SafeHouse Exec. Dir. and Staff Retaliated Against Sexual/Physical Assault Survivors Who Spoke Out About Health and Safety Concerns at the Shelter

by P.D. Lesko

When asked during a Monday August 30 interview why she’d contacted The Ann Arbor Independent about what multiple SafeHouse staff, interns and clients have alleged is systemic racism, and serious mismanagement at SafeHouse Center in Ann Arbor, twenty-seven-year-old Ravone Fields said simply, “I want to keep other survivors from being treated the way I’m being treated. This has to stop.” Fields is studying for a degree in social work at EMU. On Tuesday August 31, Fields, a sexual assault survivor, was summarily “exited” (thrown out) of SafeHouse by Executive Director Barbara Niess-May, Director of Services Kim Montgomery, and Shelter Program Coordinator Meggan Casper.

Likewise, Aaliyah Morrison, another SafeHouse resident who was interviewed on August 30, left SafeHouse for an apartment on August 31. Morrison, also twenty-seven, has a young daughter. Morrison, like Fields, was told by SafeHouse staffers that she can never return to the shelter.

On August 24, after reading the newspaper’s July 31 article in which multiple SafeHouse Center residents and staff made allegations that the non-profit shelter was mismanaged, unsafe and filthy, Ypsilanti resident Ravone Fields and five other SafeHouse residents (past and present) contacted The Ann Arbor Independent and asked to meet to discuss concerns they have about the continuing unsafe conditions, threatening, racist and bullying treatment of the primarily Black survivors by SafeHouse Center staffers. The survivors provided audio recordings, as well as dozens of photos that back up their claims. The survivors sat for individual interviews on Monday August 30.

According to Fields and others, one day after giving an interview with the newspaper, the sexual assault survivor was taken into the shelter’s library by Montgomery and Casper. They gave Fields twenty minutes to pack and leave SafeHouse. They told Fields she could never return to the shelter. This was done despite the fact that Fields had no write-up or rule violations in her four weeks at the shelter. Then, when Fields’s ride showed up, SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May called the police, claiming to the officers that the car’s driver, a former SafeHouse intern who is now a licensed social worker, and Ravone Fields, were “trespassing.” The car’s driver shared a video of the incident with The Ann Arbor Independent.

Shortly after the A2Indy published the article about SafeHouse in July, SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May posted on a public Facebook page that her feelings were hurt by the allegations made by her own staff and residents of the shelter. Niess-May also complained in a Facebook comment defending herself that the article’s criticism of SafeHouse Center Board members was unwarranted.

The SafeHouse Board of Directors met shortly after the Ann Arbor Independent’s article was published. The Board includes Washtenaw County Administrator Gregory Dill, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, former Assistant U.S Attorney Barbara McQuade, John Huber (former Emerson Head of School), and the Board is chaired by Tara Mahoney, an attorney employed by Masco.

On August 4, 2021, Mahoney, a former workplace harassment attorney, agreed to answer a series of questions about the allegations published in the July 31 article. Among the questions asked of her was this: “Members of the community, in public comments in response to Barbara’s, have accused the Board of lax oversight of both Niess-May and SafeHouse. How do you respond?” Mahoney wrote via email:

“We are committed to strong governance and to overseeing delivery of the organization’s mission. I believe there is strong oversight of our Executive Director and SafeHouse generally. SafeHouse Center has a committed, dedicated and passionate board that takes its responsibilities seriously.”

On August 4 Mahoney also said that, “SafeHouse serves survivors of all races and genders. That is an unwavering commitment to our community. Like all organizations truly committed to diversity and inclusion, we strive for improvement and pursue a vision of anti-racism.”

Washtenaw County Commissioners, who control contracts and tax dollars allocated to SafeHouse, made no public comments about the July 2021 allegations. The CDC has called spousal abuse a public health crisis. Ann Arbor Washtenaw County Commissioner Katie Scott, a nurse, championed a July 2020 resolution that recognized “racism as a public health crisis.” Scott made no public comment about the allegations of systemic racism made by the shelter’s residents in July 2021. Likewise, Ann Arbor City Council members who, between 2016 and 2020 voted to give SafeHouse almost half a million dollars, according to public records, said nothing about the allegations of systemic racism, or the alleged mistreated of the sexual and physical abuse survivors. Council member Linh Song (D-Ward-2) has said in public that, as a child, she lived with domestic violence, and Council member Jen Eyer (D-Ward 4) and her children were victims of domestic violence in January 2021. The City of Ann Arbor, at Mayor Taylor’s urging, flies a Black Lives Matter flag at City Hall.

The August 2021 allegations made by the survivors, all Black women, their photos taken inside SafeHouse, and audio recordings, suggest that no substantive changes were implemented by SafeHouse Executive Director Niess-May after the July 2021 allegations were made. The allegations suggest that Board President Tara Mahoney is completely out of touch with the reality of what is happening inside the shelter.

One former SafeHouse Center resident interviewed on August 30, when asked what her message to the organization’s Board members would be, thought for a moment and then spoke, “Be human.”

The A2Indy will publish the audio recordings, photos and allegations of the SafeHouse shelter residents made in their individual August 2021 interviews.

Ravone Fields has said she may pursue legal action against SafeHouse Center staff for allegedly violating her civil rights, including her right to free speech.