Committee hearing on legislative bills are off and running, now that the bill introduction period is completed. 715 legislative bills and 15 constitutional amendment proposals were introduced during the ten-day bill introduction period, and now every one of these proposals will receive a public hearing.
Committee hearings are a key part of the legislative process which allows the people of Nebraska to have their voice heard. From January 22nd until March 28th, over a dozen legislative committees will listen to public input on these 735 legislative measures.
This week, Marion and I will participate in hearings on the death penalty (one bill to abolish it and another to introduce a new method of execution) and marriage (two proposals to abolish our state’s laws recognizing marriage as between one man and one woman).
Last week, we kicked off public hearings with a meaningful hearing on LB78, introduced by Senator Eliot Bostar of Lincoln.
LB78 would provide funding assistance to victims and survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. The funding would be available to organizations—like Catholic Charities of Omaha and Catholic Social Services of Southern Nebraska—to help with housing-related services and costs, to ensure that victims and survivors have a safe place to live as they flee violence and abuse.
Catholic Social Services and Catholic Charities both testified at the committee hearing in support of this legislation. What did they have to say?
They testified about the fundamental priority of housing for those fleeing domestic violence and human trafficking. When women and their children flee abuse, they are fleeing into homelessness. While victims of abuse have a place to rest their head at night, it is an unsafe, violent, and life-threatening place to be. The only way out is to leave their home, and hope for a new start elsewhere, even if it means sleeping in their car at night.
Both Catholic Social Services and Catholic Charities also testified about the housing and other critical services they provide to women and children fleeing violence.
Catholic Social Services has been operating St. Gianna’s Women’s Home since 2011. Since then, they have served 270 women. When you add in their children, they have served 676 people. Last year alone, they provided 19,523 “bednights” or nights of shelter. The average stay for a woman who enters St. Gianna’s programming is around one-year.
St. Gianna’s provides each woman and their children a safe and secure environment where they can address the trauma caused by their abuse, with the hope of self-sufficiency and learning to develop healthy relationships.
Since 2023, they have also provided short-term services for those not living at St. Gianna’s, such as financial assistance for rent and utilities and transportation to relocate.
Catholic Charities has provided domestic violence shelter services for over 55 years and is the only dedicated domestic violence shelter in Douglas County. In 2024, they provided 5,000 nights of secure and confidential shelter for women, men, and children facing domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.
They work closely with law enforcement and hospitals, and other agencies, as well as operate a 24/7 domestic violence hotline. Each person served receives holistic care that includes safe and secure shelter, case management, basic supplies, education, food assistance, child programming, and access to mental health therapists.
Each victim is provided with a 28-day stay, and then is helped with housing resources, such as a security deposit, application fee, and rent assistance.
For as hard as these agencies—and others across the state—work to provide safe and secure shelter, the housing needs of victims far exceeds the resources our hard working, sacrificial social services agencies have. But LB78 would help remedy this problem.
LB78 is smart legislation that provides targeted assistance where it’s most needed for domestic violence and human trafficking victims and survivors, and that is housing.
Without housing, victims run back to the life threatening false security of their abusers. But with housing, they can climb out of the homelessness they were forced to flee into. And with safe and secure shelter, victims can begin their journey to restoring their human dignity.
