FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – The Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault says there is a lack of long-term shelters for domestic violence victims across the Pee Dee and South Carolina.
Advocates say the Pee Dee Coalition serves seven counties and has one short-term safe house in Florence County. Emily Ross, a licensed professional counselor, says the shelter can house up to 25 people at a time. Last year, the Coalition provided shelter to 110 women and children for a total of 3,039 nights. The average stay was 28 nights per person, according to the Coalition, but victims can stay for up to 60 days. Ross says the lack of long-term shelters poses a threat to women and can force them to return to dangerous and potentially deadly situations.
“There’s only one or two in Florence that are long-term facilities that help women get back on their feet and allow the children to stay there as well,” she said. “A lot of the women end up going back to where they escaped from because of lack of resources of long term living environments, long-term shelters.”
News13 also sat down with one woman who recently sought shelter and counseling at the Pee Dee Coalition. 45-year-old Kimberly Kemp says she left her five-year abusive relationship four months ago and stayed at the shelter for 48 days. She says her partner was physically, mentally, emotionally, verbally, and financially abusive. She says it started with red flags such as manipulation, mind games, and alienation.
“It became violent after about two years. I could be driving down the road and he’d jerk my steering wheel to scare me,” she said.
Kemp says things escalated when she started standing up for herself.
“I was put out of vehicles. I was not taken back and forth. I lost my job. And that was the last straw,” she said.
Once she left, she found herself in a predicament that advocates say thousands of South Carolinians face due to a lack of shelters.
“You look at your kids and you say to yourself ‘Okay, do I take them out in the cold and let them be hungry and homeless to where I lose them? Do I stay or do I be homeless? Do I endure the pain and the suffering or do we sleep on a park bench?’” Kemp said. “In South Carolina, there’s 46 counties. Forty-six counties have animal shelters. There are 18 shelters in the state of South Carolina for women and children. But animals are being looked after more so than human beings. And that’s got to change.”
Kimberly is encouraging others to get involved in the effort to end domestic violence and says it will “take a village.” She says she believes things will change when more people educate themselves, address societal norms that contribute to violence against women, teach young children boundaries and respect, help survivors get the assistance they need, and intervene when they see or hear of violence being perpetrated against someone else.
“People need to take a look at themselves and say ‘If this was happening to me, what would I want others to do for me?’ And in that, you have to look and say ‘If I would want that for myself then let me give that of myself,’” Kemp said.
Kemp is also encouraging survivors to seek help and says help is out there.
“You have to pull strength from places you didn’t know you had. It’s hard to take the first step. But it’s even harder to stay in a situation to where you’re miserable, you’re hurt, you’re sad all the time, you have no happiness. You can reach out and there are people that will help,” she said. “I’m turning my pain into power. That’s my focus now.”
The Pee Dee Coalition offers a trauma survivor support group on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and individual counseling services Mondays through Fridays. All of the counseling is free. To make an appointment, you can contact Emily Ross at (843) 669-4694 extension 1007.
The Pee Dee Coalition is located at 220 South Irby Street in Florence.
If you are in imminent danger, you can call the 24-hour crisis line at 1-800-273-1820.
