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The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor, State of California
State Capitol Building, 1st Floor
Sacramento, CA. 95814
Dear Governor Schwarzenegger:
California's budget crisis is undoubtedly unprecedented and demands that difficult decisions be made. However, proposing to eliminate all funding for California's domestic violence shelters is unconscionable. Eliminating this desperately needed funding puts thousands of women and children at terrible and unnecessary risk.
Funding for domestic violence centers are already past their breaking point. 7,348 adult victims, on average, are turned away from shelters each year due to over-capacity. When victim services requests are unmet due to a lack of resources it's not only adults that suffer - it is estimated that 53% of persons served by shelters are children.
If you eliminate funding for domestic violence shelters in 2010, it is certain that thousands of women and children will suffer at the hands of their attackers with nowhere to go for safety. In California alone in 2008, 99 women were killed by their husbands, ex-husbands or boyfriends. Law enforcement received 166,343 domestic violence calls - 65,219 involved weapons such as firearms and knives.
The Domestic Violence Program allows local agencies to provide emergency shelter, transitional housing, and legal advocacy, as well as assistance with restraining orders, counseling and other vital support services. Domestic violence shelters are often the only thing standing between victims and grave physical danger, and California's communities cannot sustain their loss.
We, the undersigned, urge you to keep the funding for the Domestic Violence Program in place - as this is a matter of life and death.
Respectfully,
Senator Leland Y. Yee
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