Some Dudes in Washington Didn’t Get What They Want So You Can’t Leave Your Violent Husband, Sorry

At The Nation, Zoë Carpenter looks at how the government shutdown is affecting domestic violence shelters for women across the country. The verdict: The effect is not great! In fact it is pretty terrible. Many shelters operate with government funding and with no government there is no funding which means they are struggling to provide emergency services to women escaping violence. Some shelters have been able to make up the difference with private donations; some have not.

Carpenter also provides some really interesting insight into how those shelters operate: (“Even before the shutdown domestic violence programs across the country were both overfull and barely getting by financially. State and city governments cut funding for programs in almost 80 percent of states from 2011 to 2012, and nearly all states reported decreases in private donations. Meanwhile, more than half of shelters reported that abuse grew more violent during the economic downturn, and 45 percent of women said they stayed with their abuser longer for economic reasons.”)

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