Earlier this week, Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) called out the administration’s failure to act on an emergency funding request for California’s domestic violence shelters, which have seen a massive increase of calls from victims and their families as a result of the statewide Safer-at-Home order.
In April, Cunningham and a bipartisan coalition of Assemblymembers sent Governor Gavin Newsom a letter requesting $10 million in emergency COVID-19 funding for domestic violence shelters. The Governor never responded to the funding request, and the shelters, which had already been critically underfunded, continue to struggle to keep up with the amount of calls they are receiving.
“As a former prosecutor, I can tell you firsthand the negative impacts domestic violence has on victims and their children. The impact is generational,” said Cunningham. “Shelter at home meant, for some people, being trapped in a dangerous situation, and the only place they can go is to their domestic violence shelters…
“[Victims] have been put in danger in a direct and foreseeable fashion by government Stay-at-Home orders. That is an emergency COVID-19 situation, and we need an answer from our Governor about this funding request.”
Calls to shelters in San Luis Obispo County more than doubled in the first four weeks of quarantine, according to shelter representatives.
