Myrtle Beach group ends safe house program; Georgetown nonprofit steps up to fill void

Horry County’s primary shelter for domestic violence victims no longer offers housing for women seeking to hide from their abusers.

Life Line, a program created two years ago to assist victims and their children, recently shut down its domestic violence hotline and converted its safe house into a facility for the homeless, specifically women and children who need help but aren’t in immediate danger.

Those facing the greatest threats are being sent to safe houses in Georgetown, Florence or other parts of the state.

Officials with New Directions, Life Line’s parent organization, said they made the changes for logistical and financial reasons: most of the women wanting their assistance do not need a safe house and maintaining such a facility is expensive.

“We’re responding to the actual need,” said Mary Jeffcoat, who serves on the New Directions board. “The actual need is more for women and children in all different kinds of crises, not just ones who are in danger of being harmed by their abuser.”

Last year, 294 women in crisis situations contacted Life Line. Of those, 214 did not request a safe house; they simply needed another place to stay.

For about a month, New Directions has been referring victims who need a safe house to the Family Justice Center, a nonprofit in Georgetown County.

“We really don’t think Horry County needs a separate domestic violence shelter,” Jeffcoat said. “We think that having one in Georgetown County … is enough. We can handle all the other women in crisis.”

Jeffcoat added that sending at-risk women out of the county gives them greater protection. Word had gotten out about the location of Life Line’s safe house, defeating the purpose of the secret housing.

“It’s going to be safer for them,” Jeffcoat said. “If they live in Horry County, to be a county away from their abuser is going to be a whole lot safer for them.”

While New Directions’ leaders don’t see the need for a domestic violence safe house in Horry, the Georgetown organization now caring for the county’s most desperate victims does.

Beverly Kennedy, co-executive director of the Family Justice Center, said that agency is expanding its services in Horry and plans to eventually add a safe house there.

“That’s more than a hope; that’s a plan,” she said. “You can only offer services if you can be a presence in the community.”

After New Directions’ leaders notified Kennedy’s office that Horry would no longer have a safe house, the Family Justice Center began expanding into the neighboring county.

They stationed a legal advocate at the Conway courthouse to help victims obtain protective orders. The agency’s director of client services also started spending at least one day each week assisting victims in the county.

“We are aware that we have, I’m going to call it a Herculean, task ahead of us just because of the size of the county,” Kennedy said. “We are committed to doing it and we’re going to have to seek resources.”

Recently, Kennedy said her office saw a “substantial increase” in calls for emergency assistance. A dozen at-risk women in Horry County have sought help in the last four weeks.

“People are coming out of the Myrtle Beach area and want to stay close to it,” she said. “And that’s fine. We will take anybody who calls us.”

She noted that the organization runs a 24-hour hotline staffed by trained counselors.

“There are still victims who don’t know where to go now,” she said. “That’s why we’re here.”

The last occupant of the Life Line safe house left in May. Program officials closed the building for a week to clean and the conversion was complete by early June.

Despite the changes, the public funding the organization receives will not be affected, said Kathy Jenkins, executive director of New Directions.

Jenkins said most of the money donated to the group, which provides many services to the poor, is not earmarked for assisting domestic violence victims.

New Directions did receive a $34,000 federal grant for that purpose, but Jenkins said she checked with the government this week and was told her agency could use the money to help domestic violence victims who are homeless, even though no safe house is provided.

“We are not going to lose the funding,” she said. “We’re doing great work in the community.”

She added that the organization still provides shelter, job readiness training and other services to domestic violence victims who aren’t facing the most dire circumstances.

“There are an awful lot of those women in our community,” she said.

One of New Directions’ key supporters is the City of Myrtle Beach, which provided the agency with $167,855 in its most recent budget.

Mayor John Rhodes expects to hear about the latest changes when New Directions’ leaders speak at a city council meeting in the coming weeks.

“They’re going through some things,” he said. “They’ve not brought us up to date on it yet.”

City spokesman Mark Kruea, who learned of the shelter changes this week, said the organization’s decision makes sense.

“The community doesn’t need to run an expensive safe house here for a limited number of women who need that sort of assistance,” he said. “We can provide a safe house for them along the Grand Strand.”

When Life Line first opened in 2013, the organization aimed to pick up where the Citizens Against Spouse Abuse (CASA) program left off. CASA closed in June 2012 amid questions about the financial management of the organization.

Unlike CASA and the Family Justice Center, New Directions never received significant state funding for domestic violence programs, Jeffcoat said. The agency also outsourced many services for victims, while the Family Justice Center provides comprehensive assistance, including court advocacy and case management.

Another challenge, Jeffcoat said, is that some people from outside the area have tried to use Life Line services because of the center’s location. She said the agency recently turned down a woman from North Carolina who sought assistance.

“What she really wanted to do was come live in Myrtle Beach,” she said. “So we’re trying to be really good stewards of our community’s resources [and] take care of our community’s people, but we’re not going to take in people from all over the Southeast because they think Myrtle Beach is a good place to restart their life.”

When New Directions formed a few years ago, city officials wanted the group to corral local aid organizations and streamline their services to avoid duplicating efforts.

The group’s leaders see the latest move as part of that mission. Jenkins said New Directions’ officials have reviewed the shelter plans numerous times and feel the numbers justify their decision to end the safe house initiative and focus on the homeless.

“We’re just looking for the best way to serve the women in our community,” she said. “We’re very optimistic that this is it.”

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 1:46 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach group ends safe house program; Georgetown nonprofit steps up to fill void."