NAPLES PRESS: The Shelter helps people escaping from harm
By Therese McDevitt
Collier County domestic violence 911 calls up 10% in 2024
The 1,572 red dots on this map of Collier County tell a disturbing story.
Each dot represents a 911 call reporting domestic violence in 2024; a call for help from someone facing abusive behavior in a home they share with a partner, spouse or other family member.
And one thing becomes immediately apparent when looking at the map: The calls come from every area, from the nicest neighborhoods in Naples to Marco Island, to Ave Maria, Immokalee and more rural areas of the county.
According to statistics from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and The Shelter for Abused Women & Children in Naples, the 1,572 calls received in 2024 represent a 10.6% increase from the 1,421 calls received in 2023.
The numbers are even more sobering when considering that only half of all domestic violence victims report the abuse to law enforcement, according to CCSO.
Factors leading to increase in calls
While rapid population growth could account at least in part for the percentage increase in domestic violence calls, Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk sees other factors at work, as well — including lingering emotional effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our population has been growing pretty significantly over the last half-dozen years, particularly through the pandemic,” Rambosk said in a phone interview. “That certainly plays a part in all the calls for service that we get.
“The other thing, too, is once we got out of the pandemic, everybody was carrying, I think, their frustrations with them throughout the pandemic. I think that could be also a part of this.” Rambosk said the increase in calls could also be due to increased awareness in the community because of the preventive programs CCSO partners on with The Shelter for Abused Women & Children — and he thinks the number could be even higher without those programs.
“Over the years we have had a very preventative strategy working together with the Shelter,” Rambosk said. “They take a very strong preventative position working together with the community, working together with law enforcement, the sheriff’s office and city police departments.
“I actually think we would be a lot higher [in number of calls] if we hadn’t been so proactive with the Shelter.”
He said the increase in calls “reminds law enforcement that with as much as we are doing in this community — and we’ve got a lot of very proactive approaches to reducing and eliminating domestic violence — there should be none. Our goal would be zero domestic violence victims.”
Rambosk pointed to one outreach program as an example of a partnership with law enforcement and the Shelter that encourages victims to come forward, with door hangers placed by volunteers with brochures about the Shelter and other resources in areas of the county with high numbers of reported calls.
“My hope is that with all of that community engagement by law enforcement and volunteers, that we’re actually getting more potential victims to come forward and be comfortable with reporting the potential for domestic violence, either to us in law enforcement or to the Shelter, and I think we’ve seen both of those things,” Rambosk said.
Calls are up — but Shelter occupancy is down
The Shelter for Abused Women & Children, which opened its first emergency shelter in a four-plex in East Naples in 1988, now operates two 60-bed emergency facilities: the Beau Venturi Home in Naples, built in 2002 to serve victims of domestic violence; and the Shelly Stayer Shelter in Immokalee, built in 2020 to serve victims of human trafficking and domestic violence.
In addition to the two petfriendly shelters in Naples and Immokalee, the Shelter also offers nine transitional living cottages for survivors — which can include men affected by domestic violence — who need additional support for up to two years. It also offers outreach services; school-based prevention programs; and training classes for businesses and agencies throughout Collier County to help recognize signs of domestic violence and build awareness of the Shelter.
With an annual operating budget of $9 million, the Shelter provides all services free of charge.
Linda Oberhaus, who has served as CEO of the Shelter since 2007, said that while the number of calls reporting domestic violence was up in 2024, occupancy at both of the Shelter’s emergency facilities is down.
In an interview after the 2024 numbers were announced by CCSO, Oberhaus said there would typically be about 500 people coming through the Shelter each year.
“On any given day, we would have an average of 40 people in a 60-bed shelter, but our numbers have gone way down at both of our shelters,” Oberhaus said. “And we can speculate why the numbers would have gone down, but I think it may have something to do with the political climate. We’re seeing it in both our shelters at this point. Victims need to feel safe coming here; they need to know that we’re a safe place.”
Asked about the influence of the current political climate and how it might contribute to making victims of domestic violence more reticent about seeking help, Oberhaus said it could come down to fear.
“I think they’re afraid of their partners,” she said. “They’re probably afraid of their families, probably afraid of the system … Just given the political climate and the demonstration of violence against women or violence in general in our communities, I think it really has emboldened perpetrators who believe that, you know, if the highest levels of our government can get away with their own violence against women, then why shouldn’t they?”
Oberhaus said that while the reported number of domestic violence calls is high, based on statistics from the Bureau of Justice CCSO projects a minimum of 2,012 unreported incidents.
“Another really compelling part of the [Collier County] maps is that when you look at the research, the data shows that only about half of all victims ever call the police,” Oberhaus said. “So, if only half of all victims are calling police in domestic violence incidents, then this number is likely well over 3,000.”
She said she is concerned with the drop in Shelter occupancy while the number of reports is increasing.
“We know definitively based on this math, with 1,421 calls to law enforcement [increasing] to 1,572 calls to law enforcement in a oneyear snapshot, and our numbers are down by like a third,” Oberhaus said. “What that says to me is that there’s a higher incidence of domestic violence and that victims are choosing to stay in violent homes, maybe out of fear. I think that would probably be an indicator.”
Building awareness of safe options
With occupancy declining, how is the Shelter working to expand awareness of its programs — and convince survivors it is a safe place to go to seek refuge from an abusive partner?
Most immediately, an advocate in the Shelter’s InVEST program reaches out directly to individuals identified by law enforcement as being in potentially lethal situations. The Shelter advocate reviews police reports looking for “red flags” including strangulation, being battered while pregnant, use of a weapon or a verbal threat of death.
“[The advocate] will make immediate contact to reach that victim, to let that victim know that the Shelter is here and that we offer services that she might be interested in receiving,” Oberhaus said. “It could be shelter, it could be outreach services, it could just be safety planning over the phone. The most critical part is that they know that we’re here in the event that they do need us, if they need our support or if they need to come and get safe shelter.”
Oberhaus said the Shelter also uses a three-tiered approach to building awareness, including a prevention team that works in elementary, middle and high schools; a community education and training advocate who provides professional training to local hospitals, law enforcement and businesses — including hairdressers; and a communications campaign through social media and local and regional print and broadcast media.
For example, she said, the school prevention team uses a variety of age-appropriate programs on subjects including teen dating, violence, healthy relationships and “expecting respect.”
“In some cases, many cases, the kids go home and talk to mom and dad, or mom mainly, about what they learned in school, and we’ve been able to get families into the Shelter as a result of the child going home and sharing that what’s happening in the home isn’t OK and that there’s shelter available to them,” Oberhaus said.
Those who seek refuge at the Shelter receive shelter, food, clothing, counseling and therapy, court advocacy, legal services, safety planning and a variety of other programs, all at no charge. A typical stay at the Shelter is a minimum of six weeks, with an option for additional time if necessary.
The Shelter is pet-friendly, to encourage victims not to remain in an abusive situation over concerns of leaving a family pet behind.
The Shelter’s nine transitional living cottages are offered to families selected either from the emergency shelter or the outreach program.
“They can stay in the cottages for up to two years while they’re working on their goals,” Oberhaus said. “They could be going back to school, trying to improve their employment and wages, trying to increase their credit score. We have an advocate specifically assigned to the transitional living program who works on goals for each individual family who resides in those cottages.”
Additional information on the Shelter’s programs can be found at naplesshelter.org. The Shelter’s 24-hour crisis hotline is 239.775.1101.
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ONE SURVIVOR’S STORY
“I tried looking for help because someone at work told me, ‘I see you suffer a lot, and you’re crying and don’t say anything to anybody.’ So, she told me about this place, and she said, ‘You can speak with somebody, at least talk.’ And in one situation, he hurt me so bad. And my friend at work saw me and said, ‘I’m going to make the call for you.’ Then I called again and they [the Shelter] said to come and I would be safe and secure. And since that day, the ladies over here, they’re so kind. And I feel safe since that day.”
She sought refuge at the Shelter after her husband pushed her out of the house without her children. She was eventually able to reunite with her children and take them to the Shelter also. After their initial stay, the family was selected to move into one of the transitional living cottages while she completed a certification program that allowed her to advance in her work. She graduated from the program on May 10.
“It was like an amazing dream, because I never thought, after the situation happened, I never thought I would be able to do it, with having nothing to start life again. They showed me this program, and this house with furniture and everything. It was like an amazing dream for me and for my kids, because they have their own rooms with their own beds.”
She said she is grateful to the Shelter for making her feel independent and “brave to stay out of that situation.” Her dream is to own a home for herself and her children.
The Naples Press spoke with a current participant in the Shelter’s transitional living program who is living in one of the cottages with her two children. For security, her name and other identifying details are not being used. She spoke about her experience with domestic violence and what the Shelter has meant to her and her children as she rebuilds her life.
“I lived for 14 years in a very toxic relationship. He is a narcissistic person and wants to be in control of everything. But at the beginning, I didn’t notice it, until it was too late, and I was feeling a lot of frustration because he was making me feel guilty all the time.”
She finally decided to reach out for help after hearing about The Shelter for Abused Women & Children from a colleague at work.
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2024 ESTIMATED COST OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN COLLIER COUNTY
Domestic violence doesn’t just take a physical and emotional toll on victims and their families. The Shelter for Abused Women & Children and CCSO provided 2024 estimated financial costs of domestic violence in Collier County totaling $38.3 million:
- Law enforcement: $24.1 million
- Medical estimates: Physical injury costs, $6.3 million; mental health services costs, $3.2 million, for a total of $9.5 million
- Local business: 2,376 victimizations resulting in 19,224 lost workdays at an hourly wage of $30.29 for a total of $4.7 million.
