 Hello, my name is Ben Joseph I'm a retired Vermont Superior Court judge. This is the judge Ben show it's one in a series of interviews that I do with people about legal issues in Vermont. Today my guest is Kara Casey, who works with the Vermont network. This is domestic violence and sex assault. And we're going to talk about housing as a necessary part of support for victims. I've just got to interject this that very recently there was an article in the New York Times. The headline was UK review says justice system failed thousands of victims of sexual assault. I'm going to say some just amazing things that of the in the year that was studied 100 there are an estimated victims of sexual violence of 128,000 victims in the year. But that only dealt with adult victims it didn't deal with child victims so there probably were more cases than that. 50% of those victims withdrew from the investigations that were started by the police, and ultimately only 1.6% of the reported cases led to a criminal charge against the perpetrator. And the report stated that the government should work for a cultural change in police and prosecutors and try to avoid undermining the credibility of victims. I guess it was, it was startling to me to think it was that bad, but it made me feel grateful for people like Kara and what we're doing in Vermont to try to cope with these very serious problems. My guest today is Kara Casey Kara what is your official title. Your official title is director of economic empowerment. Whoa, whoa, very impressive. Let's see. I guess. I guess what I wanted to say to you was, it seems to me that you're providing a lot of services. And I know that you are kind enough to kind of put together. A statistical accounting for what what's been going on with the Vermont network against domestic violence. Tell me how many people received support from the network in the last year. We have about about 7800 people receive support from our member organizations in 2020 and out of those with with housing support specifically, it was 3,629 people received advocacy and support related to housing specifically. Wow. Okay, and how many people were actually provided with shelter. Yeah, so 400 people stayed in shelter. And that was for over 31,000 nights. Wow. Was that just an adult or were there child victims as well. There was also children so 169 of those 400 were children, and out of that number 97 were age zero to six. Wow. And how many people were put up in motels and for how many nights. We had about 826 people staying in motels for over 34,000 bed nights. And that included 251 children, and out of that 135 were zero to six years old. And you put some people into a transitional housing. How many of our member organizations provide transitional housing and 90 people access transitional housing and 49 or children. I guess I should say, could you tell me what the member organizations are. Yeah, how many are there. We have 15 member organizations and they serve every single county every town in Vermont. Wow. I, my impression has always been that the people are the victims of domestic violence and sex assault are very reluctant to complain for several reasons. Not the least of which is they don't have any place else to go. And you know where we're in a situation in which they feel stuck, and they can sometimes persist in being physically abused for years, because they don't have an alternative. Is that, is that something that you're trying to address. Absolutely so we know that domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness in the US for women and children and it's it's pretty similar in Vermont historically we've seen that it's one of the top reasons that people are experiencing homelessness. And people are often faced with that situation of do I stay in an unsafe situation. Or do I leave that situation knowing that what is on the other side is potentially not having a home. So it's a really very difficult position for someone to be in to choose between, you know, their safety, or potentially homelessness. So what is the average of stay for someone who comes into shelter in Vermont. So last year the average for our domestic and sexual violence shelters was 77 days. And so, when people think of shelter they typically think of an emergency situation right like where you just kind of need a place to land and then you can, you know, move on to to more permanent situation and what we're finding. Throughout the years, I think both both in the domestic and sexual violence shelters but also just statewide in the emergency shelters, is that people are really meeting a longer period of time in those shelters because they're unable to find safe, stable affordable housing in a reasonable amount of time. And as a Vermont legislature trying to do anything to help with this. Yeah, so this year, because of I think, partially because of what's happening right now with with homelessness and the large amount of people staying in motels right now. And partially because of the influx of federal funding, the legislature was really able to create a historic influx of housing funding in their budget. So they put in $190 million this year for for housing. That includes expanding emergency shelter, but it also includes building more more housing, and particularly affordable housing. And so that's, that's not something that we're going to see, you know, right away, but before the end of the year, I anticipate we're going to start seeing some more of those units come online. And, and we really have experience, especially this year where there is more federal funding to kind of support people in housing so you know rental assistance and that type of thing. We've experienced that now we just have, we need the units for people to be able to move into. So even with that support that financial assistance. People are still mean, remaining in shelters or in motels because they actually don't physically have like housing to move into. So this is going to be. I think I read somewhere that there's going to build a 21 unit of building to hold people who are escaping from domestic violence. Is that right. So that's steps to end domestic violence is one of our member organizations and they this past year. It's already complete and we already they already have folks staying there constructed a new or renovated a new 21 unit shelter. And that was in partnership with a Champlain housing trust. So that's up in Chittenden County. And what's unique about that is that number one that was that that partnership that they created with the housing authority to be able to. I mean the housing trust to be able to renovate an old motel. And really transform those rooms into their own units so people have their own bathrooms their own space to cook in. So it's a really, you know, unique model. And it's, it's already already filled up so we know that the need is greater than that but that was a really great opportunity that they see is to have that collaboration and build that new shelter. So what percentage of the people who are homeless in Vermont are survivors of domestic violence and sex assault you know. So in the past, the past year's point in time count which is where we count like all the folks that are in, in shelter in Vermont. It was 7% that is actually lower than it has been in previous years and I think that the reason that is, is because in previous years of the pandemic people. One of the things that could make people eligible for emergency motel stays was that they were fleeing domestic violence or sexual violence and this year. They kind of open that up so a lot of people that maybe were fleeing did not have to kind of certify that or, you know, say I'm fleeing domestic violence they just needed to say I'm homeless I don't have a place to stay. So in previous years that percentage on that point in time count was I think it was maybe 16% last year. So it's a significant percent. Is there anything that can be done for people who live in a rural area so I assume it's easier in Burlington or someplace in Chittenden County to access alternate housing. But if you live out way out in the country must be more difficult is that is that correct. It is. Yes, that is correct. You know in rural state like Vermont, not having access to transportation or other ways of connecting with people, such as internet, you know, telephone, having your neighbors close by. Those are all things that we struggle with in Vermont. And we know that isolation is a power and control tactic that's often used against victims. So the fact that we live in a rural area just really kind of compounds that. And so that does mean that there's, you know, could mean lack of connection to resources. You know that lack of connection to a person that you could potentially tell, you know this is I've experienced this or this is what I'm experiencing to reach out to for help, including family and friends. You know, I think that some of the investments that are being made now in broadband could potentially be helpful for that, especially people that have, you know, have, haven't had that power and control tactic used with like electronics or people that are out of an abusive connection that can reach out over over the internet. I think that there's been some innovative things that have been done this year to connect with survivors more digitally because advocates haven't been able to connect in person. And I think that those, some of those are here to stay. But we definitely could always do more and helping to really provide resources where people are at. And, you know, creating more transportation infrastructure that type of thing. And those are things that you usually think of when people think of how can we support survivors of domestic and sexual violence right. But things like investment and transportation. And, and internet connectivity, those, those are really important. Well, I, you know, I, I know how difficult transportation is in rural area, you know, I live in a rural area and we have a, we have an organization in the islands where I live that we help to provide transportation for people who don't have it. Yep. I mean, I know there's doctors appointments and other things. But it's, it's, it's tough, really is tough. I mean, I know there are any number of women who've been violated who just feel lost because there's, there's no place to go. And particularly if they have children, you know, it's not like they can just jump up and run out, you know, to a family member or a friend nearby. It's really difficult. It's so difficult. What are your, you've mentioned partners in county organizations and whatnot. Are they like member organizations of the network violence of the network that you work for. We have, yeah, we have our 15 member organizations throughout the state and they're, they're part of our coalition. And we, you know, provide training technical support to them and they help to inform a lot of the work that we do in that connection with survivors. And they each have networks that they work with locally, in order to provide the support that survivors need so connecting them to connecting them to housing connecting them to, to health care applications to three squares Vermont transportation that type of thing so we have 15 member organizations that are part of our network. There's really so many more people and so many more organizations in the state that are that are helping us support survivors in various ways and connecting with our member organizations to do a lot of that. My, my experience in the past has been that a lot of people just kind of lost in this to particularly those frankly who don't have a computer at home and don't have internet access. How can someone, you know, if you know if someone you're trying to help, how would you, what would you suggest they do to try to get support. How they contact someone. Yeah, so if they, so if they do have internet access they can connect on our website at www.vt network.org and they can look up specifically what what organization works in your area. And if not they can connect with our hotline number let me see if I have it somewhere. I can get that for you in a second but we do have a hotline number that you can also call and then be connected to one of our member organizations. And, and it doesn't just have to, it doesn't have to be, yeah somebody experiencing sexual or domestic violence themselves, it can be somebody that is concerned for a friend or a neighbor or a child that they work with at school so it can. It can be just somebody reaching out for how do I help this person in my life or how do I be a better friend to my friend that has experienced this. And so the domestic violence hotline number is 1-800-228-7395 and then there's a sexual violence hotline number as well and that's 1-800-489-7273 and if you don't know who your local member organization is you can connect there and they'll send you to the right place. That's great, you know, I apologize to you I didn't ask you to have that all lined up and you did it. The drop of a hat so that was very impressive thank you Kara. Yeah, no problem. Okay Kara is there anything else you'd like to say about this subject. Yeah I mean I would say that if people are interested in helping people are interested in this subject. Reach out to your local member organization and see what type of support they need it could be volunteering it could be donating. If you're a landlord or or somebody that works at a housing organization and you're not connected to one of your member organizations. Reach out to them if you're you know interested in providing affordable safe housing for someone. You know these are all things that we can do in our community to help make it safer. So I really encourage folks to reach out. Kara it's great. That really is great. I'm very impressed with what you're doing and I thank you very much. I think it's a great public service. I've dealt with a lot of it and on the bench and as an attorney I've dealt with many of these cases and it's heartbreaking to see what people have to live with, particularly the particularly the young children who see one parent battering the other to put for way to grow up. So someone who can provide alternate housing like yourself. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Okay have a good day. Thanks you too.