‘It’s a win-win’: After years without a domestic violence shelter, Horry to open one
Currently, if a person calls local police and asks to be removed from a home where they’re experiencing domestic violence, they often can’t stay in Horry County, which has no shelters for domestic violence victims.
“You have to drive to the Georgetown County line, a Georgetown County deputy picks them up and drives them to the shelter,” said Tom Fox, chief deputy in the Horry County Sheriff’s Office. “That displaces them from their work, their children have to be relocated to other schools...it’s something of a big inconvenience taking them out of their area, their community in Horry County and putting them in Georgetown County.”
But that could soon change, as state lawmakers have successfully earmarked $1.5 million in this year’s budget to build a domestic violence shelter in Horry County. State Rep. Heather Ammons-Crawford, who represents the Socastee area has said she sought to earmark that funding in the state’s 2020-2021 budget, but couldn’t because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus swept South Carolina, state lawmakers opted to adopt a nearly identical budget to the prior year, meaning new spending for a shelter was not approved.
This year though, despite Gov. Henry McMaster nixing millions in earmarks, state lawmakers prevailed and passed a budget that included $153 million in earmarked spending, including $1.5 million for the domestic violence shelter.
“There’s so much more work that needs to be done once a person leaves (a domestic violence situation), it’s a healing process for yourself and for your family because it isn’t as simple as just leaving,” said Kim Parsons, the executive director of the Family Justice Center, which will operate the new shelter. “At least if we have a shelter then we can take that piece out of it, they now have a place to go.”
Domestic violence is a pervasive problem across South Carolina. A 2020 study, analyzing data from 2018, found that 44 women were killed by men in domestic violence situations that year, or 1.68 deaths per 100,000 women living in the state. Those figures ranked South Carolina 11th in the nation for deaths stemming from domestic violence.
And a 2014 investigation by the Post & Courier newspaper found that little is done in South Carolina to prevent those deaths.
According to Parsons and other local officials, land for the shelter has already been donated by an anonymous donor, along East Cox Ferry Road, between Myrtle Beach and Conway. The $1.5 million will allow the Family Justice Center to build the new facility and pay for up-start costs. Funding to run the center will come from grants and, hopefully, local governments, said Fox, who serves on the executive board of the Family Justice Center.
The new shelter will house between 18 and 20 beds for domestic violence victims, as well as offices for Family Justice Center staff, counselors, case managers and others, Parsons said. The new facility should open within two years, Parsons added.
Already, the new shelter is being celebrated and supported by community leaders. On Thursday, before a luncheon at the Coastal Grand Mall Cracker Barrel, the Community Law Enforcement Appreciation Committee — made up of local law enforcement officials, leaders active in Republican Party politics, and others — gave a $3,000 donation to the Family Justice Center to support its open and operations.
Da’Vita Foushee, a spokesperson for CLEAC, said the group was supporting the shelter because they work to connect community members with law enforcement as a way of easing tensions and building relationships to help residents when problems arise. Foushee said that the group working with police, prosecutors and victim support groups allows them to better get resources to people who need them.
“Building relationships is the main goal,” Foushee said. “So if we have a relationship between the Family Justice Center, the Solicitor’s Office...we can actually give more resources to those victims, supply more resources to those victims.”
That kind of community support for the shelter will be vital, even after the construction begins, North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley, who’s worked to fundraise for the new shelter, said.
“Once the home is built, that’s when the costs begin,” Hatley said. “I don’t think we’ll let up just because the state has appropriated $1.5 million dollars to build it. I think it will just make us stronger and work harder to make sure it’s a success.”
She added that groups like the North Myrtle Beach women’s club and certain local churches have supported the Family Justice Center and she expects they will continue to do so.
Jimmy Richardson, the solicitor for the 15th Judicial Circuit, said his office will work to support the shelter, too, because having that resource in Horry County can make it easier to prosecute the people who are abusing or harming the domestic violence victims.
“For me, then you get better witnesses, because for the most part you can’t get a domestic violence victim to come and testify, there’s just too much to work through,” Richardson said. “It’s a win-win for all of us.”
The shelter opening in Horry County will also take some burden off of existing nonprofits that work to aid people suffering from homelessness, domestic violence or other situations that leave them vulnerable.
With the Georgetown domestic violence shelter about an hour’s drive from Myrtle Beach, some victims of domestic violence currently go to the New Directions homeless shelter if they’re not in imminent danger, according to the shelter’s executive director, Kathy Jenkins.
But the homeless shelter isn’t specifically designed to help victims of domestic violence, and sometimes it can’t meet their needs, like offering legal aid or connecting with an advocate to help them through the court system.
“What we provide for all of our women is the same, but serving people who are domestic violence victims who are in imminent danger has very specific needs,” Jenkins said.
While New Directions works with the Myrtle Beach Police Department to transport people who are in danger to the Georgetown Family Justice Center, having a facility in Horry County could help relieve some of the demand at New Directions. The need is severe enough that organizers are planning expansions at two of the facility’s three shelters.
“If it’s a shelter and they can take anybody who’s homeless due to domestic violence, it’ll probably alleviate a significant amount of who we serve,” Jenkins said.
On Thursday, Fox said having more resources closer to home will ease the burdens on vulnerable people here.
“What this will do is give an opportunity to give victims services in Horry County,” he said. “And hopefully get them out of that abusive environment.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
