AURORA | Amid a statewide spike in domestic violence deaths, Aurora’s longstanding domestic-violence shelter received a $1.6 million congressional boost to expand programs for emergency and transitional housing for survivors.
Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow presented the funds Aug. 15 to Gateway Domestic Violence Services, which for more than 40 years in Aurora has been known better as Gateway Battered Women’s Shelter.
“Gateway is an important part of the community,” Crow told shelter officials and supporters last week.
Shelter officials said the funds will go toward expanding a variety of services, but especially for increasing the number of crisis shelter rooms for victims by three-fold. The funding will also allow Gateway to create more critical transitional housing spaces.
Expansion of crisis housing will roll out first, Gateway officials said.
“The second phase will build a state-of-the-art transitional housing program, increasing the number of individuals served and extending their stay for successful placement into permanent housing,” Crow said in a statement.
Gateway Executive Director Karmen Carter and others say the need for more crisis assistance and services for those escaping abusive and violent personal relationships has grown exponentially with the growth of Aurora.
The 2023 Colorado Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board report for the previous year showed a multi-year surge in reported domestic violence attacks and fatalities attributed to domestic violence. As many as 94 people, some children, were killed in personal-violent incidents in 2022.
Current numbers were not immediately available.
Crow said daunting domestic violence statistics prompted him to push through the House appropriation.
He cited domestic violence as the leading cause of homelessness for women and families across the nation.
“The need for shelter has grown,” Crow said in a statement.
About 2 million – 3 million incidents of domestic violence are reported each year, and experts say tens of millions more go unreported.
Carter said the need for crisis housing and numerous other services in Aurora far outpaces resources for the program.
Crow said Gateway is a critical part of the Aurora community, offering not just safe harbor, but also in navigating issues surrounding homelessness, employment, mental health and the criminal justice system as victims.
“We all need help in some form or some shape at some time in our lives,” Crow said. “Gateway helps people that are uniquely vulnerable. You save women’s lives.”
Carter said she recently was reviewing the case of a woman who had called crisis workers previously on multiple occasions as her live-in relationship became increasingly dangerous.
“She no longer felt safe,” Carter said.
The woman and her children were brought into the shelter amid an extreme crisis.
Not long after, the kids were playing and laughing with other children, for the first time in a long time, Carter said.
Then she got a job, with benefits.
But she still couldn’t afford a home for her and her children.
So the woman transitioned into Gateway’s program that allows families to stay for up to 90 days.
Recently, the woman “and her two children moved into an apartment,” Carter said. “We’re so excited for her.”
All the while the woman was putting her life together after leaving her abusive life, about 200 other people called Gateway with similar crises and needs, but Gateway, at capacity, could get those people in.
“We simply cannot keep up,” Carter said.
The congressional award sought by Crow, in addition to recent funding increases from Arapahoe County, will let more people in crisis get the help they need, Gateway officials said.
In many cases, Carter said, just knowing that help exists inspires women and others trapped in abusive homes to seek help and get out.
Carter said that, in most cases, abused women finally leave their perpetrators after the seventh attempt.
More capacity just might inspire abuse survivors to leave sooner and recover faster, she said.
The Gateway appropriation is one of the 15 community projects Crow secured through the FY24 congressional funding process.
Domestic crimes…..
“experts say tens of millions more go unreported.” These are not counted in the crime statistics that are claimed to be going down.