Illinois’ budget impasse has forced a Rockford-area domestic violence shelter to turn away some victims and their families. Remedies Renewing Lives CEO Gary Halbach says the shelter serves more than 1,600 people each year dealing with domestic violence and another 1,800 for substance abuse.
He says the organization is looking at dipping into reserves to cover costs.
“We’ve turned away as many people in three months that needed a domestic violence shelter as what we turned all away in the last fiscal year, the whole year. On top of that---the building that we are in right now is a 40-bed shelter. Right now, we are operating as a 30-bed shelter.”
What would you say to listeners who may have "state budget fatigue?"
“What happens to be the voice of the population that doesn’t have a voice? We [recently] had a groundbreaking on our new facility that will be opening. We see a need for a domestic violence shelter to increase from our current 40 beds to 62 beds. Without a state budget, we are losing over $500,000 of funding. It’s not like it’s not in the budget, but no budget is going to be paid out without a budget. We have a contract for that, but that just won’t happen. What’s going to happen with everybody that needs services? How many people need to die before those services are made available?”
What do you feel lawmakers can do on your organization's behalf?
“Speak up on behalf of the people [they] represent. The people of Rockford, the people of Winnebago and Boone County, not for the political party [they] are part of.”
Do you get a sense the people who you serve know what’s going on in Springfield?
“The reality is I don’t think they do. I think it has more to do with if you are a woman that’s fleeing with seven children that needed to come in last Saturday and we didn’t have a bed, their concern more is survival. If you’re a nineteen year old girl that is addicted to heroin, their crisis is right now. The answer isn’t that we have a waiting list and come back two months from now.”
Regarding long-term community initiatives for change:
“This is well and good, looking at how to plan for years to come, and how do we make Rockford a better community. But, in the meantime, we can’t lose our safety net of what’s there. I think what needs to happen is the non-profit agencies need to step up and say, ‘How do we turn this around?’ Even more so--business. Business needs to say, ‘we realize that there are problems in the state, but we also have to say we need to make sure that we are providing adequate services for people that need them.' If you are looking at someone who’s looking at life and death and fleeing from a perpetrator, it’s pretty hard to say, ‘sorry, there’s no room.’”
Remedies is a private, not-for-profit organization governed by a voluntary board of directors.
The new shelter is scheduled to open this winter on the city's east side.
