The center opened in 1977 as a volunteer-based emergency call center. The HAWC now employs 190 staff members and provides emergency residency to more than 100 women and children per night, according to the HAWC’s website.
“We must be focused on solutions. ... One in 4 women and 1 in 10 men will be victims of domestic violence in their lives,” HAWC CEO Emilee Whitehurst said during the press conference.
During the conference, plans were released for a new residential campus with 135 efficiency and one-bedroom apartments that can serve up to 360 women and children. The campus is a temporary place of living for victims of domestic abuse.
Four new "survivor empowerment hubs" are included in the expansion, including the Children's Assessment Center, which will provide behavioral health, career and financial counseling, housing, case management and legal services. Locations of future service sites have not been announced.
“[The shelters] provided life-saving services to thousands of women over the decades,” said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a former HAWC board member, at the conference.
In Texas, 169 women and 35 men were killed by their partners in 2021. Of those deaths, 46 were recorded in Harris County, according to a preliminary report by the Texas Council on Family Violence, a nonprofit that documents and advocates on behalf of domestic abuse victims.
“The strength of our anti-violence movement empowered survivors to come forward and seek help, but we know that we must do more,” HAWC Deputy CEO Sonia Corrales said at the conference.
The HAWC domestic violence hotline can be reached at 713-528-2121.
