SAN ANTONIO -- Bettye Harris Brown couldn't stay at home any longer.
- Left an abusive situation right before shelter-in-place order
- Moved into Salvation Army at the end of February
She managed to make it out of an abusive living situation, just in time to find a safe place to stay before the shelter-in-place order.
“I couldn’t take it no more, so I just left," Harris Brown said.
The 23-year-old moved into the Salvation Army at the end of February, just a couple weeks before it closed its doors to new residents.
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“This wasn’t physical but it was more like, um, my ex thought I was cheating," Harris Brown said. "Um, like talking to people on my phone, hiding things.”
About a month ago, the Salvation Army temporarily stopped taking in new residents as part of the shelter-in-place order and Harris Brown quit her door-to-door vacuum sales job while living there.
“I hopefully can go back to it, um, I already let them know what the whole situation was and they’ve been behind me," Harris Brown said. "I just thought it would be best for me not to catch it and then bring it to everyone here.”
She says the boyfriend she was living with was emotionally abusing her.
“In reality, you don’t know what’s going on in somebody’s house," Harris Brown said. "They come out and they put a mask on.”
She and her brother have plans to try to find a home together, but she’s waiting to save up enough money.
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“Until the economy gets back up and running, I’m at a standstill, so I can’t really do nothing without money," Harris Brown said.
The shelter hopes to begin taking in new clients soon, as Texas begins to slowly re-open.
And Harris Brown encourages people who need help to look to the Salvation Army.
“The first step, it's - it’s acceptance," Harris Brown said. "You have to just put your foot down and say this is it, I can’t do it.”