TEXAS — Survivors will tell you leaving a domestic violence situation is not always easy, and finding a safe place to go when shelters are full is also a challenge.
Jamie Wright said what started out as emotional abuse during a relationship in 2018 turned dangerously physical.
“We had been dating for about three months, and he took me by the neck and he choked me,” she said, reflecting on her childhood back in Southeast Oklahoma, where she said her mother endured abuse at home. “I honestly thought that abuse was what love looked like. I endured abuse, and I married him even after the abuse started.”
She said she joined her husband in Houston in February 2020, and things escalated months later.
“April 23, 2020, I’ll never forget it. That’s when I thought he was going to take my life,” Wright said, adding it was the breaking point that brought on her decision to leave with nowhere to go. “I called a couple of shelters, and only one had room for me, and that one had room for me because I was able to climb on the top bunk.”
The outcome was much different for the 75% of women turned away from domestic violence shelters in Harris County alone last year, and 51% across Texas, according to a survey from the Texas Council on Family Violence.
“We are likely denying someone who we’re fairly sure that almost 60% of the time, you’re at imminent risk of a homicide,” said Molly Voyles, TCFV’s public policy director.
She said the shortage in shelter beds forces thousands of survivors into homelessness or back into abuse environments, with lack of funding and affordable housing compounding the problem.
“Houston is a six million-plus population. There are literally in our region 600 beds available for domestic violence survivors,” said Maisha Colter, the chief executive officer for Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (AVDA).
AVDA provides legal representation to survivors while focusing on prevention.
“We’re looking at a long-term plan for them, whether that’s mental health, whether that’s economic, so if we get a divorce from somebody, what does child support look like? Is there spousal support opportunity there?” Colter said.
She said hotel stays and transitional housing are often provided when shelters are full, but more funding is needed for those resources.
“We will continue to raise up the needs for funding, but we’re also always looking at policy solutions,” she said.
Recent Texas policy changes include a minimum 30-day stay for survivors in shelters. In 2025, Texas also established a task force on family violence and criminal homicide prevention, bringing Wright and other advocates together.
Wright launched Lemmer Lee’s Place, an organization providing transitional housing to survivors with children in Southeast Oklahoma. It’s named after her grandmother, who she credits for her resilience.
“I’m in the process of building 13 houses for domestic violence survivors, right now today,” Wright said, adding it’s part of a bigger mission of breaking a cycle, one safe home and one bed at a time.