HomeAid Houston, a nonprofit organization that provides a link between nonprofit care providers in need of construction assistance and builder professionals who want to give back to the community, will soon break ground on a new building that will provide additional beds for an organization that serves women and families suffering as victims of human trafficking and domestic violence.

On Thursday, July 14, HomeAid Houston will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the 3,225-square-foot building, providing four one-bedroom apartments for the Fort Bend Women’s Center at its Rio Bend campus in Fort Bend County, according to a July 11 news release. The address for the campus was not available to protect the safety and privacy of the women and families.

As part of Fort Bend Women’s Center's mission, the quadplex will serve additional domestic abuse and sexual assault survivors, said Leslie Wendland, chief external affairs officer for the Fort Bend Women’s Center. The center, which has served almost 50,000 survivors of abuse over the past four decades, has used the Rio Bend campus to provide wraparound services for women and families, including counseling, legal assistance, job programs and extensive children's programs, Wendland said.

“There is a huge lack of housing for people trying to start over,” Wendland said.

The need for more housing comes as there were 4,305 reported incidents of family violence in 2021 in Fort Bend County. Five years earlier, in 2016, the county reported there were 3,265 reported incidents. In 2020, 183 women in Texas were killed by their intimate male partner, according to the release. From March 2019-March 2020, the Fort Bend County district attorney’s office reported a 50% increase in domestic violence cases.

“They have been so inundated and have seen such a huge increase in human trafficking and domestic violence victims that this project felt like a natural fit,” Brady said.

HomeAid is helping bring this project to life in collaboration with two builders: David Bozeman with Bozeman Design/Build and Greg Wamhoff of Wamhoff Design/Build. HomeAid will work with the builders to ensure the new building construction is either at cost or highly discounted.

"We are very excited about working with HomeAid, David Bozeman and Greg Wamhoff to make the Rio Bend dream a reality," FBWC Executive Director Vita Goodell said in the news release. "Together, we'll be building a place where domestic violence survivors and their kids can heal and thrive."

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