‘Five-alarm fire’: Minnesota domestic violence groups are scrambling after federal funding pause

Jen Polzin has been crunching the numbers, and they don’t look good.

The CEO of Tubman said their organization gets about a third of its annual funding − roughly $3 million − from the federal government. They’ve relied on those funds to reimburse them for work done across the state, including providing shelter for victims of domestic abuse.

But the funding has been put on pause by the Trump administration, possibly violating a court order and sending victim advocate groups across the state scrambling for ways to fill the gaps.

“We’re all contingency planning as fast as we can,” said Polzin, who added that some programs will have to close their doors altogether if funding doesn’t resume.

“In many areas there is only one advocate serving an entire county,” she said. “If this funding is frozen, entire swaths of the state of Minnesota will not have services available whatsoever.”

In January, the Trump administration issued a memo saying it planned to withhold all federal funding for weeks while the government did a massive ideological review of how taxpayer dollars were being spent. That effort was quickly blocked by a federal judge after groups sued, but in the weeks that have followed, some organizations have noticed they can no longer access their usual funding streams.

Minnesota receives federal dollars to fund everything from domestic violence shelters, sexual assault advocates, child abuse centers and connections to housing. Groups help victims with legal services, including getting orders of protection against their abusers.

Republicans in the Legislature have pushed back on Democrats for raising concerns about possible federal spending cuts, calling instead for a closer look at increased state spending in Minnesota.

Funding for these programs has primarily come through the federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Groups seek reimbursement from the federal government.

“Folks are doing this work right now and now they are not getting paid,” said Sen. Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St. Paul. “How can you survive?”

The Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women has removed information on current funding opportunities from its website and advises groups not to finalize any applications, said Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview.

Moller, who also works as a prosecutor, said the state has stepped in and tried to backfill cuts in federal funds in recent years, but it will be difficult for the state to cover the full federal gap.

“It has made what was already a crisis in Minnesota a five-alarm fire,” Moller said. “If these advocacy programs close, Minnesotans will be less safe.”

Kenosha Alexander, executive director of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said programs are having to scale back services as waitlists grow.

“These funds are not just numbers on a budget sheet, they are lifelines,” she said.

Without federal funding “we dissolve,” said Guadalupe Lopez, executive director of Violence Free Minnesota, which gets 80% of its support from federal funds.

Her organization creates an annual list of people who died from intimate partner violence in the state. It also works to pass policies at the state level to support victims. According to the group’s 2023 report, at least 26 women, three men and 11 bystanders or intervenors died from domestic violence that year.

“Our law enforcement cannot keep up with it. Our child systems cannot keep up with the work we touch on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

Children’s advocacy groups, which help communities respond to child abuse through services such as forensic interviews, are largely funded through the federal government, said Marcia Milliken, executive director at the Minnesota Children’s Alliance.

There are 13 children’s advocacy centers across the state that could lose $4.5 million, she said. Even though the funding might eventually be resumed, the advocacy groups are already planning as if it is going to be cut.

“We are looking at things like how do we keep staff,” Milliken said. “Our lease is up, they want us to sign for three years and I had to decide no, we’re not going to have an office.”