Calls to Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline have surged in past year and shelter space is lacking

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A new report shows the growing need for support: Calls to the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline have surged in the past year.

Experts say the housing crisis is at the heart of the spike.

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In Chicago, the top request on the Domestic Violence Hotline is for shelter. But there aren't enough beds in the city. It's a shortage driving some survivors to go from calling for help to answering those calls.

One text changed the course of Sylvia Stech's life.

"It definitely added a layer of safety that I felt, that I needed at that time. And so, in some ways, it did save my life," Stech said.

In a moment of crisis, Stech says she texted the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline. From there, she was quickly able to get an order of protection against her abuser.

"Emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse, all the things," Stech said.

Now she's on the other side.

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"If we are not able to place them anywhere, they call us back again and again, day after day, sometimes multiple times a day, right?" Shelby Hoffman Binder said.

From 2024 to 2025, calls to the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline jumped 18%: a staggering 181% increase compared to pre-COVID levels.

And as demand surged, the system broke under pressure. Chicago's domestic violence shelters were unable to meet capacity for 157 days.

"There is more of a sense of desperation, helplessness," Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline Director Alondra Montes Arroyo said. "Calls are getting longer because we're taking longer to provide some of that support."

The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence has been able to fill some of the shelter crisis void in the city by offering hotel rooms. They served over 700 survivors last year, but that's just the beginning of what's needed.

"Not only with a safe roof over their head, but a place to get there and enough money in their pockets to buy groceries, to get the kids to school, all the fundamentals of life," Hoffman Binder said.

Now a master's graduate, surrounded by family and a healthy new love, it's the type of beginning Stech wants every survivor to have.

"We deserve systems that invest in us," Stech said.

You can contact the Illinois domestic violence hotline at 1-877-863-6338 click here for more information.