Domestic violence on the rise in oil country

MINOT, N.D. -- The astonishing growth of the oil-fueled western North Dakota economy has provided many opportunities for people from all over to find high-paying jobs in the industry. The accompanying growing pains have also choked city infrastructure and squeezed out much of the traditional way of life there.

One such negative impact on the rise is domestic violence, the Minot Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/15GCTK5 ).

"We really started noticing the numbers going up in 2009," said Lana Bonnet, director of the Family Crisis Shelter in Williston, who has been with the organization since 2006. The shelter offers housing, support and resources for an area of 11,000 square miles and an estimated population base of 30,000 people.

In 2012 the shelter served the needs of 262 victims and 130 victims so far from January to June this year, which is the latest data Bonnet had to look up.

By Bonnet's estimation, the shelter has seen maybe 45 days of non-consecutive vacancies since that year, saying that services have "just been non-stop."

The shelter itself has room for 11 people, all women and children. They assist men, too, but have to put them up in local hotels rather than the shelter itself.

The problem with that, though, is that despite new hotels and motels going up all the time in the area, they're not willing to work with the shelter for reduced rates, Bonnet said, "Because they can get the dollar amount they ask for" from the oil companies or other companies in the area making enough profit to afford the hotels.

The shelter has already spent more than $4,000 from January to June 2013 for hotel needs, but men don't make up a large part of their clientele. Instead, a big portion of their budget goes to relocating out-of-state women back to their hometowns.

"The biggest issue and the reason we send people back home is because there is no affordable housing," Bonnet said. "They come here thinking they could make a better life for themselves and their families."

With apartments still within the upper $2,000 per month to the $3,000 per month range, too many are priced out. And, for the housing contracted to oilfield companies, if there's a problem in the relationship the woman and the children will be the ones who have to leave for the man to continue to work.

Bus fare and other relocation costs incurred by the shelter rose from $2,500 in 2011 to over $13,000 in 2012. Costs are already over $5,000 through June of this year.

"There's more strangulations, there's more violent assaults," Bonnet said. "There's contributing factors. Alcohol, drugs, overcrowding, homeless, we have a lot (of people) living in campers and RVs."

Then the stressors come out like cramped spaces, alcohol usage, crying children all making for an unstable mix.

"I don't know why it's getting more violent, but it is," Bonnet said.

"The first time I sought help was 14 years ago at this shelter," said April Stevens, who was working as the residential supervisor at the shelter at the time of this interview, and had been in the position since April. She has now left the state to start anew somewhere far from the man controlling her life for that whole time. "I left him in February. He pulled a gun on me high on methamphetamine."

The February leave was the final break of four total. She had made it out in May 2012 for a while and even got a good-paying job to support herself and her children until she slipped on a wet floor and damaged her back so badly that she was out of commission for a while and had to come back to him in November for support.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/08/3607295/domestic-violence-on-the-rise.html

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