With Permission
Rep. Lonnie Reed with Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Emily Granelli, Roberta Cook and Liz Smith from BHcare, Inc.
BHcare, a regional safe house in Branford for women and children who are the victims of domestic violence, has received $310,025 in state bonding for plumbing renovations and reconstruction of kitchens in a facility long in need of repairs.
Rep. Lonnie Reed (D‑Branford) and Rep. Pat Widlitz (D‑Branford and Guilford.) announced the state funding for the Branford facility after the state Bond Commission met Friday in Hartford last week. Widlitz, who is retiring this year, is the co-chair of the state Bonding Commission and co-chairs the legislature’s Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee. Reed serves on the Finance committee and is the chair of the Energy & Technology Committee.
“We are so grateful to the governor and the Bond Commission for recognizing the urgency of BHcare’s need for a new safe house to help protect, comfort and heal women and children who are victims of domestic violence,” Reed said in prepared remarks.
BHcare also received $190,000 for the purchase of a facility at an undisclosed location in the Greater New Haven area, possibly on the shoreline.
The funding to help victims of domestic violence came as victims of domestic violence held a press conference in Hartford to draw attention to the fact that the state has seen an average of 14 domestic violence homicides annually since 2000. Click here to read the story.
Earlier this week, U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy introduced a bill they said would give states incentives to keep guns out of the hands of those who perpetrate domestic violence.
“BHcare’s umbrella system for Domestic Violence Services for 19 towns in our region received, in the last year alone, 4,000 crisis calls to the 24/7 hotline and provided at least 200 women and 180 children with safe housing and recovery counseling. A new safe house is critical,” she added.
In 2012 BHcare became the new entity for Harbor Health Services, Inc.in Branford and the Birmingham Group Health Services, Inc.in Ansonia. Branford and Ansonia are now the designated local mental health authorities for the 19 towns and New Haven.
BHcare, Inc. in Branford provides domestic violence services for the following towns: Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Branford, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, West Haven and Woodbridge.
Reed said more towns are now in the BHcare loop than before because of “hideous issues and increases” of domestic violence.
Widlitz said “these funds will provide much needed renovations to their Branford facility including the purchase of a generator to insure the safety of their residents during power outages.”
She said she was delighted that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy “has placed this important item on today’s agenda! BHcare provides such an important service helping those who are most vulnerable in our community.”
The governor said in prepared remarks that “Domestic violence is an incredibly difficult problem, one that requires interventions at every level — at home, in the organizations like BHcare, Inc. that offer critical support for victims in their time of need.”
BHcare is licensed by the state Department of Public Health and provides a comprehensive range of recovery-based psychiatric and substance abuse services, along with domestic violence and family mediation for adults and children.
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This is a good investment but an utterly stupid way of paying for it. This same bond commission of which Widlitz, Reed and Malloy are so proud have kept Connecticut in the top slot for per capita debt and in this one meeting approved some $750 million in more debt. Yesterday within hours of this photo opp, Fitch said it was keeping the negative rating on Connecticut debt because of its unstable finances, budget gimmicks and unbalanced budgets without using one time revenues, raiding the transportation fund and delaying debt payments.