Shelters fight to help survivors amid crisis
Domestic violence shelters in Texas are struggling to meet the immediate basic needs of survivors during the state’s winter crisis and fear the long-term impacts of the natural disaster will result in another spike in rates of abuse.
On top of prolonged periods without heat and power, many shelter facilities have flooded because of broken pipes, according to the Texas Council on Family Violence, a nonprofit that works with shelters across the state and has been in contact with more than 40 during the storm to assess need. All of the organizations the council has been in touch with have limited food and water supplies as grocery store shelves are empty and water boil orders have been issued across the state.
Hundreds of survivors were evacuated from facilities that could no longer shelter them this week, said Gloria Terry, CEO of the nonprofit. More than 100 people were moved from shelters in Arlington, 132 in Dallas and 45 in Beaumont.
The Houston Area Women’s
Center main campus was able to run on a generator during power outages, said the nonprofit’s president and CEO, Emilee Whitehurst. But the shelter had to move clients from one of its Safe Harbor hotels because it lost power and had difficulty getting food to the other location.
Power outages at the homes of advocates who were taking calls forced the center to direct its hotline calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, which was able to connect survivors with local services. Water and supply shortages are the main concern now, Whitehurst said.
“The sad part about this is that domestic violence doesn’t stop during this,” said Terry.
A man was killed in a domestic violence shooting Thursday night in northwest Harris County, according to police. A 35-year-old woman was killed as a result of suspected domestic violence Wednesday in Abilene.
“It makes you think about the state of this issue,” she said. “It continues to be the scourge of our society. The extenuating circumstances don’t matter — domestic violence doesn’t care about those
things.”
The strain put on the shelters comes at a time when they were already running on depleted resources because of COVID-19. The pandemic has driven rates in family violence up in Texas for nearly a year, increasing demand for services while charitable donations and adequate staffing are harder to come by.
“It really feels like being a punching bag,” Whitehurst said. “We keep getting hit. All we can do is get back up.”
Because many studies show that family violence increases for prolonged periods of time after natural disasters, such as Hurricane Harvey and the pandemic, advocates say the stressors of what the Lone Star State is going through now will likely have the same effect.
“There will likely be an increase in family violence on top of the increase we were already seeing due to COVID,” Terry said. “And all of the infrastructure problems we’re seeing will further compound the challenges for organizations to serve the community.”
So far, there’s been a decrease in hotline calls to HAWC, Whitehurst said. The shelter is receiving about 20 calls a day, which may be an indication that survivors aren’t able to reach out or help.
“We experienced a similar phenomenon when COVID first hit,” Terry said. “Hotline calls dipped, and before they shot up.”
Any event that isolates victims, makes housing harder to find and puts a strain on the economy is a recipe for compounding family violence, Whitehurst said.
“Incredible stressors keep piling on for them,” Terry said. “First it was COVID health concerns and economic uncertainty. Now in this event, they have no control of even basic comforts like warmth and food.”