Item 7. Draft Recommendation- Funding for SAFE Alliance Eloise House and Shelters — original pdf

Backup

RECOMMENDATION TO COUNCIL Commission For Women Recommendation Number: [YYYYMMDD-XXX]: Funding for SAFE Alliance Eloise House and Shelters Date of Approval: Recommendation: The City of Austin Commission for Women urges City Council to provide emergency funding to keep the forensic exam program running at Eloise House and to right-size funding for SAFE shelters (increasing the current grant by $200,000). Rationale: Eloise House provides 95% of forensic exams in Travis County, a critical service for survivors and public safety, and is slated to close June 8th due to funding cuts. The trauma-informed care SAFE provides is nationally and internationally recognized. Quickly kicking these services to the overstrained Emergency Rooms with unspecialized staff and 5 or 10 hour wait times is not an appropriate substitute and will undoubtedly lead to less reporting, on top of the underreporting we know happens in sexual assault cases. Austin does not have enough shelter beds and SAFE is currently expanding services to assist with this gap. The community shelters that will close in October without increased funding support currently house about 88 children and 35 adults, all of whom are in imminent threat of serious harm, including murder. Closing the existing community shelters will leave these children and adults with nowhere to go. Survivors also have a statutory right to victim advocates. No one else provides them at the scale that SAFE currently does. Reduced funding for SAFE’s programs will result in higher crisis costs across public systems: emergency rooms, courts and jails, law enforcement, child welfare, homelessness systems, schools, crisis mental health. SAFE estimates that every dollar invested prevents $4 in downstream costs. The most fiscally responsible AND humane course of action is to invest in safety, survivor support, and homicide prevention by renewing and right-sizing the City’s financial support of SAFE programs. Motioned By: Seconded By: Vote: For: Against: Abstain: Off the dais: Absent: Attest: __________________________________