CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Purple Door serves 12 counties in South Texas by supplying free services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence. As men, women and children in need access the resource at a larger influx than usual, organization officials are reaching out to the community for help.
"Even though our capacity is really 65, like today we're at 74," Purple Door CEO and President Frances Wilson said.
She told 3NEWS that the growth is an outcome of our dangerous South Texas heat.
"We do tend to go over capacity in the summer," Wilson said. "We were just talking about this recently because it's usually in August when we see it, but we started seeing this back in June."
Many times violent disputes are seen as more children are home during the summer, stress hormone levels rise with the heat and even back-to-school stress.
"In the past couple of years we've actually removed some of the offices in our shelter and converted those to some space for people to actually live," Wilson said.
The CEO hopes the organization will expand sometime in the future.
"We do have a lot right next to our shelter that we own, we're very fortunate to have," Wilson said. "So that gives us some room to dream about the future and what we might do and how we can best meet the needs of victims and survivors."
Residents can help by donating items that the shelter and outlying offices desperately need at this time, like diapers.
"What we really need are things like diapers, again those larger sizes, you know 5, 6, 7; when you're talking about toddlers, that's a lot of the ages that we're seeing in shelter," engagement manager Shelbie Ledesma said.
While the list certainly does not stop there, but the Purple Door is appreciative of each and every donation.