But the Safe Passage Program has come under fire from an anti-polygamy group that contends federal grant money is "not being appropriately spent to help women and children who have left polygamy."
Program administrators say that despite a slow start - the state got the federal grant in June 2004 - money is being devoted to those who want to leave the polygamous life.
The Safe Passage Program has received five or six calls from women seeking housing, food or legal assistance so far this month, continuing an increase in requests logged since January, said Coleen Staples, grant administrator.
As of December, the most recent data available, the program had spent $43,624 to help nearly 170 women and children. About $174,000 had been spent on staff salaries, equipment and other costs associated with the program, according to information provided in response to a GRAMA request by The Salt Lake Tribune.
That leaves much of the $700,000 grant unspent, which administrators attribute to a slow start getting the program going as it hired staff, and encountering more difficulty than expected "piercing the veil surrounding polygamist communities."
"No one has done this before and other agencies didn't have any information or advice on how to help victims from polygamous communities," said Paul Murphy, spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.
Most requests have come from southern Utah, the region that is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The state learned Wednesday that its initial grant has been extended through June 2007, which will allow the program to use the remaining funds. Officials expect to get word soon on whether a new grant request filed in January, seeking $893,954, has been approved.
A copy of that request, obtained by the Tribune on Wednesday, shows the state estimates there are 50,000 polygamists living in Utah and northern Arizona. That number is much higher than indicated by other surveys and even contradicted elsewhere in the document, which puts the figure at about 25,000 in Utah.
"Polygamist families tend to live in isolation, marry at a young age, have large numbers of dependent children, are low income and live in a highly male-dominated society," the request states.
It also underscores the difficulty officials have in reaching out to polygamous communities and the fear victims often have of seeking help - recounting stories of women who say they endured physical abuse and were "threatened with eternal damnation if they left."
The program has and will continue to target women and children living in Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., home of the FLDS church. The grant request notes the group lives "the most restrictive and isolated lifestyle."
From June 2004 to May 2005, the program served 30 women and 50 children - a number apparently matched in the subsequent seven months. A domestic violence hot line received just 16 inquiries (see box).
Based on a sampling of polygamous enclaves, the state found that families range from 15 to 50 children "per unit," with an average of 28.5 children per plural family, according to the report.
The Division of Child and Family Services plans to assume primary responsibility for the grant, which was initiated by the Attorney General's Office. Additions to the program include providing funds for Mohave County, Ariz., to hire a deputy who will be dedicated to Colorado City.
The Attorney General's office and DCFS are among several partners in the program; others include the Utah Legal Services, the DOVE Center, the Family Support Center and the Utah Domestic Violence Council.
The program and its associated Safety Net Committee has been repeatedly criticized by the activist group Tapestry Against Polygamy, which claims the program allows people sympathetic to polygamists to serve on the committee and has failed to help victims of abuse in such communities.
Tapestry claims federal funds are being used to "enable polygamy and its crimes."
"This money is not being appropriately spent to help women and children who have left polygamy," said Vicky Prunty, Tapestry's executive director, in a news release Saturday.
According to an Associated Press report, Tapestry board member Andrea Moore-Emmett said, "There's not one dime they can show us that they've used to help women and children leaving."
The group also claims the state has refused to help some victims, a charge Murphy refutes. "We have not turned anyone away because of a lack of funds," he said. "We have turned some away because they didn't fit the criteria for this grant."
