Lawmakers question administration’s domestic violence shelter funding cut
18th March 2024 · 0 Comments
By Julie O’Donoghue
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — Louisiana legislators are asking why the Landry administration has removed $7 million in funding for domestic violence shelters in the governor’s proposed state budget that would kick in July 1.
The governor said public safety and crime victims would be his top priority while in office, which leaves advocates for domestic violence victims wondering why their services face cuts.
“If we’re really committed as a legislative and executive branch together to addressing crime … domestic violence sits right in there,” Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, said during a Louisiana House budget hearing this week. “I would hope that my colleagues would help me find that $7 million.”
“When we don’t fund that, we end up with more criminal justice problems, more mental health issues,” Freeman said.
If legislators don’t rearrange Landry’s budget to give the shelters’ more money, the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence will have to pull back its plan to open five new shelters and expand six of 17 existing facilities across the state this year.
“The shelters don’t operate themselves with no staff and no dollars,” Mariah Stidham Wineski, executive director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said in an interview.
The additional $7 million the shelters got last year was supposed to be a one-time only allocation, according to Republican legislative leaders and staff from the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services which Landry oversees.
“That $7 million was not for recurring dollars for [shelter] administration, though I agree we need to look at that,” said Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, who helps lead the state budget process as the House’s Appropriations Committee chairman. “It was specifically to build more shelters.”
Wineski disagreed that the funding wasn’t supposed to continue. Lawmakers told the shelters the extra money would remain in the budget from year to year, and her organization put together a strategy to expand shelter access assuming that funding would remain, she said.
“A one-time influx of dollars is not sufficient,” Wineski said.
Domestic violence is one of the biggest public safety concerns in Louisiana. In 2020, the state had the fifth highest female homicide rate in the country. More than half of women murder victims that year were killed by an intimate partner, according to the Violence Policy Center.
A 2021 investigation by the state Legislative Auditor determined Louisiana is in desperate need of more beds for domestic violence survivors. The state’s shelters had a total of 389 spaces and an average of 2,700 unmet requests for shelter every year.
The audit noted no domestic violence shelters exist in central Louisiana, even though Rapides Parish had the 10 highest number of protective orders issued in the state in 2020.
“I’m a victim of domestic violence, so any funding that is reduced in that area seriously concerns me,” Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said during the budget hearing. “We rank very high in domestic violence cases.”
With an extra $7 million per year, domestic violence shelters planned to expand statewide shelter capacity from 390 to at least 600 beds. They also want to add other outreach services for victims, Wineski said.
The money would open brand new shelters in Avoyelles, Caddo, Livingston, Lafourche and St. Tammany parishes and enlarge existing shelters in southern and northeastern portions of the state. More programs for children and legal assistance would also come online, according to a written plan advocates provided.
Yet officials in the Landry administration declined repeatedly last week to answer questions about whether they thought Louisiana needed more domestic violence shelters.
“Do we have enough [domestic violence shelters] around this state?” Rep. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, asked state officials during the budget hearing. “Although Louisiana is a small state, there is a long way between some of our towns.”
“I don’t think I can answer that question,” responded Toby Comeaux, chief of staff in the Department of Children and Family Services, saying the nonprofit shelters were in a better position to respond.
“Some of those issues are really over our pay grade to be honest with you,” said David Matlock, a retired judge appointed by Landry to lead the Department of Children and Family Services.
The governor’s office did not say, as of presstime, whether Landry would support more funding for domestic violence shelters.
Louisiana has a little wiggle room in its budget this year, but Landry has already indicated he wants to use the extra funding for services other than shelters.
Of the $91.5 million in excess money available to the state, Landry and lawmakers have already allocated $13.1 million for extra pay and equipment for Louisiana State Police and $3 million for Louisiana National Guard troops to go to the Texas border with Mexico.
The governor has also proposed $31 million of that funding go to the prison system and $11 million to juvenile justice services. He’s also looking to spend $15 million on wildfire emergency services, $10 million on new voting machines and another $10 million on state emergency response – leaving little money left over for domestic violence shelters or other needs.
Lawmakers could move funding around in the governor’s plan to give additional financial support to the shelters, but they will have to take those dollars from a state agency or service already expecting to receive the dollars.
This article originally published in the March 18, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
