On it was written “122” the shelter’s occupancy on a recent weekday, as well as the first names of 10 more people expected to arrive that day.
Capacity is 120.
Just down the hall, behind closed doors, a family was sleeping on couches in what normally is a lounge area. It’s one way shelter officials handle the chronic overflow they experience.
And this day is typical.
In a surge officials attribute partly to the COVID-19 pandemic, calls to the shelter hotline have increased from an average of 11 a day, pre-COVID, to nearly 14 a day in recent months.
Despite CHOICES increasing its space from 52 beds to 120 when it moved into the new shelter in January 2019, demand has already outstripped supply.
Amid increased demand, Ohio s domestic-violence shelters hoping for help from state budget msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, My Sisterâs Place domestic violence shelter is routinely full, leaving parents and children trying to escape family violence with nowhere to go. In 2020, we turned away 155 adults and 112 children, largely due to COVID compounding an already urgent need for domestic violence services.
We are grateful for the support we have received locally, from the Athens-Hocking-Vinton 317 Board, the Athens County Foundation, the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation, and others. Without them, these numbers would undoubtedly be much higher.
But in this most critical of times, My Sisterâs Place was forced to make staffing and program reductions. We cut our court advocateâs hours in half and the hours of our childrenâs counselor by 25 percent. We discontinued many therapy offerings, and significantly reduced training options for staff.