Before a 49-year-old woman found herself at Safe House for Women, Cape Girardeau's domestic violence shelter, her self-esteem had plunged so far because of the abusive situation she was in, she said she felt she had no future at all.

Three months later, that same woman is learning to use a computer and getting ready to begin a nine-week course to become a certified nursing assistant.

"I didn't care if the sun shone at all," she said of that time three months ago. "I have hope today."

Leaving an abusive or dangerous relationship is always difficult, but the economic downturn has caused women to struggle even more with getting back on their feet, Safe House executive director Linder Garner said.

"It has a domino effect," Garner said. "It's even harder to make it on your own."

Many women are forced to leave their jobs for safety reasons, and sometimes even change cities to escape an abusive relationship, leaving them out of work and unable to find employment in today's increasingly scarce job market.

Women are encouraged to stay at Safe House until they are able to find a new place to live and get back on their feet to start over -- usually an average of about 30 days, Garner said.

Since summer, women have stayed longer at Safe House, meaning the 22-bed facility is at capacity, Garner said.

Since the beginning of August, 48 women and children have sought housing at Safe House, and staff members have had to make other arrangements for them because there wasn't room, Garner said.

"What's really hard is when you have a mom and her children, and what we have is a single bed," Garner said.

One woman, a 39-year-old mother of five, has been staying at Safe House with several of her children since June, when she left an abusive relationship because she feared her son would be hurt for trying to intervene.

She's struggled without success to find some kind of transitional housing, she said, because the arrangement at Safe House means she must be with her children when they get home from school, which would leave her only about five hours of the day to work.

"I can't work a 9-to-5," she said.

She relocated twice to escape abusive relationships, leaving a job in another state at one point, she said.

"A lot of us will be going back out as single parents," she said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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