Leangela Frazier remembers when she no longer had a stable place to live. The 39-year-old single mother of four had left a difficult relationship and was bouncing between couches. “I always kept a roof over my kids’ head but after that situation, I had to take all four of my kids and go,” Frazier says.
A friend pointed her to Women’s Empowerment, the Sacramento nonprofit that helps women experiencing homelessness rebuild their lives. After attending an orientation, she was approved for the program and committed to nine weeks of intensive classes. That difficult relationship had become abusive and left Frazier essentially homeless if not for Women’s Empowerment.
In 2023, California police fielded more than 160,000 calls related to domestic violence — about 18 calls every hour — according to the Public Policy Institute of California. That is down from 2001, when police responded to more than 198,000 calls, or nearly 23 every hour. However, the number of domestic violence incidents has remained between 18 and 19 calls per hour since 2017…