Niess-May June 16, 2021 Email

[Did you receive these? I sent them about two weeks ago. If not, no worries, but if you could answer them by next Friday, I would appreciate it.]

Hi,
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me. I have the final questions. These should be answered in writing. In addition, I asked for information about demographics that you did not provide, including numbers of survivors/children served year over year, for comparison. I also asked for demographics understanding that the data you would provide would be imperfect. If you could provide those data, it would be helpful. If you don’t, as you know, my only option is to make clear that I asked for it twice and you did not provide it. 
Here are the final questions:

The Shelter’s room checks and curfew, imposed primarily on POC who are low-income, have triggered concerns that these policies are unhealthy, paternalistic and racist. In fact, other shelters don’t invade the privacy of their survivors, or impose curfews. How are room checks for contraband (including food and drinks) and curfews, empowering? One former staff member expressed concerns that the policies are controlling survivors in some of the same ways abusers control their victims. 

  
There have been consistent concerns raised about lax security, including the lack of a working security camera system and first floor windows that are taped closed at SafeHouse Center. Best practices in shelter management recommend robust security systems. Shelters in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties have robust security systems, including video camera systems and archived footage. Can you explain why there is a “non-functioning video” camera monitoring the parking lot and client-side door? Staff described making jokes among themselves about survivors who believed the camera was functioning. 

You told me that tours of the shelter side of the building are not permitted because “that’s someone’s home.” It also means no one outside people whom you pay, and whose housing you control see what’s going on in your shelter. A staff member described this as the same kind of secrecy that exists in a relationship between an abuser and a victim. “No one sees what’s really going on, including Board members,” the woman alleged. Other shelters offer tours of their entire facilities, including client areas. What is your response to the concerns about secrecy and a lack of transparency raised by this staffer? 
In photos provided to me by multiple individuals of the client side of the facility, there is evidence of a serious lack of upkeep and cleanliness of common areas, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms. Photos provided of the office side of the building show clean, well-maintained areas. Why is the shelter side of the building dirty and unkept and the management side well-kept and clean? 

In our conversation, you described “empowering” the shelter residents. According to those whom I’ve interviewed, the “empowerment” extends to assigning “chores” to survivors (primarily minority, low-income women) soon after they arrive. What you describe as “empowerment, was described by other professionals in your field as “shocking.” In other shelters, survivors are neither expected to clean the shelter, nor can they be “exited” for not cleaning (as they can at SafeHouse). Given the evidence of filthy conditions documented in the photos of your facility, can you explain how forcing minority, low-income women to clean your facility for free is empowering? 

I have photos taken recently of air vents on the client side covered in mold, dust and dirt. According to County records, your non-profit was given $96,000 to implement enhanced cleaning protocols to protect people in the building from COVID-19, an airborne virus. Can you share what enhanced safety and health protocols were implemented using the County money? 

You referred to the shelter as “someone’s home.” Former clients, staff and interns brought up concerns about the weekly room checks, including for food and drinks. Survivors said the checks made them feel that the shelter was more like a detention facility than a safe house. Again, these room checks impact people in their homes, as it were, people who are primarily minority and low-income. This policy is perceived as racist and redolent of the control exerted over survivors by their abusers. Would you like to comment on why your policies include the control of food and drinks to people who may have had food and drinks withheld from them? 

You said that SafeHouse Center gets weekly deliveries from Food Gatherers and that a number of items are purchased, if requested, by survivors. Your annual budget is over $2M. According to Food Gatherers, its donation amounts to around $9K in food (4500 meals). Other shelters budget for fresh food, give survivors gift cards to buy whatever foods they like, and prepare meals for survivors and their children. Why does SafeHouse Center rely primarily on donated food and not provide survivors and their children cooked meals, as do other shelters?  

When you spoke, you made a point of saying SafeHouse Center provides the bulk of its services via call-ins. Your annual reports list thousands of calls made to the Center, as if all the calls were all from people needing help. It has been asserted that as many as 80 percent of the calls are administrative (donors, general questions, etc…) Can you comment on this, please?

Thank you,

Patricia