Of Noelle Harff

UNC Media Hub

Domestic violence shelters in North Carolina are stretched to their limits federal funds disappear.

Federal Crime Victims Act funding has fell for the sixth year in a row. Domestic violence centers in North Carolina are facing increasing demand, with only a quarter of the funding they had five years ago.

Next year, North Carolina’s VOCA grants are expected to drop even further, to about 3.5 million dollars.

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

A family escape

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

Every safe house within a few hundred miles was full. The family stayed in a hotel for several nights while the children transferred to a new school, restraining orders were filed, and the family looked for a new place to live. Moreover, all 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 additional details to protect the family’s identity.

This is just one of the 2,500 cases the Compass Center processes each year.

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

“I transported people by taxi to the mountain. I taxied them to the coast. If that is not an option, then we often look at domestic violence shelters in all states. We even took a few people out of the country,” McEnaney said.

More than an escape

“Some people are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” McEnaney said. Many victims face a difficult choice: start their lives over or continue to endure the abuse.

Most domestic violence prevention centers offer legal assistance, job support, transportation, counseling, and help with hospital bills. However, drastic funding cuts have forced many to cut back on essential services.

Since 2018, help for hospital visits has fallen by 70 per cent, while job and counseling services have been halved.

“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 percent of its revenue, and this year, funding is expected to drop by nearly 95 percent.

Where did the money go?

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

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

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

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

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

“The Department of Justice appears to have the ability to retroactively amend corporate settlement agreements to ensure that criminal penalties are filed in the (Crime Victims’ Fund) that would otherwise be filed elsewhere,” the senators wrote in their letter to the DOJ .

A bipartisan solution

To stabilize the Victims of Crime Fund, Congress is considering a new bipartisan bill, Law establishing the fund for victims of crime. As of November 14, 188 cosponsors have signed on to prevent further cuts to VOCA grants.

Eight of North Carolina’s 14 bipartisan representatives 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,” Farmer said. “Safe houses don’t have time for financing solutions. They are too busy with hard work.”