Genesis Women’s Shelter

I recently had a community member reach out, asking for resources for a mother and her 3 children. Their abusive father had kicked them out of their home, and they had nowhere to go. I’m close friends with individuals who work at two separate women’s shelters in DFW, so I contacted both of them. Unfortunately, the first shelter was full, and they don’t take in male children over the age of 10. And the second shelter wouldn’t take her in because of her immigration status.

I was surprised to hear this. I recently found out that a number of non-profits only offer their services to those with legal immigration status. The reason behind it isn’t necessarily political- it has more to do with the IRS and making sure that the organization doesn’t become liable should their services be misused. It is basically a heavier burden to take on clients who are undocumented, and costly. So a lot of smaller non-profits just don’t have the budget or expertise required to take on these clients.

But this is quite the quandary; where are the 11 million undocumented people in this country to go when they need help? And we can only imagine that with the economic crisis caused by COVID19, the number of undocumented people needing help will go up drastically. This includes housing, medical bills, medical services, food, legal services, and more.

I had a former co-worker who worked at Genesis Women’s Shelter in Dallas. I reached out to her to find out if it was an issue that this mother was undocumented and that she had a son over 10. Her response gave me so much hope! Genesis Women’s Shelter provides housing to women and families who are undocumented, and they even provide legal services.

I gave the information to the community member. If Genesis doesn’t end up working for the woman and her 3 children, a group of us will crowdfund for them to stay somewhere temporarily.

But I do want to recognize Genesis Women’s Shelter for helping out vulnerable women and children, without regard to their immigration status. If you have some money to spare, please consider donating to them this Holiday Season! They have several programs you can take part in- including “adopt a family”, “adopt an angel tree”, and more!

Visit them here to learn more: https://www.genesisshelter.org/

And if you know of any other resources for undocumented people here in DFW, please share in the comments!