I learned through personal experience that abuse within a relationship doesn't always leave visible marks or bruises. It can include control over finances, transportation, employment, housing, communication, and ultimately a person's ability to leave and build an independent life. I learned that being able to walk out the door and being financially able to stay gone are two very different things.

Leaving sometimes meant leaving without my clothes or basic necessities and then realizing I didn't have the money to simply replace everything I needed to get through a week of work. It meant figuring out where I could stay, whether I could afford a hotel for the night, how I would pay for transportation to get through the week, and what I needed to do next, all while trying to remain away from the situation I had left. I didn't always have the financial resources necessary to stay gone. And so, I returned.

That's one reason my path out wasn't linear. I left. I returned. I believed promises of change and tried to save my marriage. I left again. Eventually, I stayed gone. Each time, I had to make strategic decisions about how to create enough financial and practical independence to leave for good. With stronger emergency financial resources available to survivors, I believe I could have stayed gone sooner.

Returning did not erase what happened. It did not mean I wasn't trying to leave. Survivors deserve protection and support even when leaving isn't perfect or linear.

Texas already has programs designed to help survivors of family violence achieve safety and independence, including relocation assistance available through the Crime Victims' Compensation Program. But having assistance available and being able to access what you need in the immediate hours and days after leaving are not always the same thing.

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, financial abuse occurs in 99% of domestic violence cases. It can include interfering with employment, controlling access to money and financial accounts, damaging credit, withholding resources, or otherwise undermining a survivor's ability to become financially independent. For someone trying to leave, financial abuse can turn ordinary expenses, one night's lodging, transportation to work, clothing, food, and other basic necessities—into barriers to safety. Leaving an abusive home does not automatically create the financial means to remain away from it.

I am calling on Texas lawmakers and state agencies responsible for family-violence policy and victim services to strengthen the emergency financial safety net for survivors attempting to leave abusive relationships. Texas already provides valuable relocation assistance through its Crime Victims' Compensation Program, but survivors may need immediate help before traditional applications, eligibility determinations, reimbursements, and longer-term relocation plans can meet the realities of leaving.

Survivors need rapid access to emergency assistance for the practical necessities that make staying gone possible, including safe temporary lodging, transportation, basic clothing and necessities, and other immediate expenses necessary to maintain employment and establish safety. Texas should also ensure that coercive control and financial abuse are meaningfully addressed in survivor education, professional training, safety planning, and family-violence services.

This petition isn't about one relationship or one person. It's about what my experience taught me, and what so many survivors already know: leaving takes more than walking out the door.

Survivors need the resources to leave, the support to stay gone, and the freedom to rebuild.

Join me in asking Texas leaders to strengthen survivor-centered protections and emergency resources that recognize the full reality of domestic violence, including coercive and financial control, and help survivors not only leave, but stay gone.