Clients and former staff of the Verde Valley Sanctuary, which operates the valley’s only domestic violence shelter in Cottonwood, have been reporting multiple instances of ongoing neglect and verbal abuse at the shelter in increasing numbers during the past year.
Staffers have connected the decline in the shelter’s services with the arrival of Executive Director Jessye Johnson and subsequent replacement of longtime employees with new hires.
Reports of Abuse
The first report of ongoing abuse at the shelter was made by former VVS Executive Director Nicole Florisi, a Jerome police officer and therapist, to recently-fired Community Enterprise Director Barry Maketansky in October 2023, which Maketansky and Community Development Director Tracey McConnell subsequently provided to VVS board president Dave Hanke.*
“In the past six months, I have been contacted by seven former VVS clients regarding their concerns about the shelter,” Florisi wrote. “Five of the seven told me they would rather be homeless than stay there and all seven of them told me they felt marginalized and were scared of repercussions from staff … Three of them told me they mailed letters to VVS, but have never been contacted by the board to address their concerns. That concerns me on whether or not the information ever made it to the board.”
“The fact that clients prefer homelessness to getting basic needs met is extremely concerning to me,” Florisi added; she never received a reply from the board.
In June, Florisi sent a second report to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.
“Clients have reported being afraid of staff as they are emotionally abused and subjected to staff modeling abusive behavior,” Florisi wrote. “Some of these clients have reported filing grievances with the VVS board that have gone unanswered … Clients are no longer provided with grievance forms. Those who requested were told they would be forced out if a complaint was made.”
“My biggest concern is that Jessye [Johnson] is part of your organization; this will be overlooked,” Florisi added.
ACESDV CEO Jenna Panas replied stating that “ACESDV has visited the program and has not seen anything of concern.”
Yavapai County Public Information Officer David McAtee stated that county health services “does not have any violations for any organization under the Verde Valley Sanctuary name.”
Cottonwood public information officer Tricia Lewis said that “the city is not aware of such issues/complaints.”
“I started getting phone calls here and there,” Florisi said. “Clients were telling me these pretty horrible things … What I’ve encouraged clients to do, although it is a struggle with the power dynamic, is report it themselves … It doesn’t hold the same weight coming from me.”
“I’ve had clients tell me they’ve filed grievances for the board that have been unanswered, that the board has claimed they’ve never gotten the mail,” Florisi added. “I’ve heard it from too many separate individuals that I am really, really concerned. As a police officer … I wouldn’t send somebody to the Sanctuary.”
“This is the first time I’m hearing about this,” Johnson claimed of the previous complaints on July 1. “I’m actually really stunned to hear about all these claims.”
Grievances
Sommer Davis was a case manager at the Cottonwood shelter for six years. She recalled having a client ask her about VVS’ grievance procedure shortly before she was fired.
Davis reported that before she was terminated from VVS, she asked to see clients’ grievance forms but were told were they had been removed from client records. “I don’t know where that went afterwards. I lost my job that week,” Davis said.
“The people that are currently living there, they are so fearful of losing their housing,” Davis said. “The people that are in shelter, they are afraid to come forward. They are so fearful of making a report because of retaliation.”
“Grievance forms would not be removed from client files,” Johnson said. “Grievance forms are placed around the property for clients to access.”
When clients report complaints to the board, “the board just throws it all back to the [executive director] … and they talk very foul about them. There’s no compassion,” Davis said.
As Davis became increasingly concerned over administrator’ treatment of clients, she began saving examples of such text messages from her supervisor, which she provided for this story.
“I did not condone nor support the way staff treats clients there,” Davis said. “I still work in the same field, and I hear it from women that come into the counseling office, or clients that I do DCS visits with, everywhere.”
“The behavior is abusive. It’s not kind, compassionate care,” said Community Development Director Tracey McConnell, who was recently terminated after voicing objections about the closure of the VVS Thriftique store in Cottonwood. “The care that our clients are supposed to get is the opposite of what we share in the public … I found myself in a position recently where the information that had been accumulated from different clients … that I couldn’t tell the truth anymore about our client services. It’s not true. What we were there to do originally is not happening any longer … When people ask questions, I should be able to answer them truthfully.”
Davis alleged the shelter discriminates on the basis of employment, familial and disability status: “If you are not the cookiecutter ideal candidate, you are not getting into shelter. They like candidates that are employed, because they want to know that you have a plan to get out of there or won’t be there all day … They like it if you don’t have any kids … They weren’t even going to take someone in a wheelchair.”
Davis said prospective clients are also pre-screened about their health and behaviors: “They hear one trigger word and now, all of a sudden, all beds are full.”
First Client
JoAnne Schaible was recently a resident of the Cottonwood shelter for approximately three months. Schaible was kicked out of the shelter on the evening of July 1 with her two grandchildren. Maketansky said he has known her for 40 years.
About six days after she was admitted with her grandchildren, Schaible and her grandson had a brief conversation with another resident who was experiencing an emotional crisis and was subsequently confronted by a member of the shelter staff and warned she could be “exited” from the facility.
“I started sobbing hysterically cause I didn’t even know what the heck was going on,” Schaible said. “Then I wanted her to let me out of the office and she wouldn’t let me out. I asked her three times to let me out the door. She not only wouldn’t let me out but then blocked the door with her body and put her hand on the doorknob so I couldn’t get by. I don’t even know what she said after that because I was so hysterical. She finally opened the door and I went straight to my room.”
“Ruthann still gives me trouble. That was domestic violence, what she did to me,” Schaible added.
“Our policy is not to discuss HR matters,” Johnson said, and refused to confirm the name of the staffer Schaible provided. “What you’re specifically referencing I don’t know anything about.”
Maketansky said he had forwarded Schaible’s texts to Johnson, who stated she would discuss the issue with the staffer.
“When they don’t feel like going to the grocery store, there is no food,” Schaible continued. “Two weeks they wouldn’t shop for us. Not only would they not shop for us, those of us with food stamps, they wouldn’t drive us to the store to get our own food … They’re supposed to have many, but they sure weren’t going to spend any of it feeding us.”
“I can assure you that our clients are not going hungry,” Johnson said. “We grocery shop once a week … that’s a baseless complaint.”
“If we want anything, there’s no cheese or lunch meat, we have to ask for it,” Schaible said. “They have it, but they don’t put it in our refrigerators. They keep it locked up in the garage … We have to beg for it … It makes you not want to ask for anything because you know they’re going to say no.”
“It is not kept under lock and key,” Johnson said of the shelter’s food supplies.
“I asked to go to the food store? No. I asked to take [my grandson] to the doctor? No. They will not drive you anywhere,” Schaible said.
“They told JoAnne to talk to her insurance company,” Maketansky said. “We have two vehicles … We had a woman at the store in Sedona that needed to get to the shelter.”
He said the staffer told the client to take the bus to Cottonwood and how to walk from the bus station to the shelter.
“We provide transportation to clients,” Johnson said. “We have limited staff, so there may be occasions when we don’t have the staffing to take them places, so we will offer them bus tickets.”
“There are times when staff doesn’t want to do it,” Davis said. “They want to sit there and do nothing.”
“Another thing they’re supposed to have is therapy,” Schaible said. “They offer nothing as far as therapy.” Six weeks after Schaible arrived, clients were also told that they no longer had case managers. She said she didn’t know she had one because she had not been contacted. After she left five messages, a legal staffer promised to arrive the following Monday but never did.
“Never heard from them again. I can’t get any help. I’ve finally come to realize they’re not going to help me,” she said.
Schaible reported sewage overflowing into one of the bathrooms and ants infesting the kitchen and provided photos of the bathroom.
“Our shelter is in excellent condition,” Johnson said.
Schaible said VVS exited a young woman on June 28. “She was crying so hard … instead of finding her help or putting her in another shelter, she went into the street,” she said.
“We don’t make a habit of kicking anybody to the street,” Johnson said. “I would be shocked to learn that that was the case.”
“I’m sitting here at [a] motel, and I’m about to pay for as many nights as I can for somebody that was thrown out yesterday, so that’s untrue,” said former VVS donor Jo Stone, president of Northern Arizona Restorative Justice, said the following day.
Davis also reported that one client currently running from an abuser was evicted from VVS’ transitional house. “If they fight back, then they get kicked out,” Davis said.
Maketansky stated that when another client attempted to help a resident experiencing distress, she was warned by a staffer that she could be exited from the shelter.
“Not a week ago a woman took her two kids and they’re living in a tent,” Schaible said. “She’d rather live in a tent than live at that Sanctuary … I’ve thought of it myself.”
In addition to former client JoAnne Schaible who spoke on the record for this story, two other clients were willing to speak about conditions at the VVS shelter, but we have withheld their names for their protection from domestic violence.
Second Client
The second client said, “In general, the rules are not enforced.” She said one staffer, who Schaible also identified by name, “is unpleasant to most residents and did not handle it well when a resident was experiencing a mental health issue … [the staffer] even threatened that I could be exited from the program for bringing the issue to her and the sick resident’s attention. In an incident where a resident lashed out at me and another roommate, [the staffer] acted slowly and with little compassion. My life and the other roommate’s life were threatened and there were threats of violence which should have been handled immediately … It took them a week to exit the resident after violating multiple rules and incidents with various residents. [The staffer] refuses to print documents for residents and often says she doesn’t know how to do things but doesn’t ask to be trained on how to do so from what I’ve seen. There often are not enough groceries for both houses.”
“Our policy is not to discuss HR matters,” Johnson said when refusing to confirm the name of the staffer Schaible and the second client complained about.
Third Client
“Very little food. No counseling. No transportation,” the third client said. “No case management after first intake. We’re on our own looking for housing. Using the bus or walking are the only options; in the heat, it’s very challenging … No transportation to medical appointments or grocery shopping. You have to take the initiative to get help with a problem or need. Can’t use the computers, no online service … Advocates don’t take the initiative for even a weekly meeting.”
Counting Heads
“Normally the shelter is full and we can house anywhere from 28 to 32 people, but I think it’s getting around that we’re not a safe place to be,” McConnell said, adding that the shelter population is “starting to plummet.”
Johnson said on July 1 that there were “over 20” clients at the shelter that week. McConnell reported that there were 12 people there in the morning, reduced to nine after Schaible’s expulsion with her two grandchildren.
“The shelter report is based on what the shelter manager tells her [Johnson],” Maketansky said. “She doesn’t include the shelter as part of her job description.”
“My office is actually right at the shelter,” Johnson said. The executive director’s office is located on the same property as the shelter.
‘Startling’
“I’m seeing what they’ve done to the sanctuary, and all the good that the sanctuary did for all of those years, and have watched over the last two years to see all kinds of problems,” Stone said. “It just appalls me.”
“We never had client complaints,” Maketansky said. “The difference between 28 years ago and the last two years is startling.”
“I just want somebody to care about the clients,” Florisi said. “They’re being traumatized by the people who should help them, and I just wish I could tell everyone there’s strength in numbers and reporting … When enough people band together and talk about these horrible things that are happening, you can’t silence everybody.”
“We want to save Verde Valley Sanctuary,” McConnell said. “We don’t want to do any harm, but this information has to be known in order to unseat the leadership, the executive director primarily, because we have so much evidence of mistreatment, hostile work environments, shelter falling apart, and she’s not doing anything to change that.”
McConnell said it had been difficult to get state agencies to take client complaints seriously. “What other recourse do we have but make it known to the public in a constructive fashion?” she asked.
VVS clients who wish to speak out about their treatment at the shelter can contact ombudsman@azdes.gov.
VVS Board Response
We attempted to contact VVS Board President David Hanke for comment five times, but he did not return calls for this series before publication. Hanke added his name on July 12 to a email written on July 11 by a consulting firm, responding to this series. We have asked for clarification of several of the statements that in the email, but Hanke has not responded to those questions nor provided specifics by press time. We anticipate a followup story when Hanke provides those clarifications and specifics.
*Editor’s note: The print version of this story stated that Maketansky and McConnell presented the memo to the VVS board. Maketansky clarified that the memo was presented specifically to Hanke.
