Violence Shelters Out Of Space - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Violence Shelters Out Of Space

It's becoming more difficult for people moving to North Dakota to find a place to live.

That not only is impacting new residents, but women who suffer from violence and abuse.

It's a situation that no woman wants to be in, but sometimes after being abused or sexually assaulted, they look for a place to go.

18:51 "They come in because they need a safe place to stay, it's no longer safe for them to reside in the residence that they're at," Executive Director Of North Dakota Council On Abused Women Services, Janelle Moos said.

Now that safe place to go, is hard to find.

"What we're seeing is a lot of victims coming in and having to stay for longer periods of time and so therefore we're not able to move them out of the shelter like we used to be able to, so they're staying much longer and it's turning to women being turned away," Moos said.

The reason why women are being forced to stay longer is because just like everyone else, they can't find a place of their own.

"Really the low income or affordable housing is nonexistent at this point in time," Moos said.

Just five years ago it was rare for the shelters to turn residents away, and if a shelter in Dickinson was full, women could easily move to a shelter in Devils Lake or Fargo, but now those are full too and there's no plans of building more.

"With the budget cuts Federally and really with the standstill right now with the Authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, there isn't a lot of more money coming into the state federally and also we have restrictions on what we can use funding for," Moos said.

Forcing shelters to continue turning women away.

Moos says that the restrictions on what the money can be spent on doesn't include construction or remodeling costs.