Houston council members stood with advocates and regulation enforcement officers to mark Home Violence Consciousness Month and have a good time 45 years of Help to Victims of Home Abuse (AVDA) at Metropolis Corridor this month.
With the celebration got here sobering reminders of the town’s ongoing battle with home violence, a disaster that continues to say dozens of lives annually throughout Harris County.
“Violent crime is trending down,” council member Abbie Kamin mentioned. “However when a 3rd of homicides within the county have a nexus with home violence, we should be doing a hell of much more.”
A “shadow pandemic” that hasn’t ended
Kamin recalled the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when stay-at-home orders left many victims trapped with their abusers, and shelter shortages reached a essential level.
“Home violence skyrocketed,” Kamin mentioned. “By the tip of August ‘21, Houston noticed a 78% enhance in home violence-related homicides, and we did every thing we may to satisfy the problem head-on. We expanded HPD’s Home Abuse Response Group (DART).”
Though the lockdowns are lengthy over, the aftershocks stay.
Reporting of abuse has declined, not as a result of violence has lessened, officers mentioned, however as a result of victims are sometimes too afraid or remoted to return ahead.
Regulation enforcement information confirms the scope: The Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace responded to 67 murders between January and August 2025, with practically one-third (23) linked to home violence.
A legacy of advocacy: 45 years of AVDA
For 45 years, AVDA has supplied a lifeline to households in disaster. Based by the Nationwide Council of Jewish Ladies, the group started in a transformed broom closet donated by the Gulf Coast Authorized Basis, providing free authorized help to girls affected by home abuse. In the present day, AVDA operates two satellite tv for pc workplaces and a downtown headquarters, serving each city and rural households.
“From these modest beginnings, AVDA has grown right into a thriving nonprofit,” mentioned AVDA CEO Maisha Colter. “We maintain those that are abusive accountable by means of battering intervention and prevention programming, attain adults and youth by means of our group consciousness and prevention program, and supply therapeutic by means of our trauma counseling program, serving to survivors and their youngsters rebuild from the emotional wounds of abuse.”
In 2024 alone, the group supplied authorized illustration to six,946 adults and youngsters and educated greater than 26,000 youth and adults on home violence prevention, offering 1,043 folks recognized as abusive with the Battering Intervention & Prevention Program (BIPP).
Justice and prevention: A community-wide method
Regulation enforcement companies additionally emphasised the significance of collaboration.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace acknowledged its murder unit responded to 67 murders, 23 of which have been associated to home violence. It additionally reviewed greater than 6,200 home violence circumstances this yr, resulting in over 200 legal expenses.
HPD Assistant Chief Jessica Anderson added that the division’s DART program continues to deploy educated advocates to help victims on the scene, a mannequin that different cities have begun to check.
Not like victims of different crimes, not everybody in a home violence scenario could acknowledge or be ready to name for assist. Should you consider somebody in your life is affected by home violence, speak to them away from their abuser,” Anderson mentioned. “Regulation enforcement can solely achieve this a lot. We’re grateful for the general public and our companions who acknowledge that it is a group drawback and requires a group answer.”
Consciousness by means of visibility: A statewide billboard marketing campaign
To increase that group effort past Metropolis Corridor, Clear Channel Out of doors partnered with AVDA and the Texas Council on Household Violence (TCFV) to launch a brand new billboard marketing campaign throughout the state. The digital and print billboards, displayed in English and Spanish, direct victims to native sources for authorized, housing, and counseling help.
“The marketing campaign seeks out victims to supply assist,” mentioned Lee Vela, vp of public affairs at Clear Channel Out of doors. “We may attain over 100 Texas cities, it’ll be up on as much as 56 digital billboards all through the suburban areas. That provides us extra flexibility in getting these messages out to the general public.”
The marketing campaign builds on a 2024 statewide initiative, “I’m OK. Are You OK?” developed in partnership with the TCFV. Inside 30 days of launching final October, web site site visitors from the marketing campaign elevated 1,200%, in line with council member Twila Carter, who leads the hassle’s growth into Harris County.
The human value
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In accordance with TCFV’s Honoring Texas Victims report, 161 Texans have been killed by their intimate companions in 2024, together with 137 girls and 24 males. The report additionally discovered that 69% of victims have been killed at residence, and extra victims have been killed with a firearm than with all different means mixed. In Harris County alone, 47 victims misplaced their lives, greater than another county within the state.
“Each survivor’s journey reminds us why AVDA exists,” Colter mentioned. “We symbolize survivors in authorized procedures in household court docket, maintain those that are abusive accountable, attain adults and youth by means of our group consciousness and prevention program, and supply therapeutic by means of our trauma counseling program, serving to survivors and their youngsters rebuild from the emotional wounds of abuse.”
For anybody experiencing home violence, assist is on the market by means of AVDA’s 24-hour hotline at 713-224-9911 and the Houston Space Ladies’s Heart at 713-528-6798.
