Angel House needs an angel

Child Protective Services took her away from her family when she was 5, but Maria's story didn't end there - CPS came to the 19-year-old again five months ago to bring her to the local abuse shelter. 

Maria, not her real name, comes from an abusive family with several brothers, who she said, do the same thing to their girlfriends and wives that her boyfriend did to her - beat them.

"I come from a bad family," Maria said.

The soft-featured, petite woman said she would fight back, but her hands were much smaller than her boyfriend's. The attempt was futile.

He treated her like gold for the first three years, but about a year ago she said he got "real mean." 

"I knew how to calm him down ... I also knew how to make him real mad," she said.

They would fight, and he would beat her. He started to cheat on her. He would spank their baby girl with his big hands, she said. Maria would threaten to leave him, but she kept going back.

She loves him, she believes he will change and she hopes he will change, but she fears what will happen to her if she leaves him. And all of those emotions are common among abuse victims, Angel House director Renee Morris said.

One day Maria was ready to change, but this time she said she was going to do it on her own.

A NEW LIFE

Maria has been staying in Odessa's Angel House, which is a shelter for abused women and children.

She hasn't seen or heard from her abusive boyfriend since she entered the shelter months ago.

When Maria first got to Angel House, she said she didn't have a single friend. She now has made many friends, and with people she can share similar experiences with. She also enrolled in high school classes.

Helping new victims who come through the door is a source of consolation for Maria. She sees herself in every young and battered face. 

And she's learning how to cook meatloaf. The shelter has a warm, big kitchen where the women cook together forming a newfound sense of community. Maria teaches other women how to make enchiladas.

Some women haven't been able to decide what they want to eat in a long time, and through making decisions like what to cook they are rewiring their brains to become independent of their abuser, Morris said.

Through community resources like Odessa LINKS, Maria now has baby formula for her newborn baby, clothes for her 2-year-old and a haven away from her abusive past.

However the Angel House now faces its own challenges - for the first time since it's inception (September 2001), the shelter will not receive its $207,000 Victims of Crime Act federal grant.

IN NEED OF AN ANGEL

On his way to the United Way campaign kickoff in September, Odessa Crisis Center's Executive Director Chuck Hornung got the call that shocked him. The VOCA grant that covers one-third of the nonprofit's total budget will not be issued this year, and without it they are running reserve funds into the "red zone" to keep the shelter going.

"This really came as a total shock," Hornung said.

The grant was denied at a time when it was needed more than ever. The center planned to add a new shelter increasing the amount of rooms for the victims.

Hornung also said he's seen more abuse cases in the area than ever before, which he said can be attributed to either increasing population or the fact that more awareness is bringing women out of the shadows.

In addition, this is the only crisis shelter for battered women in the area servicing eight counties, Hornung said.

This year is the first year in the Crisis Center's nearly 30-year history where two women were killed in domestic violence cases.

One of the victims, Monica Beasley, was shot dead in front of her three children less than three months ago in front of her mother's house in Midland while on a day "pass" from the shelter.

Everyone in the shelter was devastated, including Maria - Beasley was Maria's closest friend in the shelter.

"That funding decision was made by the governor's criminal justice division," Alexis DeLee, House Speaker Tom Craddick's press secretary, said. "I know the federal government made significant cuts to the VOCA grant this year."

Calls to the governor's office were not returned last week.

Morris, the Angel House director, said that closing the shelter could be devastating for some. She said forcing women to travel to Dallas or El Paso for safety might make them even more hesitant to leave their situation.

Morris' entire goal is to show these women that a normal life is possible and to teach them they're "worth more than that."

"There's a life at the shelter," Morris said. "Birthdays, cooking, putting children's art on the refrigerator like normal people get to do in their own home."

RECOGNIZING THE SIGNS

>> Pushed, shoved, pounded, slapped, bruised, kicked, strangled or threatened with a weapon.

>> Possessions are intentionally damaged.

>> Not allowed to come and go as you wish.

>> Followed, harassed or spied upon.

>> Ridiculed or belittled.

>> Kept in isolation.