Every Californian deserves to live in a world free from violence. However, this is not the reality for millions of Californians — especially women, people of color, transgender, and non-binary Californians — who experience domestic and sexual violence every year. Programs that provide essential services to survivors are critical tools in protecting survivors’ safety and helping them heal and recover. However, federal cuts have resulted in large funding gaps for these programs, and ongoing threats by Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration, including a federal funding freeze or additional budget cuts, would harm the ability of service providers to support survivors. Ongoing funding at the state and federal level is needed to ensure that survivors are provided with the crucial services they need.
How are Programs Supporting Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence Funded?
California receives federal dollars through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) that help fund programs that provide survivors with services like emergency shelter, counseling, and financial assistance. However, anticipated cuts, a priority of Congressional Republicans, to VOCA at the federal level would result in a roughly 45% cut to state grants for organizations that support survivors of crime, decimating the funding of many of these organizations who rely entirely on VOCA dollars to provide these critical services. Additionally, the Trump administration has already proposed actions that would threaten the ability of VOCA and other related funding to reach service providers.
Where Do the Victims of Crime Act Funds Come From?
The Victims of Crime Act was a bipartisan effort passed in 1984 with the purpose to help survivors of crime with the associated costs like medical bills and lost wages. The passage of VOCA established the Crime Victims’ Fund, which is what holds the dollars to support survivors. The money in the fund is collected by the federal government and comes from criminal fines, penalties, forfeited bail bonds, and special assessments paid by people or corporations convicted of federal crimes.
Those dollars do not directly go to states. Congress authorizes the release of a set amount of money, or cap, each year from the fund. As shown in the following diagram, the process of distributing the funds involves multiple steps and allocates funds to several purposes, before ultimately reaching the states to support crime victim services.
Once the funds have gone through every step in the above chart, the very last step is awarding 47.5% of the remaining balance in grants to states. This is not the only way these dollars can go to states to support victim services — shelters also get funding through other federal agencies and grants — but the dollars awarded through the victim assistance formula grants are the most direct and most flexible. In California, the money goes to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, who administers the funding to eligible organizations that provide direct services to survivors.
Federal Funding Levels are Inconsistent, Causing Challenges for Survivor Service Providers
Unfortunately, while this funding is necessary to provide crucial support to survivors, it is currently insufficient due to federal funding cuts. Since 2019, funding has fallen far short of levels needed to maintain the services local organizations provide to more than 816,000 victims of crime in California. While the state stepped in and provided $103 million in one-time funding to backfill federal VOCA funding gaps in 2024, no funding was provided in the governor’s 2025-26 proposed budget even though cuts are expected at the federal level again. At the current funding level, programs will have experienced a 67% cut in funding since 2019.
Due to changes in the amount Congress decides to allocate each year to be released from the fund and large fluctuations in the amount collected in federal fines and fees, funding for survivors is precarious. As shown in the chart below, there have been large swings in the amount in the Crime Victims Fund, such as in 2017 when there was a $4.3 billion settlement from Volkswagen that led to a massive increase in the amount of funding sent to California the following year. These swings in funding levels have largely been due to unexpectedly large criminal fines and settlements, which can change drastically from year to year and create instability so programs cannot count on consistent funding to provide the critical services necessary for survivors.
What Are the Current Threats to This Funding?
While the dollars in the Crime Victims Fund come from criminal fines and fees, they are unfortunately still under threat by the proposed unconstitutional federal funding freeze by President Trump. The funding freeze is currently on pause and facing legal challenges, but if it were to go forward, the administration could pursue several potential actions that would harm survivors and service providers by:
- Putting new grant conditions on the funds programs receive to limit who can be served or what services are prioritized;
- Working with Congress to reduce or zero out how much is released from the fund each year; or
- Using VOCA funding release to fund programs that do not support survivors or victims of crime.
How can state and federal policymakers better support survivors?
Programs that support survivors can be better resourced in two ways:
- State-Level: The state can help fill the gaps left by the federal government cutting VOCA funding to ensure that every Californian can feel safe. Ongoing, stable funding is crucial for service providers to be able to best support survivors.
- Federal-Level: Ensure that the funding freeze does not resume and do not continue to make cuts to VOCA funding. Proposed and planned federal budget cuts threaten the ability of domestic and sexual violence service providers to care for survivors, which puts the health and well-being of millions of Californians at risk in favor of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Instead, Congress should appropriate adequate funding to be released each year from the fund in order for service providers to maintain and grow their critical programs.
