by P.D. Lesko

Update 9/26/21: Ann Arbor Council member Elizabeth Nelson (D-Ward 4) signed the letter.

Efforts by the Executive Director and Board members of SafeHouse Center to hire a Miller-Canfield lawyer and conduct a quiet investigation into a series of allegations published in a series of articles by The Ann Arbor Independent hit a political pothole on Sept. 24. Eleven women officeholders in Washtenaw County issued a highly-critical public statement titled the “Washtenaw Elected Women’s Statement on SafeHouse.” It was signed by four County Commissioners, including the Chair of the Board of Commissioners, Sue Shink, four women Ann Arbor City Council members, the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tempore of Ypsilanti and an Ypsilanti City Council member. The Statement says the elected officials “are disappointed and shocked because it appears the Board of Directors at SafeHouse does not seem to be taking the accounts of these women seriously.”

The officials’ unprecedented statement was released via email and social media. The elected officials not only publicly chastised the Board members of SafeHouse Center, the women elected officials demand the SafeHouse Center Board conduct its investigation, but only after putting the non-profit’s Executive Director on leave:

“In order for a truly independent investigation to take place, the director of SafeHouse should be placed on administrative leave. Moreover, any discussion of confidence in the Executive Director should be left out of a press release until the investigation is concluded.”

On Sept. 22, SafeHouse Center’s Board, in a statement released to the public, announced its decision not to put SafeHouse Center Executive Director Barbara Niess-May on leave while an independent investigation is conducted into a series of allegations made in July and August 2021 by nearly 20 individuals, including women housed at SafeHouse Center, staff and interns. The SafeHouse Board through its President, Tara Mahoney, began its defiant statement by declaring, “We have full confidence in the organization’s executive director, Barbara Niess-May….”

The SafeHouse Board includes Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Barbara McQuade, Eddie Washington, Jr., Executive Director
Department of Public Safety and Security at the University of Michigan, and Gregory Dill, Washtenaw County Administrator.

On the same day the SafeHouse Board released its statement, Niess-May sent out her own in which she called the survivors’ allegations of unsafe and unsanitary conditions at the shelter, as well as staff negligence, “false and misleading information.” The individuals who came forward to reveal the conditions at SafeHouse Center, corroborated their allegations by providing photographic, audio and video evidence, as well as multiple first person accounts.

Niess-May’s statement, which was widely mocked on social media as little more than “gaslighting,” also claimed that the “condition of our building is held to a high standard.” Survivors provided photos of moldy showers (left), holes in walls and ceilings, filthy air vents, and spoke in audio recordings of being greeted by blood-spattered bedroom walls and blood-spattered bathroom sinks upon arrival at SafeHouse Center.

Niess-May, in July 2021, told The Ann Arbor Independent that public tours of SafeHouse Center are available. Nonetheless, Niess-May repeatedly refused a tour to The A2Indy, as well as two Ann Arbor City Council members. Niess-May had scheduled a tour for the elected officials and then canceled it. One of those officials, Kathy Griswold (D-Ward 2) is a signer of the “Washtenaw Elected Women’s Statement on SafeHouse.”

Griswold published an Open Letter to SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May on September 17 in which Griswold wrote, “We may need an independent consultant to conduct an operational review, as well as a review of SafeHouse’s strategic plan to ensure a more resilient, effective and compassionate service organization.” Council member Griswold was the first elected official to publicly call for an independent investigation.

Only after Griswold published her Open Letter did Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor express his “support” of sexual and domestic abuse survivors during the Sept. 21 City Council meeting. He then urged victims in crisis to call SafeHouse, evidently utterly ignorant of the fact that SafeHouse Center, which survivors, staff and interns have repeatedly and publicly alleged was unsafe and unsanitary, was turning away victims from its empty building by claiming it was full. As recently as September 23, SafeHouse Center has continued to turn away victims, claiming the shelter which has 20 rooms, and which houses just three survivors, is full.

The “Washtenaw Elected Women’s Statement on SafeHouse” ends with what can only be described a political knock-out punch: “As women and elected officials, we implore the SafeHouse Board of Directors to commit to a truly independent and consistent process by removing the Executive Director from involvement with the investigation . We know that in Michigan, 36.1% of women experience intimate partner violence and in the United States, 1 in 3 women who have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner, and in 2019 there were 44 reported domestic violence murders in Michigan. We want to ensure that women in Washtenaw County have the protection and resources they need, and we will continue to advocate vigorously for this cause.”

The Women’s Statement was not signed by Ann Arbor Council member Erica Briggs (D-Ward 5), herself a survivor of domestic violence, or Dr. Lisa Disch (D-Ward 1), who teaches Women’s Studies and Political Science at the University of Michigan. SafeHouse Center is located in Pittsfield Township. That Township provides funding for the facility. Pittsfield Supervisor Dr. Mandy Grewel did not sign the Statement, nor did the two Pittsfield Township Trustees who are women, Linda Edwards-Brown, who teaches social work at as an adjunct at the University of Michigan, and Andrea Urda-Thompson, an Ann Arbor Public School Teacher.

These elected officials have remained publicly silent since the July 31 account of allegations made about SafeHouse Center by survivors, staff and interns.