“The council and some members of the delegation raised concerns about the best way to implement the changes,” Hudson said in a statement. “With less than a week left in the legislative session, and in deference to the concerns raised, we decided to withdraw the legislation in order to reach broader consensus.”
Following the 2015 complaints made by Buffaloe’s group about Safe Passage shelter, the county’s Office of Ethics and Accountability recommended that the marriage fees no longer be solely directed to Family Crisis Center. But the county took no action then, and Buffaloe said he thinks county leaders will continue “to make excuses” for the nonprofit because of their close relationship with its leaders, a connection that stretches back nearly four decades.
“The obvious question is why they would want to continue funding for a group they know is not doing good work,” Buffaloe said. “They try to make excuses to hide the fact that there is obvious collusion.”
The center receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in county and state grants to help fund the shelter and provide other services to abuse victims, according to government records. Its annual operating budget, including the money from the marriage license fees, is $1.3 million. State and county officials say they have little control over Safe Passage because it is privately operated.
Michele Williams, the center’s interim director, said she was “very glad” that bill was withdrawn because the marriage license fees provide a “critical part” of the funding for the shelter.
Williams said nine women and their children are staying in the shelter, which has been deep-cleaned and where repairs have been made to the heating system, walls and ceilings, among other things.
“It’s clean, it’s safe, it’s all of those things,” Williams said. “We recognize we have trust to rebuild, but we provide quality services and want to continue to be able to do that.”
Jay, one of nearly two dozen women who contacted news organizations this winter to describe conditions in the shelter — including mice in the sofa cushions, fungus in bathtub drains and spoiled food — said Baker’s decision to withdraw the bill “feels like a slap in the face.”
“There’s no accountability,” said Jay, who gave only her first name to stay hidden from an abusive former partner. She recently moved to an apartment of her own. “It’s like they’re saying ‘continue what you’ve been doing, but with new girls.’ ”
But Del. Jay Walker (D), chair of the Prince George’s delegation in the House, says lawmakers “want to do right by the women” but were not all sure whether Baker’s bill, which was introduced in March, offered the “correct formula” to fix the shelter’s problem.
Del. Angela M. Angel (D-Prince George’s), who briefly stayed in the Safe Passage shelter after leaving her violent marriage, said she wanted more information about the shelter’s finances and other potential resources for the women before changing the law.
“I’m not opposed to changing the revenue stream, but when we’re rushing though something this fast, we can make a mistake,” she said.
Angel, who has been an advocate for the women who spoke about the shelter’s conditions, said that if she had believed the bill would help them, she would have been “jumping up and down, pushing this bill to get it done.”
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/despite-repeated-complaints-prince-georges-will-keep-funding-domestic-violence-shelter/2018/04/06/e4402e0c-39af-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.c5410e37e9ac