COUNTY BOOST: SAFE HOUSE EFFORT GETS $10,000

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A local organization trying to raise funds to build a new safe house for abused women and their children received a boost recently from Cape Girardeau County.

Gene Huckstep, Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner, presented $10,000 to Safe House for Women Inc. The money is part of the county Domestic Violence Authority funds earmarked for programs that serve victims of domestic violence.

Safe House for Women applied for the funds last October. The fund was created in 1986 when county voters approved an additional $5 fee for marriage licenses and $10 fee for divorce decrees to help support agencies that deal with problems of domestic violence.

Safe House was started last August and has since been trying to raise enough funds to open a permanent facility in Cape Girardeau.

Capt. Steve Strong of the Cape Girardeau Police Department and vice president of the Safe House board of directors said the facility now operates only on an "emergency basis.

"We're providing emergency services now and we hope to be able to use these funds and others to eventually have a residential facility of our own," Strong said.

Strong said the city has been without a safe house since WISER Inc. closed its doors last August.

The financially strapped agency, which for 13 years had operated in Cape Girardeau, closed when local banks froze WISER accounts.

Although Strong said the new safe house now provides emergency service, its role is limited without a permanent facility.

"If anybody we see needs long-term care then we try to make arrangements with the appropriate group and try to help them relocate," he said.

"We can provide emergency housing now for only a very short period of time, and we're able to provide some advice and guidance."

Other services the safe house provides include: help in finding relatives if it's needed; financial assistance; referrals to other community services that might be needed; and assistance with any court proceedings they might need to go through.

Bettie Knoll, a special officer with the police department who's also on the Safe House board of directors, said raising funds for the new agency so far has been difficult.

"We came into this at the end of the year and all the money that was available had already been appropriated," she said. "At this point, we're just trying to spread the news and get this going."

Knoll said the closest safe house facilities are in Malden, Poplar Bluff and Carbondale, Ill.

"We think Cape Girardeau is big enough that a facility like this is needed," she said.

Strong said that law enforcement agencies handled 147 cases between August 1989 and August 1990 that qualified for the safe house program.

"Those are only those that were coming to us by way of law enforcement agencies," he said. "We know there's a lot of cases that don't go through those channels."

Strong said national statistics show that nearly 50 percent of all married women are abused some time during their marriage, and that 20 to 25 percent are abused once every two months.

The Rev. R. Charles Grant, secretary of Safe House's board of directors, said the agency now has raised more than $21,000.

He said the board is hoping to raise at least a year's operating expenses before a permanent facility is opened. According to initial plans, the group expects to operate with a $90,000 annual budget.

"We want to be assured that we will stay in business before the facility is open," Grant said.

He said the board has applied for state matching funds under a domestic victims law, but that money won't be available until at least July.

"We're looking at having to get another $30,000 to $40,000, assuming we can get some state matching funds," he said. "But we haven't really started a real active fund-raising effort this far at all."

Grant said the safe house could also receive more money this year from the Cape Girardeau County Domestic Violence Authority.

"The authority's own operating rules specify that they disburse their money twice a year," he said. "We'll need to re-apply for those funds, and they'd be released July 1. There's probably another $4,000 or $5,000 in the fund."

Grant said the fund should generate about $8,000 annually, but the fund has accumulated about $15,000 because WISER hasn't applied for the funds in the past two years.

Strong said he hopes the agency can begin full-time operations soon. But he said the lack of government funding for such programs could make a prompt opening difficult.

"I'd like to do it as soon as possible," Strong said. "Part of the problem is there are virtually no funds from government grants for this type of facility, so it's going to have to be pretty well self-supporting through contributions.

"Our goal is to get a facility, and we hope to get something this year," Strong added. "The need is definitely here."