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    • Victims of Crime Act funding cuts devastate nonprofits
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    Victims of Crime Act funding cuts devastate nonprofits

    Umito Posted on

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    Upstate nonprofits serving crime victims and others vulnerable to violence have been forced to lay off employees after another year of cuts in federal funding.

    The Victims of Crime Act was signed in 1984 to fund nonprofit victim advocacy organizations and agencies. The Crime Victims Fund is based on fines and penalties resulting from convictions in federal cases.

    Over the past five years, organizations across the United States have received less funding, including three in the Upstate. First Light lost $109,593 this year; the Julie Valentine Center lost $89,000 and the REST Project will lose $163,597.

    First Light is a nonprofit organization that fights sexual assault and child abuse in Anderson and Oconee counties. The organization’s executive director, Chelsey Hucker, said the cuts resulted in counselors being laid off, which affected staff morale.

    “It’s been so hard. I don’t want my staff to worry about anything except how to best serve our customers, I don’t want them to worry about finances, I don’t want them to worry about funding our agency,” she said. . “At the same time, I also don’t want to mislead them and tell them that everything will be fine, that we will be able to maintain this level of budget cuts year after year because we can’t – no one can do it. .”

    Funding has declined over the past six years, declining steadily since 2020. This year was the fund’s lowest since the decline began.

    South Carolina received $12.4 million in 2024, less than the $21.2 million it received in 2023 and the $22.2 million it received in 2022. State received the highest amount – $50.8 million – in 2018.

    Robert Kittle, a spokesman for the South Carolina attorney general’s office, said VOCA funding in previous years alone has funded 693 full-time and 122 part-time positions in the state. For the 2023-2024 grant cycle, that number dropped to 399 full-time positions and 134 part-time positions.

    Hucker said ultimately deficits could harm communities. “If we can’t provide a service, that service isn’t available, period. It harms a community. If we continue to not receive the level of funding we need to continue operating, it’s going to have a domino effect. »

    Why has funding decreased?

    Funding for VOCA comes from federal criminal fines, forfeited bail, penalties, and special assessments collected by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, federal courts, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

    According to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice in the last two administrations failed to obtain the significant fines and settlements that would have allowed the fund to reach the level it had in the past.

    Project REST operates in Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union counties to assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Krystal Watson, the organization’s executive director, said funding cuts have already hurt daily operations and added stress to her small staff of about 30 people.

    “It had a devastating effect. We are already working at capacity with the staff we currently have, and so it is stressful and frustrating. We will do everything we can to respond to every crisis call, but it becomes very difficult and it puts a strain on us,” she said.

    In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the VOCA Fix bill. The bill seeks to stabilize VOCA funding by directing revenue from deferred prosecution and non-prosecution agreements to be deposited directly into the Crime Victims Fund. Currently, these revenues are deposited into the general fund of the U.S. Treasury.

    “Our hope is that as the provisions of the VOCA Fix Act 2021 continue to take effect, the VOCA funding available to states will eventually begin to increase. The DOJ has recently been more aggressive in demanding higher fines and settlements to help the fund. However, at this time we cannot predict what the coming years might look like,” said Kittle, the attorney general’s spokesperson.

    How does this affect nonprofits?

    The Julie Valentine Center supports victims of sexual assault, incest, child abuse and neglect in Greenville County.

    Shauna Galloway-Williams, executive director of the organization, said the number of crime victims increases as the county’s population increases. His center is also struggling to meet staffing needs.

    “We continue to go above and beyond to provide these services, but at some point we reach capacity. That’s when it becomes very frustrating, because that person who is not receiving services due to understaffing could be someone you or I know,” Galloway-Williams said.

    Upstate nonprofits need to seek outside funding and grants to help alleviate budget cuts, but that can only last for so long, she added.

    “It’s like continually plugging this slow leak. Eventually something has to give,” Galloway-Williams said.

    Each organization serves more than 1,000 victims per year.

    Project REST’s Watson said the funding was intended not only for staff, but also for software maintenance and shelters at their multiple locations.

    “We have to keep the lights on, pay the water bill, all the utilities we use, and that (VOCA) covers the training. This is what many people don’t realize; it takes a lot of money to run our shelters, and without funding, everything is on the line,” Watson said.

    She said if shelters continue to face cuts, the possibility of closure would be a sad fate for the communities they serve.

    “They (survivors of domestic violence who return to their abusers) are at higher risk of being killed. This is crucial. We need to be able to stop this cycle because people have left our shelters saying they have nowhere to go. They go back to their attacker, and that’s the most terrifying thing they can do,” Watson said.

    Organizations rely on local funding and donations to ease this burden.

    “I wish we could get a more stable funding stream,” Hucker said. “There is only a limited amount of private funding, and all agencies like ours are experiencing these cuts. It’s difficult when you have a limited pool of funding that you’re fighting for and you don’t want to take resources away from someone else. »

    Tropical Storm Helene damaged many areas of the Upstate, western North Carolina and Tennessee. It caused 50 deaths in South Carolina and 22 in the north of the state. According to Hucker, First Light lost power and internet for nearly a week and was unable to provide in-person services.

    The issues were similar for the REST project. According to Watson, their offices were closed and without power for days. Their emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence was almost at capacity during the storm and was also without power.

    “Many staff members continued to work despite the unsafe conditions, so we did not have to turn away clients or remove them from our shelter,” Watson said.

    Umito
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