The Emmonak Women’s Shelter, Alaska’s only center for abused women situated in a village, has been open for 34 years. It’s often the only option for women trying to escape violence.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that the shelter is running out of funds and is most likely going to close by the end of this summer.
The shelter has shut down before, the paper reports. In 2005 it closed because of lack of funding. It opened again when it was granted $50,000 from a tribal nonprofit organization. Months later it won it’s first federal grant.
It is reported that staff members have cut their salaries and started to conserve heating fuel to save money. It’s a difficult task when the temperature drops to 10 degrees in April.
Lenora Hootch, the shelter’s director, said that they have applied for Federal grants, but they won’t know if they have been funded until September.
