the verge of closing. AP notes that:

The California Department of Public Health’s Domestic Violence Program provided funding to 94 agencies statewide, some of which operate multiple shelters. Most also assist victims with restraining orders, legal aid, child services, money management and other life skills. Nearly all the agencies say they are cutting back on such assistance programs in the wake of the budget cuts.

California’s economic situation is indeed dire. No one expected Governor Schwarzenegger to approve the full alloted budget of $20.8 million to the agency. A cut may have been undesirable but unavoidable; but a complete elimination will prove devastating to so many women, children, and also men.

Domestic violence shelters are consistently underfunded and understaffed, and therefore fewer people have access to safe havens when they need them. It’s a problem across the country that not all people who seek safety are able to access it. Increasing revenue for these shelters doesn’t have an easy solution. But to cut 100% of funding for shelters is imposing so great a burden on victims that it’s completely unreasonable.

Financially, it might be a bad decision as well. As Eve Sheedy, director of DV policy at LA city attorney’s office says:

“It’s the cheapest form of safety the state can have. It’s homicide prevention…If you take the cost of arresting, trying, incarcerating someone for a serious physical crime or homicide and you compare that to what these shelters were getting, it’s an unbelievable cost benefit.”

Apparently, some state senators are attempting to restore much of the funding through a new bill, though the outlook on this legislation isn’t too bright.

Budget cuts in tough economic times are always begrudged.  But cutting the entire source of funds for protecting women from violence shows a complete lack of respect for the lives of women and how important these issues really are.

Filed under: Politics, Violence Tagged: | arnold schwarzenegger, california, Domestic Violence