Women's emergency call needs more money

Created: 06/24/2022, 07:00

By: Hans Moritz

The BRK has a wide range of offers of help for women who have become victims of domestic violence.

© Jan-Philipp Strobel/dpa

The BRK district association in Erding needs more money to be able to protect victims of domestic violence and to be available around the clock for women in need.

Erding - That's why the deficit compensation was not an issue in the district committee.

Instead, an older, long-forgotten dispute about the women's shelter broke out again.

Christian Mader from the district administration reported that the BRK had applied for deficit compensation of 10,500 euros for the women's emergency call in 2021.

There are several reasons for the minus: For better advice for victims of violence, rooms would have had to be rented and technically or digitally upgraded.

In addition, the full-time staff had to be increased to two full positions in order to meet the state requirements and thus the funding requirements.

Because of the pandemic, Mader continued, separate public relations work was necessary.

In addition, there were unplanned expenses for infection and hygiene measures.

Last but not least, the BRK has spent more money on the mobility of the women and children being cared for.

Mader came to the conclusion "that from our point of view the deficit is explained in a comprehensible manner".

In fact, the district does not even incur any additional costs, because due to the pandemic, the "Second Stage" assisted living concept could not be fully used - so that funding for the model project was left over.

As is well known, the BRK not only operates the women's shelter with five places for women and seven for children, but also offers the intervention center in addition to the emergency call and the Second Stage housing project.

In acute cases, she provides quick advice and support and is usually called by the police immediately after domestic violence.

For Helga Stieglmeier (Greens) there was no question that the district would take over the deficit, since the protection and care of victims of violence were essential.

However, she was surprised at the cost development and in this context recalled the termination of the Catholic Women's Social Service (SkF) five years ago because of higher costs than the BRK.

Stieglmeier had always criticized this.

Now the late confirmation of your criticism?

District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (CSU) replied that not only had several years passed, but that the BRK was still acting more economically than the SkF.

In 2017, the SkF at the women's shelter came to a minus of almost 181,000 euros, the BRK four years later to only 90,000 euros.

At the intervention agency, Bayerstorfer compared the deficits of the SkF of 37,500 euros in 2017 with the 33,000 euros at the BRK last year.

In addition, according to the district administrator, there are no comparison options for the emergency call and second stage because they were only added in 2018 and 2019 - already in BRK sponsorship.

Hans