It’s been an intense couple of years at Saving Grace. Domestic violence cases went up nationwide during the pandemic, and those numbers bear out in Central Oregon, too. The year 2020 brought a record number of domestic violence cases in Deschutes County, said Saving Grace Executive Director Cassi MacQueen. And based on law enforcement data, it’s looking like 2021 will surpass those already record-breaking numbers, MacQueen said. That’s also translated into a marked increase in the number of people accessing the nonprofit’s emergency shelter.
Saving Grace, Central Oregon’s only intimate partner violence nonprofit, operates a 24-hour helpline for those experiencing intimate partner violence, sexual assault or sexual violence. It also maintains an emergency shelter where survivors typically stay between 30 and 60 days. It also offers other support services like respite child care, court advocacy and crisis counseling. It also operates Mary’s Place, a supervised facility for parents to visit kids during parenting time or to exchange children with other caregivers.
From July to September of this year, Saving Grace saw a 20% increase in the need for its emergency shelter services, MacQueen said. Not only that, but survivors have reported marked increases in the intensity and level of violence, she said.
“That’s the most alarming increase that we’ve seen since the pandemic started,” MacQueen said. “What we do know about the pandemic is that it created financial and personal stress on families like we’ve never really seen before, and it also changed people’s support structures.
“When folks are coming to us, these survivors, and are in really dangerous situations—have had a really high and typically high lethality type of intimate partner violence situation that they’ve been facing—it’s taking a lot more resources from us. As you can imagine, it takes an advocate a lot more to plan and keep somebody safe who is really in a dangerous situation.”
Shelter beds can be limited, too.
“If you can’t afford housing here in Central Oregon, under the best of circumstances, you most certainly can’t when you’re in the worst and trying to flee a situation.” —Cassi MacQueen
“The housing crisis here in Central Oregon has 100% survivors and their ability to find safety. Oftentimes that first feat of safety for them is getting away from an abusive partner, getting into a safe location of their own, and of course if you can’t afford housing here in Central Oregon, under the best of circumstances, you most certainly can’t when you’re in the worst and trying to flee a situation,” MacQueen said.
To aid with that, Saving Grace in the past several years has added a survivor housing program to its roster, accessing funds through the Oregon Department of Justice’s Crime Victims Support Services to offer long-term housing to survivors—one of the many ways it’s aiming to adapt and serve clients’ needs in Central Oregon.
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This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2021.
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We need to get to reality about the problem, i’m so tired of hearing the term affordable housing, I’m almost 60 years old I don’t know what affordable housing is, it’s called working your butt off or do something to make yourself better to make more money.
As For the rise in domestic violence, the problem is we have way too many people not working that are capable of working, they are refusing to work because our socialist administration is dishing out money like candy!!
They legalized drugs, made hard-core drugs a misdemeanor, so when you add drugs and alcohol And way too much time on your hands, that goes hand in hand with domestic violence
If you want to get a decline in domestic violence, its time to force people to go back to work, get off the government payroll, Because we have a socialist administration handing out money like its candy.
Close down all the marijuana stores, make drugs illegal and a felony like it used to be, This town has become so medicated, and we have a lot of people with way too much time on their hands.
People need to start taking ownership for their own bad decisions, it is not the states job to Bail you out, Majority of the time drugs and alcohol go hand-in-hand with domestic violence, Or somebody in the relationship is a psycho.
I am so sick of people whining about affordable housing we used to call it section 8 housing, loser housing, or bad life decision making housing.
Nobody owes you housing, get a trade and make more money, That will solve the reason why you cant afford market value housing Like everybody else.
No disrespect fmarcos, but your remarks are the standard regurgitated falsehoods that sadly so many people choose to believe about this issue. Domestic Violence is far more complex and insidious than what you’re demanding it is…I know, as I’ve worked as a Domestic Violence on call volunteer. Claiming that acquiring a job will suddenly take the need for violence out of the perpetrator and/or stopping drugs (if even such a thing applies to said situations) is absurd reasoning at best. So if you really want to understand and know more about Domestic Violence, talk to those who have or are going through it. Talk to the professionals who work on the front line with this issue, and find out the facts about DV. Personally I’m sick and tired of people making uninformed mean spirited remarks about issues they know nothing about.