Bluffview Place to offer refuge for survivors of domestic violence (+video)

When dignitaries for StepStone and Mennonite Housing break ground Wednesday morning on new transitional housing for victims of domestic violence, Dung Kimble’s thoughts will turn to Debrie Jefferson, as they often do.

Jefferson, 26, was staying in transitional housing provided by StepStone with her three young children when she was shot to death in her bedroom by her boyfriend on Dec. 2, 2006. A house meant to provide protection and safety from her abuser ended up being where she was killed.

Unable to get help from neighbors, Jefferson’s oldest child flagged down a passing motorist in the street, saying she couldn’t wake up her mother.

“To this day, it affects me – no one would open their door to her in the middle of winter time,” said Kimble, program director for StepStone.

“That really was the turning point for me, personally,” Kimble said. “Could we have prevented this if the family had been closer to us?”

Bluffview Place, a $5 million project scheduled for completion next summer, will provide 28 units for domestic violence survivors in the Hilltop neighborhood of south Wichita near Via Christi Hospital St. Joseph. Units will have up to four bedrooms and will be in three buildings on a campus that includes a community building with a kitchen, offices and meeting space.

“It’s going to be huge,” said Kit Lambertz, StepStone’s executive director.

“What we have now is scattered housing throughout town,” Lambertz said. “It will be much bigger and it will be all together and therefore, we believe, more safe.”

The project is beginning as Wichita endures a spike in the number of homicides linked to domestic violence. Eight of the 26 homicides in the city so far this year are connected to domestic violence, according to police. Only three were in 2014.

The increase in domestic violence homicides comes as no surprise to those who work with victims.

“Lethality is increasing” in domestic violence cases, Kimble said.

Victims are in greater danger of serious harm or even death than in years past, officials have said. That makes projects such as Bluffview Place all the more important.

Experience has shown families do better when close to staff and others who know what life for someone who suffered abuse is like.

StepStone currently has 14 single-family homes throughout Wichita serving as transitional housing for survivors and their families, so Bluffview will greatly increase the number of units in StepStone’s inventory.

Some of the houses in StepStone’s inventory are being sold and duplexes closer to the Bluffview complex are being purchased so tenants can more easily access assistance and services, officials said.

But even with the additions, Lambertz said, need will still easily outpace capacity. StepStone had to turn away 42 families in need of transitional housing in the first few months of this year due to a lack of space, she said.

“We know the need is much greater than we’re able to address at this point,” Lambertz said.

The project is being financed through a combination of tax credits from the state agency Kansas Housing Resources Corp. and financing from Midwest Housing Equity Group, Horizon Bank and FHLBank of Topeka, officials said.

Seven houses in Hilltop are being razed to make room for Bluffview Place, said Byron Adrian, president and CEO of Mennonite Housing. Nine lots in the lower-income neighborhood, originally built to provide housing for aircraft workers during World War II, will be used in the project.

Mennonite Housing will serve as property manager once the complex is completed, Adrian said. Tenants at Bluffview could one day move into homes built by Mennonite Housing.

Other expansions

Bluffview Place is being built even as other agencies who provide help to domestic violence survivors are in various stages of expanding their capacity.

On Oct. 19, the Sisters of St. Joseph convent in southeast Wichita began accepting referrals from Harbor House, a shelter for domestic violence survivors, and Anthony Family Shelter, which provides assistance for homeless families.

The convent, rechristened The Mount, has 14 rooms available now and will add another 12 in January. An additional 12 rooms will be available about three months after that, Catholic Charities officials said.

Once new quarters for the nuns now living in the convent are completed in 2018, another 20 rooms will become available.

The Mount will serve as temporary housing for as much as three months, depending on how long it takes for tenants to find a place to live and address obstacles such as transportation or child care, officials have said. Their status will be reviewed every 30 days to monitor progress.

Bluffview Place could be a destination for residents of the Mount, Lambertz said. Because StepStone is not affiliated with any shelter, she said, Bluffview will be able to accept referrals from anywhere.

A fence will surround Bluffview Place, overlapping security cameras will monitor the grounds and tenants will be issued key fobs so they can enter. One of the complex’s living units will be set aside for a law enforcement officer to live there and assist with security, officials said.

“There’s no way we can keep it confidential, but we can secure it,” Kimble said. “We’re going to be able to provide more of a sense of security.”

Crisis shelters typically aid survivors for 30 to 45 days before they move on. At Bluffview, tenants will be able to stay for as much as two years, Kimble said.

That’s enough time “to really try to make difference and make a dent in the cycle of violence,” Kimble said.

When she started with StepStone nine years ago, Kimble said, she was one of those who would hear of a domestic violence case and think, “Why doesn’t she just leave? How hard can it be to leave?”

She has since learned that a combination of many factors prevents survivors from leaving the abuser, but the primary roadblock is commonly finances.

“They can’t afford to go out and get a home or apartment by themselves and be able to make it,” she said.

Bluffview Place will help address that, officials say. Not only will it provide a physical place to stay, Kimble said, but it can be an important source of emotional support as well.

“I’m not saying that we’re going to be able to keep everybody safe over here, but there’s going to be more of a sense of security and stability,” Kimble said. “If the victim-survivor needs help, she or he can go next door and talk to somebody who really gets what they’re going through and has walked in their shoes.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 6:22 AM with the headline "Bluffview Place to offer refuge for survivors of domestic violence (+video)."