NC’s domestic violence centers struggle with funding cuts

CLAUDIA WOLFF | UNSPLASH

Domestic violence shelters across North Carolina are struggling with shortfalls in funding of the Victims of Crime Act that have grown over the last six years.

As Domestic Violence Awareness Month is October, domestic violence shelters across North Carolina are being stretched to their limits as federal funds disappear.

Federal funding from the Victims of Crime Act has dropped for the sixth consecutive year. North Carolina domestic violence centers face rising demand with only a quarter of the funding they had five years ago.
Next year, North Carolina VOCA grants are projected to drop even further, down to approximately $3.5 million.

While lawmakers question where millions of dollars went, shelters have no choice but to cut programs and turn away victims.

A family’s escape

After receiving death threats from her abusive partner, a woman and her two children fled their home.

Every safe house within a few hundred miles was full. The family stayed in a hotel for a few nights while the children transferred to a new school, restraining orders were filed, and the family looked for a new place to live. More, all of this had to be done with an interpreter, translated from Spanish.

Bridget McEnaney, executive director of The Compass Center, helped orchestrate the family’s escape.

The Compass Center is a domestic violence prevention center in Chapel Hill. She shared this story but withheld further details to protect the identity of the family.
This is just one of the 2,500 cases The Compass Center processes each year.

Last year, every shelter in the state reached full capacity for over 100 days, forcing more than 6,000 victims to find safety elsewhere.

“We’ve cabbed people to the mountains. We’ve cabbed them to the coast. If that is not an option, then we’re often looking at domestic violence shelters across states. We’ve even gotten a couple of people out of the country,” said McEnaney.

More than an escape

“Some people are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” McEnaney said. Many victims are faced with a difficult choice: starting their life over or continuing to endure abuse.

Most domestic violence prevention centers offer legal aid, job support, transportation, counseling, and help with hospital bills. However, sharp funding cuts have forced many to reduce essential services.

But, since 2018, aid for hospital visits fell 70%, while job and counseling services were cut in half.

“It’s devastating,” said Caroline Farmer, executive director of the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission.

The Compass Center relies on federal grants for 97% of its revenue, and this year, funding is expected to drop by almost 95%.

Where the money went

Funding for these safe houses and treatment centers come from a federal fund established by the 1984 Victims of Crime Act. The fund relies on monetary penalties paid by guilty plea agreements and corporate out-of-court settlements.

However, in recent years due to bureaucratic changes and funding transfers, VOCA has experienced staggering cut-offs.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), have raised concerns about the sudden reductions. Recognizing the “historically low balance” in the Crime Victims Fund, he requested data from the Department of Justice concerning the whereabouts of the missing money.

Following the numbers, Senator Grassley and three other GOP Senators found “hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal fines and penalties” were diverted to foreign governments and the Justice Department’s Working Capital Fund.

This is because many criminal cases were settled out-of-court, and therefore, not given to the VOCA fund.

“The Justice Department appears to have the ability to retroactively modify corporate resolution agreements to ensure criminal penalties are deposited into the [Crime Victims Fund] that would otherwise be deposited elsewhere,” the senators wrote in their letter to the DoJ.

A bipartisan solution

To stabilize the Crime Victims Fund, Congress is considering a new bipartisan bill, Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act. 134 cosponsors have signed to prevent further reductions to VOCA grants.

Eight of North Carolina’s 14 representatives, from both parties, have signed on, including Reps. Donald Davis (D-NC-1), Deborah Ross (D-NC-2), Jeff Jackson (D-NC-14), Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10), Wiley Nickel (D-NC-13), Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11), Gregory Murphy (R-NC-3), and Kathy Manning (D-NC-6).

“I hope VOCA will stabilize,” said Farmer, “The safe houses don’t have time for funding solutions. They’re too busy doing hard work.”

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