Emergency Shelters

You Can Go to an Emergency Shelter

In general your parents or guardians control where you live while you are still a minor, but Texas law allows emergency shelters to help you and your children (if you have any) during an emergency.  An "emergency" means immediate danger to the physical health or safety of you or your children. 

Although there is no legal requirement for you to have a parent's consent to go to an emergency shelter, some shelters have their own rules about whether or not a parent or legal guardian must be involved.

The emergency shelter cannot legally keep you for more than 15 days UNLESS:

1. You are unmarried and either pregnant or already a parent, or
2. You are at least 16 years old, living separately from your parents or guardians (no matter how long it's been since you moved out), and managing your own money, or
3. You have qualified for certain kinds of government financial assistance and are on the waiting list for housing assistance.

Finding an Emergency Shelter

If you need emergency shelter call the toll-free, 24-hour National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233) or see the Resources page.