Domestic violence on rise during pandemic
Montgomery County sees incidents increase amid joblessness and economic troubles that can trigger violence in the home
Domestic violence in Montgomery County is the pandemic within the pandemic.
Calls to the Montgomery County Women’s Center hotline increased roughly 50 percent in 2020. Between March 1 and Nov. 30, the staff answered 55,176 calls, compared to 37,000 calls in the same span in 2019.
As the COVID-19 pandemic sent people indoors, victims were stuck with their abusers more than ever. Unemployment and the economic downturn increasingly are serving as the stressors that trigger violence in the home.
“We’ve just really continued to see that escalation of violence,” said Sarah Raleigh, president and CEO of the Women’s Center. “The injuries that people are reporting and coming in with, and that law enforcement is calling for assistance with, has continued to be more extensive than before. I think that’s really been one of the most horrifying parts about this is just the escalation of violence and the severity of the injuries.”
Finding housing for victims
Not only is the center getting more calls, but the violence is escalating more quickly, she said. Shelters cannot operate at full capacity because of the CDC’s health guidelines, but demand for services has never been higher.
In response, the center has gotten more creative about finding housing for victims, and has been relying heavily on partners in the Houston area. Victims are also increasingly being relocated out of the area, because the strain on local transitional housing is so high.
“The resources just aren’t there,” Raleigh said. “Finding safe, affordable housing is always difficult. It’s close to impossible at the moment.”
The rise in domestic violence cases was almost immediate when the pandemic hit. As reported by the Houston Chronicle in November, the number of people killed by family violence in Harris County increased 58 percent from March through October, compared to the same time last year.
Raleigh said that there has been about a 40 percent increase in requests from victims for help from the legal department to obtain protective orders and about a 35 percent increase in protective orders being granted. Case managers at the center have completed 180 crime victim compensation applications, a 73 percent increase compared to last year.
The center works closely with law enforcement and the District Attorney’s office on many of their cases, and both entities have had to handle the rise in domestic violence as well. Here in Montgomery County, in 2019 the District-Attorney’s office filed 1,063 cases in-volving family violence. This year, the DA’s office filed 1,249 cases through Dec. 29, 2020. This is nearly a 20 percent increase from 2019 to 2020.
For several months, hospitals were not allowing victim advocates in with patients due to the recommended CDC guidelines. Recently, a few hospitals in the area have started letting advocates back in. On the weekend of Dec. 19-20, Raleigh said, the center responded to five calls for advocates from local hospitals in a 24-hour period.
‘Most we have ever seen’
“That, by far, is the most we have ever seen,” Raleigh said. “In all the years that we have been providing services, we’ve never seen anything like that.”
Unemployment claims in the county skyrocketed in March. According to data from the Texas Workforce Commission, there were 289 unemployment claims in the county the week of March 14. The very next week, that number rose to 3,227. The week after that, it increased again to 5,337. Claims stayed above 1,000 each week until August.
Loss of housing, which often overlaps with job loss, is another common spark.
“So many people are either facing eviction and can’t find additional housing, or have been evicted, something along those lines, they no longer have housing,” Raleigh said. “I’ve seen a real correlation with that lack of housing with the beginning of violence.”