[ad_1]
By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, [email protected]
Despite reports of rodents, moldy food and poor living conditions, Prince George’s County has decided to continue funding the Family Crisis Center, the non-profit organization that runs the county’s only domestic violence shelter.
Prince George’s County law mandates that money collected from marriage license fees must be directed to Family Crisis Center. After the continued complaints from former and current shelter residents and domestic violence advocates, County Executive Rushern L. Baker III submitted a bill to the Maryland General Assembly to stop directing funds from marriage license fees, which, according to the Washington Post, totaled $385,000 last year. Baker suggested the funds from marriage licenses be allocated to other entities.
Lawmakers felt money from marriage license fees should be re-evaluated, according to Barry Hudson, Baker’s spokesman, who said legislators agree there should be “more flexibility in how the marriage license funds are used,” yet there was hesitance in fully supporting the bill. Thus, Baker withdrew the bill last week.
“The council and some members of the delegation raised concerns about the best way to implement the changes,” Hudson said in a statement. “With less than a week left in the legislative session, and in deference to the concerns raised, we decided to withdraw the legislation in order to reach broader consensus.”
Now advocates and former residents feel as if the county is failing them.
“The community deserves better than this,” said Tim Buffaloe, chaplain of the New Life Advocacy Council, which assisted shelter residents in airing their grievances in 2015.
“The obvious question is why they would want to continue funding for a group they know is not doing good work,” Buffaloe told The Washington Post. “They try to make excuses to hide the fact that there is obvious collusion,” he said.
Jay, one of the women who spoke with news organizations this winter about the poor conditions said Baker’s decision to withdraw the bill “feels like a slap in the face.”
“There’s no accountability,” Jay said, who only offered her first name in order to remain anonymous from a former abusive partner. While she recently moved into an apartment of her own she said, “it’s like they’re saying ‘continue what you’ve been doing, but with new girls.’”
Chair of the Prince George’s delegation in the House, Del. Jay Walker (D), said legislators “want to do right by the women,” but were unsure about whether or not Baker’s bill provided the best way to rectify the shelter’s issues.
Michelle Williams, Family Crisis Center’s interim director, was happy that the bill was withdrawn.
She said the center, which currently houses nine women and their children, is “clean, it’s safe, it’s all those things.”
“We recognize we have trust to rebuild, but we provide quality services and want to continue to be able to do that,” Williams said.
[ad_2]
Source link