It told another 50 it had nowhere for them to go.

Orange County needs a domestic violence shelter, center co-founder Hudson Fuller and other women recently told the county commissioners.

Fuller said 63 women called the private nonprofit Family Violence Prevention Center from last July through January and said they needed a place to live to escape an abusive situation.

The center was able to place two women locally and 11 others - some with five or six children - in Alamance, Chatham and Durham counties, Fuller said. The centers in those counties are often full and try to take their county's residents first.

At a recent county board meeting, Commissioner Mike Nelson asked the county staff research the topic.

"This is an important community need that needs to be met," Nelson said. But government budgets will be tight for several years, and it will take "creative thinking" to come up with the money, he said.

Read more about this story in today's Chapel Hill News and at www.chapelhillnews.com

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