EDITOR’S NOTE: This column was authored by Colleen Rice is the executive director of the Domestic Violence Shelter, serving Richland County.
The numbers make it clear. There’s a critical need for domestic violence services in Richland County, and a definite economic benefit to the community for providing such support.
The 48 beds at the Domestic Violence Shelter in Mansfield stay constantly full. In 2024, we provided emergency shelter for 143 people, including 59 children.
When one family leaves, there’s barely time to clean the room before the next survivor shows up. The agency’s sexual assault response team served 180 people last year, with advocates assisting survivors of rape and other attacks and helping them navigate the criminal justice system.
Our staff members answered 847 calls on the emergency hotline in 2024 – people facing danger, seeking safety and support, sometimes in the middle of the night.
Here’s another number. A new study from the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, released early in 2025, found that perpetrators of domestic violence cost Ohio more than $1.2 billion every year.
For Richland County, the economic cost of domestic violence totals more than $12.2 million every single year.
Domestic violence does not just cost those directly impacted. There’s a a ripple effect across the entire community – for example, the costs of police response and medical care, or of lost productivity for employers when survivors are injured and miss work.
Employers lose money, spending and productivity go down, children who witness violence or are themselves assaulted deal with the consequences for decades.
Statewide, the largest economic costs inflicted by abusers were physical health care for victims ($264.8 million annually, or 22.9% of the total cost); loss of life ($239.9 million, or 20.8%); and loss of worker productivity ($227.7 million, or 19.7%).
Documenting that economic cost is crucial when federal funding for domestic violence services is unclear, and the Ohio legislature is meeting to set the state budget for 2026-2027.
ODVN is grateful to Gov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost for including $20 million in essential line-item funding for domestic violence services in their proposed budgets.
In Mansfield, it’s easy to see how domestic violence and economic issues are connected.
Our community has a shortage of affordable housing – that’s one reason survivors tend to stay in the emergency shelter for weeks or months.
The United for Alice research study from United Way found that for Richland County, someone would need to earn at least $19 an hour to survive economically.
But many survivors of domestic violence live with an abuser who controls all the money, in a household that survives paycheck to paycheck.
When a survivor can’t earn enough to get by and housing costs keep rising, that fuels a cycle of homelessness – putting survivors and their children increasingly at risk of more violence.
Many survivors of domestic abuse have experienced traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) from being hit in the head, strangled, thrown against a door or a wall – sometimes blacking out more times than they can count.
The impact of those TBIs can be similar to what football players experience, although domestic violence survivors don’t wear helmets.
It can leave them with neurological challenges – difficulty with time management, keeping track of details and problem-solving, so treatment and ongoing support is imperative if they are to be productive workers.
For a community, investing in domestic violence services can pay big economic rewards, helping survivors to find stability – for example, to get job training for careers for which there is a need in the community, such as for licensed practical nursing, and which would pay a living wage.
Helping survivors have the support they need to become self-sufficient, to have the confidence to leave the abusers and find a new path, makes good economic sense.
For Mansfield and all of Ohio, It’s an investment that definitely pays off.