Here is a bit of good news:

The Family Place announced plans Wednesday for the very first dedicated men’s domestic violence shelter in the state of Texas. To meet the increasing community demand for emergency shelter services for male victims and their children, The Family Place deemed this shelter the necessary next step in its expansion of services. The Family Place has spent an average of $20,000 per month this year in hotel costs for sheltering male victims and their children (19 male clients as of September 2015; double the total of 2014). Even with security, transportation and programming restrictions, hotels were the only option available to not only keep female and male clients separate, but also ensure that these men were not turned away when they asked for help.

Unfortunately, hotels do not provide adequate support. Quite often, the voucher system prohibits men from bringing their children, forcing the men to leave them with their abusive mothers. The men locations are also not always convenient, isolating men from the resources of the shelters, assuming the shelters even offer the same services to male victims. Many of them simply give men a two or three-day voucher and send them on their way.

This shelter will remedy this kind of problem by focusing specifically on male victims’ needs:

The Family Place will specifically develop staff and programming for the Men’s Shelter to meet the unique needs of this demographic, including shelter and counseling services for these men and their children. The majority of the funding for this shelter will come from a new Victims of Crime Act grant, but The Family Place must raise additional funds from the community.

The Family Place intends to open the shelter in January of 2016. There will also be an overflow emergency shelter with 30 to 36 beds.

I support this effort. This is the kind of thing that needs to happen, especially since it does not appear that there are any politics or political groups controlling this effort. I doubt we will see any nonsense about male privilege and reminding men that they are not the real victims of domestic violence. This is service is there to help male victims. That is what we need.

If you have the money, please donate to The Family Place Men’s Shelter and Legacy Capital Campaign.