The Southern Ohio Task Force on Domestic Violence is seeking public donations to help them complete construction on a new Domestic Violence Shelter on Grant Street in Portsmouth.

The Task Force has been in its current building for at 20 years and they’ve run out of spaces to grow. A new shelter was something they had always planned to do but could never find enough money.

“We had the county come to us with some money to add to the money that we already had. Even though we weren’t quite there yet financially with the money that the county and the city offered, we couldn’t hardly say no,” said Lou Ann Hoffer, co-director of the Southern Ohio Task Force on Domestic Violence.

The new shelter is being built on Grant Street in Portsmouth; it doubles the size of their current shelter and it is handicapped-accessible (the current shelter is not). Design bid was awarded to architect Jim Allen, and construction bid to RJ Construction.

Typically the location of the shelter is supposed to be kept secret to protect the people who are living there to escape a threatening situation. The new building, however, will have increased security features, and Hoffer hopes their newly public building will also mean increased public awareness.

“We’ll continue to provide the same services we provide now, with the crisis hotline and the court advocacy, and the emergency temporary safe house shelter, but we are hoping that having a public facility we will no longer have to hide where it’s at and be able to invite people in. We’re hoping to add services. We’re hoping to add some workshops and just be able to provide more services to the community,” Hoffer said.

Over the years, she said, they’ve seen the needs of the community change, and the new shelter will be better designed to serve those needs.

“In the time we’ve been here, we’ve seen a shift more from the need for shelter to the need for services and for outreach services and for court services and possibly evening shifting it to preventive services,” Hoffer said.

The new shelter will consolidate all of their public services under one roof for easy access and cooperation. Hoffer said the new building should be complete within maybe two-months

Even with funding assistance by the city and the county, Hoffer said the Task Force still needs additional donations to help reach their goal.

“We’re getting $75,000 from the county and $25,000 from the city through the stimulus funds and block grant. We couldn’t hardly turn that down because that might go away and not come back. We are looking at a shortfall of about $75,000. We are currently arranging with American Savings Bank for some financing, but we’d like to raise money in the community to close that gap as much as possible because we don’t want to have that debt hanging over us,” Hoffer said.

The Task Force is soliciting charitable donations from past supporters and possible new supporters. Dever and Company CPAs in Portsmouth are doing their part also by soliciting donations from its clients.

Anyone who would like to make a donation to the Southern Ohio Task Force on Domestic Violence can mail it to P.O. Box 754, Portsmouth, Ohio, 45662. The Task Force is an agency of the United Way.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235, or e-mail rottney@heartlandpublications.com.