UPDATE 1/22/22: Independent Investigation Confirms Allegations of SafeHouse Mismanagement: Executive Director Barbara Niess-May Resigns

September 17, 2021: Updated with additional audio clips, video and photos.

Update October 6, 2021: Washtenaw County Administrator and SafeHouse Board member Greg Dill announced at tonight’s meeting of the County Commissioners that SafeHouse Center would be putting interim leadership into place. In addition, the Board of Commissioners passed a resolution to award $75,000 to the women who were thrown out of SafeHouse in retaliation for speaking to The Ann Arbor Independent for this series of articles.

by P.D. Lesko

Note: SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May was asked to comment for this story and to answer the allegations made in it. She refused. Likewise, SafeHouse Board President Tara Mahoney, a lawyer who works for Masco, was asked to comment and to answer the allegations made in this article. She refused. Click here to read the questions they refused to answer.

Nicole Beverly is a survivor of domestic violence. She never sought shelter at SafeHouse Center. In 2012, Beverly’s former partner threatened to murder her and their two children over a child support dispute and the fact that Beverly had filed a police report about his physical abuse. Beverly’s abuser reportedly called his ex-wife between 30 and 100 times a day and sent her multiple text messages. He went to prison. She and her children survived; she wrote a book and found the Enough Initiative, a small non-profit that seeks to educate the general public about domestic violence and to empower survivors. On the Enough Initiative website, there are clips of Beverly’s interviews on NPR, Channel 7 News and Fox News.

Niambe Ewing has had a different outcome. When her partner threatened to kill her, Niambe sought shelter at SafeHouse Center and stayed one week. She left, because of what she said were serious issues related to the safety, health and welfare of shelter residents, as well as the allegedly racist behavior of the shelter’s predominantly white management staff. Niambe was not permitted to speak to SafeHouse Center Executive Director Barbara Niess-May and so sent Niess-May an email outlining her concerns. As a direct result of Niess-May’s response, which Niambe said was “arrogant and condescending,” Niambe went back to the apartment she shares with her assailant. She said she sleeps (when she sleeps) with a knife under her pillow and mace at the ready.

Of the survivors interviewed for this piece, all of the women were determined to share their stories and to document the negligence of staff, unsanitary and unsafe conditions at SafeHouse Center. All agreed to individual interviews, and audio recordings. All provided photos and videos from inside SafeHouse Center to document their allegations that the facility is unsanitary and unsafe.

Listen to Niambe explain why she left SafeHouse after just one week:

In late-August, a group of survivors housed at SafeHouse Center in Pittsfield Township contacted the newspaper. When asked why they did so, their answers were the same: They did not want other women, other survivors, to suffer in the ways they were suffering at SafeHouse Center. Survivors interviewed described entering SafeHouse Center under the mistaken assumption that it would be a clean, welcoming, safe environment where they and their children could begin the process of healing the scars of the physical, emotional and sexual abuse they’d suffered. What the women and their children experienced at the hands of SafeHouse Center staff and management can only be described as psychological abuse, physical deprivation and neglect.

In 2020, SafeHouse Center received 97 percent of its operating funds from public donations solicited under the guise of providing shelter and services to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, and their children. According to its most recent audit statement, in 2020 SafeHouse Center received $1.61 million in government grants, up from $1.3 million in 2019. Over the same period, total payroll at SafeHouse Center jumped 20 percent, from $1.95 million to $2.28 million. Income tax returns show that the non-profit added two additional employees between 2019 and 2020, and lost 75 of its 200 volunteers.

Even as elected officials and private donors pump millions into SafeHouse Center through grants and donations, the survivors describe a shelter where they don’t feel safe thanks to lax security. A shelter where battered women and children never receive medical examinations by a physician, and instead are told to leave the shelter to seek any medical care they deem necessary, including care for injuries sustained during rapes and physical attacks. They describe a shelter where they and their traumatized children receive no psychological counseling or support services. They report being given moldy, rotten, out-of-date food to eat, and sleeping in filthy rooms on filthy mattresses. They shared photos of bathroom floors and showers covered in mold and mildew. Survivors shared stories of “useless” shelter advocates who do little more than deny requests and enforce punitive policies, including whether the women do their assigned “chores.”

The women provided dozens of photos, audio recordings and videos to substantiate their allegations.

“This has to stop,” said 27-year-old Ravone Fields, in an August 30 interview at County Farm Park. “I don’t want other women to go through what I’m going through there.” In the 30 days during which Fields was housed at SafeHouse, her assailant sent her multiple text messages threatening to murder her, and sent a man to SafeHouse to terrorize her, texting Fields the friend was bringing an AK-47 to kill everyone at the shelter. SafeHouse staff never advised Fields to obtain a Personal Protection Order (PPO) against her assailant. Fields’ other assailant, her mother, showed up at the door of SafeHouse Center and, contrary to victim safety protocols and SafeHouse rules, SafeHouse Center’s Housing Manager, Shiela Darden, asked Fields to accompany her to the entrance to identify her “visitor.” Fields refused.

On July 31, 2021, The Ann Arbor Independent published an article in which a dozen former and current SafeHouse Center staff, residents and interns raised serous concerns about what they termed the “toxic,” “racist” atmosphere at SafeHouse Center. The individuals, all of whom requested anonymity because they feared retaliation, also provided photos from inside the shelter that showed filthy conditions in which survivors were forced to live. It was Ravone Fields, a college student who read the July 2021 SafeHouse Center article published in The A2Indy and who, along other SafeHouse Center residents with whom Fields shared the article, decided to contact the newspaper.

“Nothing has changed since when the article was published,” said Fields when interviewed on August 30. “Nothing.”

This includes public silence on the part of every member of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, which annually allocates hundreds of thousands of dollars to SafeHouse Center, including consultants’ fees, money for upkeep and in 2020, $96,000 for enhanced COVID cleaning. Public records show that since 2017, the City of Ann Arbor has given around $400,000 directly to SafeHouse Center, located in Pittsfield Township.

SafeHouse survivor, Niambe Ewing, talks about why she thinks systemic racism at SafeHouse is a problem and why the members of the SafeHouse Board of Directors have been negligent in their oversight.

Nicole Berverly points out that, “When people in power don’t speak out publicly about injustice or harm caused to victims, it reinforces to victims that they don’t matter and that no one cares about them or their children. It is basically the same message that they have received over and over from their abusers. The victims that came forward on their own to talk about their experiences [at SafeHouse] and were evicted [from SafeHouse] as a result have experienced severe re-traumatization. They have been waiting on pins and needles for someone with the power to help them and protect future victims, to speak up publicly for them and to show them support and to say that they believe them and care enough to be committed to creating change.”

Ann Arbor Council member Jeff Hayner (D-Ward 1) has been actively trying to meet with SafeHouse officials and tour the facility since February 2021. After The Ann Arbor Independent sent these questions and a request for comment to Niess-May and SafeHouse Center Board President Tara Mahoney, Niess-May relented and offered Hayner and others a tour, expected to take place on Friday, September 17.

In an email Hayner wrote, “I accepted a tour because it was all that was offered. Had I shown up, I assume I would have been treated with the same hostility that others have been and trespassed by the Pittsfield PD…I am sorry no one has taken these women’s and my alarms more seriously. I appreciate what you are doing to shine a light on this situation, and these new revelations of SHC turning away women needing help are very disturbing…I will see what I can do to move this along.” Hayner will be joined on the tour by Council member Kathy Griswold (D-Ward 2) and Assistant Ann Arbor City Attorney Arianna Slay, as well members of the SafeHouse Center Board of Directors. Slay ran unsuccessfully for County Prosecutor in 2018.

One local advocate wondered why Niess-May had been given notice of the visit. “She’s probably in her office shredding everything that shows the stuff she’s done to these women.”

Shelter Staff Make Multiple Survivors Homeless, Then Turn Away Victims: “The Shelter is Full”

SafeHouse Center (the Domestic Violence Project) is a non-profit that exists to provide shelter and services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Since August 31, the shelter’s leaders have exited multiple survivors. Some survivors had completed their 35 day stays, some had not, but were forced out nonetheless. Recently exited survivors reported that SafeHouse Center staff and advocates did little to nothing to help them find safe shelter.

Listen to Julie Goble talk about the incident that sent her to SafeHouse:

Julie Goble is a 50-year-old mother of two and a victim of sexual assault. She was exited by SafeHouse officials on September 11. Goble had completed her 35 days, but was nonetheless made homeless by her eviction. She contacted The Ann Arbor Independent. Goble, face and arms bruised from a recent attack by relatives of her assailant, described still being in shock over her assault.

“I’m numb, you know what I mean?” said Goble in her September 15 interview. “I still don’t remember what happened.”

Julie Goble said that while at SafeHouse she received no medical care or examination by a physician, no psychological counseling, no help finding employment, and when she was evicted, no help finding safe housing. She said she showed her injuries to her advocate (Kaylin Viazanko Malinowski) who suggested Goble go to the hospital if she felt the need to do so.

“One week there was no food,” said Goble, who was penniless and unemployed. “Other times, staff would put out moldy, rotten, out-of-date stuff for us to eat.”

The photos, below, are of out-of-date food in the SafeHouse kitchen:

Listen to Julie Goble explain how she was made homeless by the staff at SafeHouse:

Goble described her SafeHouse Center shelter advocate Kaylin Viazanko Malinowski as “useless.” Viazanko Malinowski has worked at SafeHouse since 2016. Viazanko Malinowski’s LinkedIn profile says she is, “passionate about providing support to survivors.” Her profile says in her job at SafeHouse she, “connect[s] clients to community resources to achieve basic needs, stability, and independence.”

Goble said she asked Viazanko Malinowski for help figuring out how to file charges against her assailant. The SafeHouse staffer allegedly told Goble to dial 911, or to leave the shelter and go to the police station. Viazanko Malinowski was the SafeHouse official who directed Goble to the Delonis Shelter for housing. It’s unclear why Viazanko Malinowski didn’t know the Delonis Shelter had no beds available at the time she told Goble to go there.

“The Delonis Shelter had no beds available and there was a waiting list,” said Goble.

Viazanko Malinowski’s actions presented Julie Goble with the choice of either going back to the rental apartment where her assailant was, or living in her car.

When alerted by The Ann Arbor Independent, Nicole Beverly contacted Washtenaw County Administrator Greg Dill and asked he provide housing to Goble and others. Dill, who sits on the Board of SafeHouse Center, gave Beverly five, one-week vouchers for a motel. The vouchers, a stop gap measure, didn’t change the fact that SafeHouse Center officials left survivors and their children without supportive services, protection from assailants, legal help, food, medical and psychological treatment.

Aimee Nimeh, LMSW, joined HAVEN women’s shelter in Pontiac as its new president and CEO in Oct., 2018. To put into perspective SafeHouse Center’s forced evictions of multiple women within a three week period, beginning on August 30, The Ann Arbor Independent consulted Aimee Nimeh.

“In order to exit a survivor from the shelter, she has to be a direct threat to other residents,” said Nimeh.

When asked how many survivors her shelter exits in a year, Nimeh said one or two. When asked if it would be out of the ordinary for a domestic violence shelter to exit four survivors in a week, Nimeh confirmed that it would indeed be highly unusual.

Teaha Leath-Jackson and her eight children were exited from SafeHouse on August 30, and when asked on September 13 how many survivors remained housed in the 20 room shelter when she’d left, Leath-Jackson said three women remained. The Ann Arbor Independent was informed that one of those three had been involuntarily exited on September 11, and made homeless.

Beginning on August 30 with the forced eviction of Ravone Fields, SafeHouse Center began involuntarily “exiting” survivors, including those who had not stayed the 35 days guaranteed them by their contracts with SafeHouse. As a result, multiple survivors have been made homeless by the actions of the SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May. On September 13, a call to SafeHouse Center to request shelter for a survivor of domestic violence was met with the claim that the shelter was, “full.”

Sitting in the living room of her new rental, two small children playing close by, and a registered support dog at her feet, Leath-Jackson said, “I got this place by myself. SafeHouse didn’t help me.”

Leath-Jackson was told that she had to leave because her SafeHouse advocate had been fired. Leath-Jackson said that before she’d left the shelter, when only a handful of women remained housed, two women who came to the shelter seeking help were turned away by SafeHouse Center staff, who claimed the shelter was full. Not only were Leath-Jackson and her children forced to leave the shelter on short notice, days before her new apartment was ready, SafeHouse Executive Director Barbara Niess-May filed a trespass complaint against the survivor. Niess-May then kept four of Leath-Jackson’s carseats, her television and other personal items.

County Prosecutor Eli Savit, via email, said that his office has no record of any trespass complaints filed by SafeHouse against its own residents. He explained, “One thing to note is that any such case may be in the hands of the Pittsfield Township Attorney [Andrew Fink].”

Nicole Beverly helped Leath-Jackson get her personal items back from SafeHouse. Beverly said, “Initially they [SafeHouse staff] said no she [Leath-Jackson] had to get them herself. I said, ‘She’ll get trespassed if she does, and that’s not happening. I’ll just call the [County] Commissioners.’ Then, they called Teaha for her permission to release the carseats to me.”

Among the items SafeHouse packed up and gave to Beverly for Teaha Leath-Jackson was a box of spoiled food. Leath-Jackson had purchased the food for herself and her children, then stored the items in a refrigerator that staff had neglected to alert residents was not working.

The actions of SafeHouse Center senior managers Barbara Niess-May, Kim Montgomery and Meggan Casper, in response to the survivors making their concerns public, resulted in one survivor being given 20 minutes to pack and leave the building. Days later, the survivor was hospitalized for suicidal ideation brought on by the stress of being summarily thrown out of the shelter coupled with the continued threats of murder by her assailant.

From the food poisoning of a resident and her child through the consumption of out-of-date food provided by SafeHouse Center to its residents, to fist and knife fights, and the alleged kidnapping of a survivor’s 2-year-old child by a drug-addicted fellow resident, the survivors who spoke to The Ann Arbor Independent all described SafeHouse Center as a “jail,” and a “detention center.” What the women perhaps don’t know is that those housed in the County jail, unlike SafeHouse Center, are provided cooked meals three times daily, are provided medical care, addiction treatment, and those inmates requiring psychotropic medications are overseen by a psychiatrist. There is no mental health treatment available by a licensed social worker, psychotherapist or psychiatrist at SafeHouse. No cooked meals are provided to the traumatized women and children, and no licensed physician ever examines the survivors or provides them any care.

Each SafeHouse Center survivor was asked if the shelter was clean. Listen to the answers of four survivors:

The women who survived SafeHouse described an unsanitary facility poorly run, and overseen by predominantly white management staff who, said one survivor who was given one day to leave the facility before her maximum 35 days of residence had expired, “just don’t care.” That woman, Carnique Dye, was made homeless by her August 2021 SafeHouse eviction.

“I live in my truck and when I can I stay with friends,” said Dye. Her alternative would be to return with her two children to the residence she shared with her assailant.

Survivors Speak to the SafeHouse Board of Directors

Each survivor was asked what she would say to the members of the SafeHouse Board of Directors. Listen to what they said: