State puts together $100 million safety net for victim services in Santa Barbara and surrounding areas

When Congress announced earlier this year it would cut funding for crime victim services, rape crisis centers in Santa Barbara County questioned their ability to provide 24/7 support to sexual assault victims, suffering a combined loss of more than $400,000.

Concerns have been raised about a nearly $700 million cut in funding for the Victims of Crime Assistance Act (VOCA) — the largest federal source of funding for these programs — that could force victim service providers across the country to lay off staff, scale back programs, or even close altogether.

But in response, California recently gave itself a $103 million tourniquet to keep these important programs from going under — at least for now.

Governor Gavin Newsom earmarked the one-time funding in his fiscal 2024 budget deal after pressure and outcry from human rights advocates who wanted to protect victims of rape, domestic violence and child abuse from state budget cuts and shouted, “Don’t balance the budget on victims!”

The funding will enable local services such as the North County Rape Crisis Center and Standing Together to End Sexual Assault (STESA) to respond to crisis calls, provide shelter to those fleeing violence, support children and make them feel safe during court hearings, and more.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a bleeding chest wound,” said Ann McCarty, executive director of the North County Rape Crisis Center.

The COVID-19 pandemic and rising living costs have already strained resources and impacted staffing levels at both rape crisis centres.

“We always look far into the future, beyond the year we’re in, which is how we set budgets, plan raises, new hires and programs,” McCarty explained.

“The governor’s funding is getting us through this year, but what about 2025-26 and beyond?” she asked. “We can’t plan for ‘growth’ this year… but we, like most nonprofits, need to add staff to keep up with the growing demand for services.”

She said the one-time state funding is helpful today, “but the future is terrifying.”

It’s true that these issues come at a time when demand for services is rising. In California, a significant shortfall in federal funding is resulting in a 40 to 50 percent reduction in grants to help victims, despite rising rates of domestic violence statewide this year.

A coalition of nearly 400 victim advocacy organizations used the statistics to urge the state to make up for the federal losses, which the California State Association of Counties said were the result of “insufficient annual contributions” to the Victims of Crime Fund (which funds VOCA through federal fines and penalties for white-collar crimes) as well as “uncertainty about the future revenues and long-term sustainability of the VOCA Fund.”

Temporary financial holdouts from the state will allow organizations in rural California communities to keep their offices open, and others are hoping to reopen after losses prevented them from renewing their leases, according to the California VOCA Advocacy Alliance.

“This means that when survivors call the crisis hotline, there will be an advocate on the other end to answer,” the Advocacy Alliance said in a statement.

However, they added, “funding remains uncertain and will likely see a reduction in the near future if federal funding does not increase this fiscal year or without state support in coming years.”

While there is no single scapegoat to drive down criminal fines, as VOCA relies on, data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a research data center affiliated with Syracuse University, shows that the number of white-collar crimes prosecuted by the Department of Justice has declined steadily over the past decade, reaching its lowest level in 2022 since tracking began during the Reagan administration.

Lawmakers are currently exploring other funding options for victim services. Earlier this year, two state bills were introduced — Assembly Bills 1956 and 2432 — to increase funding by requiring the state to match reduced federal funding and create other revenue sources.

“The funding outlook is better now that the governor signed $103 million in one-time funding for this year,” said STESA Executive Director Elsa Granados. “Now the federal government has to fix VOCA. Our state coalition will probably get a breather, and then we’ll start advocating again next year.”