Domestic violence services freeze hiring amid proposed federal funding cuts
July 3, 2025
July 2, 2025 | Iselin Bratz for Maine Public Radio
Domestic violence services in Maine have frozen hiring among federal funding concerns.
Grants under the Violence Against Women Act and other domestic violence specific funding face a nearly 30% decrease under the Trump Administrations budget proposal. For many services, these grants can make up to about three quarters of their funding. Now they are bracing for service cuts.
Francine Garland Stark, is the Executive Director of the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, a statewide membership organization with 10 member programs, that provide crisis services, advocacy, education, and shelter, while also shaping policy and serving as the state-level voice for survivors.
According to Stark, those services took 40,000 calls across the state and assisted over 12,000 survivors. In a given day, many resource centers provide assistance to almost 500 people. Stark said that they need a “sufficient workforce to meet that need.”
“Everything has its limit,” Stark said, “It’s impossible for increasingly shrinking numbers of workers to be able to serve all of the need.”
The current budget proposes a reduction in funds for many competitive grants under the Violence Against Women Act and other domestic violence specific funding that support rapid rehousing programs. The funds were initially frozen in January, while the grants are open now for applications, the reduction in funds makes many of the grants more competitive. With less money available, some centers are unsure whether they will be able to maintain many of their programs.
Safe Voices, a domestic violence center that serves the Androscoggin, Oxford, and Franklin counties, currently receives 40% of their budget from federal grants, about $1.5 million annually. Rebecca Austin, the Executive Director for Safe Voices, said they have decided not to hire more staff as they wait to find out how their budget will look.
“We’re really trying to think about what our core services are and how to whittle down our services so we are meeting the most critical and basic need of the survivors that we’re working with,” Austin said, “That means having to make some pretty tough decisions.”
“For us, it feels like the stakes are really high, because our work at its core is homicide prevention.”
– Safe Voices Executive Director Rebecca Austin
Currently, Safe Voices are missing a housing navigator, a shelter advocate, and a legal advocate. As a result, many of the survivors they care for get less time with advocates and are facing longer waiting periods. Austin said this is incredibly worrying as survivors often only have a small window where they decide to leave their abusers.
“The real risk is that people are going to be experiencing abuse, that violence is going to continue, it’s going to escalate, and then sometimes end up very tragic,” Austin said.
Despite having low crime, in Maine, close to 50% of homicides are the result of domestic violence. At Safe Voices, Austin said the need for their services has only increased in the past couple of years. The center has seen about a 54% increase in requests for services with 2,744 survivors across the three counties being served last year.
“For us, it feels like the stakes are really high, because our work at its core is homicide prevention,” Austin said.
Many services have considered turning to more private grant funding. But Austin said that for them, this may not be enough. She said Safe Voices has already maximized most of their private recourses. As a result, many similar services are now looking to potential state funding. According to Stark, historically low state funding has not increased to match the rising costs of running these services. While a bill was proposed this year, LD 875, which would have increased this revenue, lawmakers tabled the measure until next legislative session.
Austin said that if the federal funding falls through, 16 staff positions may be eliminated. It would also mean closing their Oxford County office, and their Safe House, which is the only shelter dedicated for survivors of sex trafficking and exploitation in the state.
But both Stark and Austin say the problem moves beyond grant funding. The budget bill proposed cuts to supports like Medicare and housing which will likely deepen the crisis for many victims of domestic abuse. Many of the programs’ partners, including the district attorney’s office and community-based organizations, are also facing challenges with rising costs that are not being met by funding.
“If people lose access to their health care, if they lose access to housing supports, if they lose access to educational supports… there are going to be families in really deep crisis right away as a result of choices being made on the federal level,” Stark said.
Despite this, Stark said that the centers across the state are weighing the decisions they must make to not affect their accessibility. Austin agreed with this sentiment, saying that she does not want any survivor to feel that their case is not bad enough and they should not be afraid to reach out.
“We are here, we are still doing the work, and we still want to be here to support them,” Austin said.