How the coronavirus derailed plans for an Horry County domestic violence shelter

Horry County’s first domestic violence shelter was making progress on its way to being constructed in March. But the coronavirus had other plans.

The funding for the shelter was approved by the South Carolina State House of Representatives in the spring, but before the state budget could be made official, the pandemic struck.

Due to the financial uncertainty caused by the pandemic, a 2020 budget wasn’t approved and the state is operating under 2019’s budget, which doesn’t include the one-time $1.5 million meant for the shelter, according to Rep. Heather Ammons Crawford, a Republican who represents District 68 in Horry County.

South Carolina consistently ranks among the worst states in the country for domestic violence, though Crawford noted progress is being made. For the first time since 1996, South Carolina was not in the top 10 states for the rate of women killed by men, according to a Violence Policy Center analysis released earlier this year.

A ‘mind-boggling’ need

While some organizations like the Eastern Carolina Housing Organization and New Directions can offer resources to domestic violence victims, Horry County doesn’t have a shelter meant specifically for people facing domestic violence.

“To me, it’s just mind-boggling that Horry County does not have a facility such as this,” Crawford said.

That means many Horry County seeking shelter from an unsafe situation end up going to the Family Justice Center shelter in Georgetown. Between 65-70% of all people served at the shelter come from Horry County, according to the center’s Executive Director Kimberley Parsons.

“There are factors that come into play,” she said. “They sometimes say ‘You know, I just can’t do it.’”

Parsons said the distance to the shelter can discourage people from coming for help, sometimes sending them back to their abuser.

It can take an hour to drive from Myrtle Beach to the Georgetown shelter. If people have jobs or kids in Horry County, they’re often discouraged from traveling all that way to get services, she said.

What happens next

The state legislature will begin discussing next year’s budget again in January, and Crawford said securing money for the new shelter is one of her top priorities. She expects the funding could be included in the budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year, delaying the plan by at least a year. But with the pandemic dragging on, it’s unclear how big of a budget the state will have, specifically because sales tax revenue and income tax revenue likely took a hit.

“I will be requesting and advocating for that when we start again in January,” Crawford said. “It’s just going to depend on what kind of money we have on hand.”

Crawford said the legislature could pass a bill meant to fund one-time immediate needs related to the pandemic, but it’s not certain that bill will happen or if the shelter would be included in it.

A site hasn’t been picked out yet, and the capacity of the shelter will depend on that, Parsons said, although the original plan was for the shelter to have 16-18 beds. The details of the plan rely on the budget for next year.

Even if the funding to construct the shelter is approved by the state, Parsons stressed the need for ongoing financial support. She said the center’s fundraiser, which was planned for October, has been postponed until at least the beginning of 2021. Along with fundraisers, the center relies on donations and grants to sustain itself.

“We can build it, but if we don’t have the money to sustain it, it will close,” Parsons said, adding she hopes to have the support of Horry County municipalities like Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach.

Coronavirus and domestic violence

The coronavirus has affected more than just fundraisers for the Family Justice Center. Eight months into the pandemic, Parsons said the shelter is still operating at reduced capacity, with only three people allowed in the shelter at a time. This takes a toll specifically on those seeking shelter in Horry County.

“Recently, we’ve had to put pretty much everyone from Horry County in a hotel,” Parsons said.

The pandemic and the resulting lock downs and stay-at-home orders raised alarm for advocates of domestic violence awareness across the country. With shelters closed or limited and victims often in quarantine with an abusive partner, getting help became harder, according to a report from the New England Journal of Medicine, which called intimate partner violence in the coronavirus era “a pandemic within a pandemic.”

Now that people are returning to public life and businesses are reopening there’s been an increase in requests for orders of protection, which keep alleged abusers from contacting victims, Parsons said.

But the pandemic didn’t introduce a new problem, only exacerbated an existing one. For Crawford and Parsons, the need for a Horry County shelter is long overdue.

“We know we still have a lot of work to do,” Crawford said. “COVID or no COVID, we know that the need is there.”