Local Domestic Violence Shelter Displaces a Family After a Report of Scabies In the Facility

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Sept. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- Char, NC, A local domestic violence shelter displaces a family  after a report of scabies in the facility on 9/9/2013. After being treated with abuse and neglect for years, a local mother of three is now leaving on the streets due to a roommate informing her that their child was reported having scabies. Please read her story below. (Video Link on how the staff at the Domestic Violence Shelter speaks to the women: http://youtu.be/y4AVut7OeAY)



Hello! My name is Brandis Rogers and I am a mother of 3. At the moment, we currently reside at the Clyde and Ethel Dickson Domestic Violence Shelter in Charlotte, NC. Since our arrival to the shelter, I have been under a considerable amount of stress which has left me feeling very overwhelmed. Since my police escorted arrival on April 20, 2013, there has been a great deal of pressure removed from my shoulders. I no longer feel that I am walking on eggshells due to a life filled with domestic violence since 2005. My children no longer have to be a witness to me being hit or verbally abused. However, there are still underlying issues that keep occurring.

What I thought would be an overall uplifting experience for me and my children has actually been almost worse than living with him. I am very disappointed about some of the actions that this facility has offered me.  This is not a structured environment where they uplift and encourage you. Each day we are faced with a different set of rules. They make them up as they see. Nothing is consistent and we are constantly being threatened that if we don’t comply with their new rules then they will enforce that the Department of Social Services will come and remove our children from our custody and we will be kicked out.  For me, this is stressful. I have nothing. This is the only roof that supplies shelter for me and my children. There’s no family for me and my children. We only have each other.

Due to my circumstances, I try to do the best I can by providing for my children, I am a good mother. I’ve never neglected or abused my children. My household situation of being with an abusive man who has tormented me for years and is continuously finding ways to reach me put us here. Being told that my children will be taken from me scares me more than his pounding fists or words thrown at me. I know that this may sound crazy, but I almost feel like I should return to his abuse instead of dealing with the staffs. At Safe Alliance, the staff degrades women by sending notices that tells us if we ask for things we only get a certain amount until the next week. If I did need personal items, how are two rolls of toilet paper for our room supposed to last amongst four people? Although I’m use to providing for my children, what am I to do if I fall on a hard week? I can’t get a job due to having to attend classes and appointments all day. When school was still in, I could only attend my classes and then go pick up my children. Now that school has ended, I am still leaving classes and picking up my children.

My world is upside down and I am in the same position that I was in on my arrival date in April. I’m still feeling depressed and anxious and the staff at Safe Alliance feels that we are beneath them. They are always verbally abusing us, talking down to us, threatening to have our children taken from us, stating that our beds are always needed by someone else. Please help me by answering this one question; is this any better than where I came from?

Since being here, I have no answer to what’s next. I don’t know of what’s to come or how I will gain stability once I’ve exited the program. My family and I are given a short amount of time to heal and mend what has been broken, but an even shorter time to rebuild our lives. No, I didn’t think this was going to last forever, but I did feel that I would be uplifted and supported, helped to find ways to leave the shelter knowing that I could survive, not sitting in lasting meetings that offer no solutions to the problems at hand. This facility is state of the art, but not a loving and supportive environment for a woman and her family to live a sustainable life filled with new memories. We are imprisoned by faculty that does not care nor support what the Clyde and Ethel Dickson Domestic Violence Shelter stands for.

Since the letter above, I was exited once and they let me come back in only to torture me momentarily because they did not have any grounds to release me on. This time, on 9/7/2013 I had to take my youngest daughter to the emergency room because my roommate that was living in my room with her family informed me that her child had been treated for scabies on 9/6/2013; if she had never told me of this, I would not have known. None of the staff informed any of the women in the house that there was a case of scabies. There was not one notification written, not even to me and we lived in the same room. While I was at the hospital with my child, I called to inform the staff at Safe Alliance that I may not make my curfew because I was at the ER. Once I arrived at the facility a short time after 12a, no one said anything to me. On 9/8/2013, Shonda (a new staff member) approached me after a room check around 11pm and asked if I had anything from the pharmacy that showed the time that I left. I explained to her that I did not have the information because we had just bleached our room and I threw the prescription bag away. I told her that I could call the pharmacy (Wal-Green’s at University) to see if I could get a record showing what time my prescription was given to me. She told me that Jane Taylor (Interim Director of Residential Services) was asking for the paperwork because our curfew is at 10p. Shonda informed me that she was going to write me up and that I could speak with Jane tomorrow.  I didn’t understand why I had to be written up because of a medical issue that I was not informed about.

On Monday, 9/9/2013, I received an email telling me that they apologized about the health scare and they would be putting me in a hotel room for two days depending on the outcome. When I called back to check on everything, I was informed that I was exited from the Domestic Violence shelter. Since they only paid for two days and two nights, I am not living on the streets homeless with my three children.

Today, 9/11/13 when I went to speak with the CEO, Phil Kline and Amanda Wilson (Chief Strategy Officer), I was told that they feel confident in the decisions that their staff made and they are sticking by them. I am totally confused as to how you can stick by your staff members that have agreed to keep a case of scabies away from other families and the CDC.

At this point, I am homeless. I don’t know what to do, but I will not stand to let anyone walk over me when I’ve already suffered abuse at the hands of someone else.  For more information on this story, please call Brandis Rogers at 704.890.5185.