Missouri domestic violence shelters fear budget cuts despite federal funding ‘fix’

Missouri officials next year will reduce funding to domestic violence shelters and other centers for crime victims in anticipation of reductions in federal grant money, a move victims’ advocates say is unnecessary and threatens services during a time of greater need.

For each of the past two years, the Department of Social Services (DSS) has paid out more than $47 million to shelters and other organizations statewide that serve crime victims.

The money comes from the U.S. Department of Justice, which collects fines from those convicted of federal crimes and deposits the money into a victims’ services fund for states to allocate to local programs. It goes toward organizations for survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence that provide services such as therapy, rent deposits, bus fare and employment assistance.

Starting January for the next three years, the department will drop its annual distribution of Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds to $34 million annually. That’s more than a 25% cut, though the reductions may not be distributed evenly across the state.

DSS officials say they’re budgeting conservatively for the next three years because they’ve seen a drop in VOCA funds coming in from the federal government. Due to a decline in the number of convictions sought by federal prosecutors, Missouri’s share of the federal funds has fallen from a peak of more than $61 million in 2018 to about $19 million this year.

Applications for grants have become more competitive, too. The state received 130 applications for VOCA funding for the past two years; for the grants that begin January, it has received 189, according to DSS.

For the state’s 15 child advocacy centers operated by Missouri KidsFirst, the funding reduction next year would mean “immediate layoffs, immediate drop in [the] ability to serve our kids,” executive director Jessica Seitz told lawmakers in a House budget subcommittee on Thursday.

Those centers are where children who may have been abused or neglected are referred for counseling, and where investigators interview them about their cases. They received a total of $6 million annually from Missouri’s VOCA funds the past two years, amounting to anywhere from 30% to 60% of each center’s budget, Seitz said.

DSS chief financial officer Patrick Luebbering told the budget subcommittee the state currently has $66 million in funds available, and he’s anticipating only $19 million for the federal government for the next two years as well.

“We are kind of holding some of that back to even out the grant over the next couple years,” he said, warning of a “big drop” a year later if current funding levels are maintained.

But victims’ and survivors’ advocates said that the state’s concerns will soon be irrelevant. The groups this year rallied around passage of a federal “VOCA fix” that directs fines and fees from deferred federal prosecution agreements toward the crime victims’ fund to keep the money flowing to states. It was championed in Congress by Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner and signed by President Joe Biden in July.

“I think that we really can expect that this fund is going to be replenished sooner than what the original expectation was,” said Colleen Coble, CEO of the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “We have the resources, let’s not sit on them.”

Coble proposed “front-loading” existing VOCA funds for next year’s grants and using COVID-19 relief dollars to make up the shortfall until federal support rises again.

Lawmakers on Thursday raised concerns that state officials were cutting services in the short term based on a “worst-case scenario” that may not happen.

“Now’s not the time to cut funds,” said Rep. Peggy McGaugh, a Carrollton Republican.

Domestic and sexual violence shelters have operated under financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic, but advocates say their services never stopped.

From 2019 to 2020, member agencies of the Missouri coalition saw a 25% increase in case management hours for clients who had survived sexual assault.

“I respect your willingness to try to look long term and try to think bigger-picture, worst-case scenario,” said Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican. “I just also understand that if the worst-case scenario doesn’t happen, we’re going to have to answer for that too.”