Isolation, financial hardship: Pandemic adds barriers between Iowa domestic abuse survivors and aid

Despite reports in March that the pandemic caused a spike in domestic abuse cases, data from central Iowa abuse shelters and police are mixed — though advocates say this is due to the barrier to resources COVID-19 caused. 

While the Ames-based Assault Care Center Extending Shelter & Support logged 1,000 more hours in 2020 than in 2019 assisting survivors of domestic abuse, teen dating violence and stalking, the Des Moines-based Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence and some police agencies saw a decrease in cases or similar numbers to years prior. 

Further isolation due to social distancing, the constant presence of an abuser working from home and other barriers created by the pandemic could be keeping victims from resources. 

“This is one of the most underreported crimes,” said Leana Bouffard, an Iowa State sociology professor who studies how law enforcement responds to domestic violence. “A lot is happening that we don’t know about anyways, and I think that’s probably exacerbated right now with the pandemic, with isolation, with the fact that we’re all kind of sheltering in place.”

Bouffard said 10 months into the pandemic is too early to know the full scope of its impact on domestic abuse survivors. Requests for services dropped in the early days of the pandemic for ACCESS and the Coalition.

"When the state started to shut down and things got quiet, we had a real fear and knowledge of why that was happening, and really feeling fearful for survivors who were stuck in an unsafe situation," said Lindsay Pingel, director of community engagement at the Coalition.

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ACCESS director Tess Cody said service requests initially declined in March and April. Pingel said the Coalition also saw this early dropoff and began seeing a steady increase in need for services starting in the fall. 

“Just the collective community mood was 'hunker in,'” Cody said. “Since then, we’ve seen the need for services continue to rise.” 

ACCESS provided 5,110 hours of service in 2019 to survivors of domestic abuse, teen dating violence and stalking, Cody said. The total hours of service in 2020 reached 6,327. Historically, ACCESS service hours averaged between 450 and 500 hours monthly when fully staffed. ACCESS workers provided over 600 hours of service monthly for the second half of 2020.

The Des Moines Police Department saw 583 more domestic abuse calls in 2020 than in 2019. But in Ames, police had seven fewer domestic dispute calls in 2020 than in 2019. 

However, 27% fewer domestic and sexual assault victims were served in the state in grant year 2019-2020 than the year prior, according to the Iowa Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance Division. A total of 30,174 Iowans used state services this grant year, compared to 41,427 Iowans the year before.

Bouffard said there are explanations for why the Ames police did not see the increase ACCESS did.  

Police typically aren’t called until a domestic abuse situation reaches a climax, Bouffard said, so people could be reaching out for resources earlier. Cody said most of the people ACCESS serves never involve the police.  

“In domestic violence cases, you also see a lot of times that someone else calls,” Bouffard said. “If we’re separated and there’s no one else around to know what’s happening, you may not see that happening quite as much.” 

Other agencies could have seen fewer calls because the pandemic created more barriers for victims to seek resources. 

"One of the hallmarks of domestic violence or abusive relationships, in general, is that the abuser will try to isolate the victim," Bouffard said. "During the pandemic, that's going to be even more of the case." 

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The community self-isolating to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 meant friends and family, local civic groups, church groups and other support systems were gone in a day, Pingel said. With COVID-19 spawning job losses four times as bad as 2009, any attempt for victims to seek financial independence became more difficult.

While there were fewer calls for domestic disputes in Ames in 2020, police had fewer available options for victims due to the pandemic — especially in cases where arrests were not warranted, Ames police Cmdr. Jason Tuttle said.

Tuttle described a common scenario where “maybe there's not enough there for (police) to charge, there are no injuries. But there's an argument, maybe some pushing and shoving.” 

In those cases, officers generally suggest one person stay with a friend or relative for the night to diffuse tension. But as COVID-19 spread, “that was hard to do because people weren't always willing to go to someone's house,” Tuttle said.

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COVID-19 affects options for survivors

While following Centers for Disease Control guidelines, organizations like ACCESS and the Coalition needed to juggle safety and providing services.

Tuttle said the presence of a domestic abuse advocate during a domestic abuse call was sometimes replaced with a packet of information. 

ACCESS and the Coalition help survivors make police reports and will accompany them to police interviews, as long as all parties wear masks and sit at a distance. If this isn't possible, Cody said ACCESS staff prepares the survivor before the interview and makes themselves available via phone during it. 

ACCESS previously paused in-person accompaniment out of concerns its staff could be a source of spreading the virus across counties. The organization offers support to survivors in Greene, Boone, Story, Marshall and Tama counties. 

Cody said some law enforcement departments required masks while others did not, making the risk of spread more imminent — though completely ending the service caused problems as well. 

"The big takeaway was we had some survivors hesitant to make law enforcement statements without us present as a support system — being available by phone wasn’t the support some needed," Cody wrote in an email. "We tried the adaptation and realized we needed to continue to adapt in order to respond to the pandemic and the needs of survivors."

The ACCESS shelter staff is a team of four and the homicide and violent crime team is one person, meaning if they are not cautious of infections, they could temporarily lose most of the staff. The ACCESS staffing fell to below 50% when more than half of the staff members needed to quarantine. 

These organizations also faced limitations when offering housing to survivors. 

ACCESS has 18 beds across four emergency apartments where domestic abuse survivors can be housed. Pre-COVID-19, ACCESS would place two unrelated adults in one room. To keep survivors safe, each household gets its own room and bathroom.

This created rigidity in housing survivors, Cody said. ACCESS set up long-term hotel agreements starting in December and will begin renting a fifth apartment Feb. 5. The staff also added key lock boxes and keypad locks to limit in-person interactions.

The response to these changes has been mixed. 

"For some survivors, it has felt like more dignity. It is private and feels a bit more like checking into a hotel than a facility," Cody wrote in an email. "For others, it feels more disconnected and impersonal."

Across the state, domestic violence shelters never closed, Pingel said, but organizations did shift housing strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, arranging stays in motels and apartment complexes. 

"We obviously did not want to bring a bunch of people into communal housing," Pingel said. "For those first few months (shelters) were available to a survivor who had the most barriers and the most needs."

Since demand for services has increased, shelters are being used more now, Pingel said. Masks are required and the Fort Dodge shelter set up tables in the living room to encourage social distancing. While survivors would cook their own meals before; staff now cooks for them.

More:Times of trauma, isolation can breed abuse: protecting Iowa victims during the pandemic

Increased needs paired with financial hardship ahead

While stretching staff to meet increased needs, ACCESS could have financial troubles on the horizon, Cody said.  

“We’re like a lot of nonprofits. Our fundraising dollars are down significantly,” Cody said. “So we’re currently experiencing a staffing level based on what we’ve previously fundraised, but eventually that’s going to be a bill come due.” 

Another funding stream for ACCESS, the Victims of Crime Act, saw a 25% reduction as it is populated by white-collar crime which has been down, Cody said. This funding source makes up 25% of the ACCESS budget, Cody said.  

“We don’t entirely know what that’s going to mean,” Cody said. “But I know that the Crime Victim Assistance Division and the state, they’re very worried. 

“It’s a little bit scary ahead so far.” 

Looking ahead, Cody fears the eviction moratorium will end, stretching resources thinner, she said. The CDC extended the federal eviction moratorium through March 31. 

More: If you're an Iowan facing eviction, here are some ways to seek help  

“The support systems people are relying on right now are also very fragile,” Cody said. “Their friends and family are also facing financial hardship from the pandemic, so you know maybe a survivor leaves and stays with a friend but that friend's housing is also in jeopardy. It just starts to spiral.” 

Pingel said the Coalition can always use more funding but has found ways to extend every dollar and bring services to survivors. 

"We're still here. Our programs are still available," Pingel said. "But access to more funds is always needed in order to help survivors."

Resources in Iowa for domestic abuse survivors

People can look for key signs of an abusive relationship such as someone’s partner isolating, controlling and monitoring them and extreme levels of jealousy, Bouffard said, though these behaviors don’t always lead to violence.  

Signs of injuries could indicate an abusive relationship but are hard to see while people are distancing due to the pandemic, Bouffard said.  

ACCESS and the Coalition offer housing, food, job search assistance, criminal justice advocacy and more to people looking to escape domestic abuse situations. ACCESS can be reached at 1-855-983-4641 and more information can be found on its website, assaultcarecenter.org. 

The Iowa Victim Service Call Center is available at 1-800-770-1650 or by texting IOWAHELP to 20121. For more information on the Coalition, visit icadv.org. 

People in abusive relationships across the country can visit thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for help. 

Des Moines Register reporter Philip Joens contributed to this article.