MOULTRIE, Ga. — Serenity House had to lodge some families in hotels over the May-July period, but everyone is back in-house, Director Haley Clark said Monday.

United Way of Colquitt County Director Caroline Horne revealed last week that the domestic violence shelter had to do this because it was at capacity. Clark said that’s true, but in a limited way.

Serenity House was functioning at 50 percent capacity to observe social distancing while the “shelter-in-place” order started lifting up.

“We did temporarily utilize hotel rooms to space individuals out and keep families separated, you know, not to expose each other,” Clark said. “But we’re back to running in the shelter.”

As the “shelter-in-place” order lifted, she said the shelter received a large influx of calls during May and June. Whereas April saw 10 crisis calls, May saw 40 crisis calls and June saw 21.

Some months at Serenity House see larger influxes of families than others, but there was a trend during the “shelter-in-place” order’s period.

“We were not getting as many calls during that month just because I think it was harder for women to be able to access our assistance due to the limits that we have in this county,” Clark said. “But once people started going back to work and leaving out of their homes again, that’s where we really saw a drastic increase for June and July.”

The hope is that things don’t climb back up to where they were during that time, but it’s always a possibility. Like she said earlier, there are limits in Colquitt County, a rural area.

Clark said there aren’t a lot of escape routes given the lack of public transportation. Even worse though is the number of families below the poverty line who have neither internet nor a cell phone to find ways to escape abusive environments.

“During the shelter-in-place, it made it hard for women around here to actually get away once the ordinance lifted back up,” she said. “It’s different for rural areas than it is for metropolitan areas like Atlanta. They have more readily available options for them than they do here.”

It varies from shelter to shelter, but regardless the limits of Colquitt County were readily apparent.

“You’ve got people who can’t get on the internet to access our services, don’t have cell phones, or don’t have vehicles,” she said. “A lot of abusers control finances, so these ladies that come to us, they don’t have a way to get to their bank accounts to be able to get money out.”

There are a lot of hindrances in an effort to escape.

Domestic violence cases were predicted to rise to 31 million globally during the length of the projected COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations Population Fund reported. 

As a rise in domestic violence cases caused the high influx of calls between May and July, Serenity House never knows what will happen in terms or case increases or stagnation.

Things have since leveled out though. So the question became “What’s needed for the shelter now?” Monetary donations are nice, Clark said, but the shelter definitely needs in-kind donations.

It refers to those who want to donate specific items.

“Right now, we cannot take any used clothes due to the pandemic, so if anyone wants to donate new packs of kid’s or women’s underwear, or if they want to donate packs of socks, those are great items we go through relatively quickly,” she said.

The shelter is also asking for hygiene products and cleaning supplies, the latter of which is like gold dust.

“We have to disinfect the shelter so much throughout the day because of community living,” she said.

Clark said donations can be dropped off at the Chamber of Commerce, 116 First Ave. S.E., or Colquitt Regional Hospice, 415 Rowland Drive. Donors can also call Serenity House at (229) 782-5394 to arrange for items to be picked up.