Vermont Network asks Senate to add $1.2M in base funding to shore up domestic-violence services

Sarah Robinson, co-executive director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 10 that community-based domestic-violence service providers face an immediate funding shortfall and asked the Senate to add $1.2 million in base funding to Vermont’s Domestic and Sexual Violence (DSV) Special Fund.

Robinson described the network as a membership organization representing 15 independent nonprofits that provide shelter, crisis response, court accompaniment and other services statewide. “In 2024, our member organizations provided shelter to 1,400 survivors across Vermont, including nearly 500 children,” she told the committee.

She said the special fund — created in 2008 and primarily supported by surcharges on marriage licenses and on civil and criminal judgments — generates roughly $784,000 a year, which is distributed statewide by a formula that accounts for square miles served, population and whether a program operates a shelter. Robinson said the fund has run a deficit most years since fiscal year 2015 and faces a projected shortfall of about $100,000 for fiscal year 2026.

Robinson said the network’s providers rely heavily on federal grants — about $12 million in total across the membership — and that recent federal actions have worsened the outlook: she reported that grant solicitations from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women have been paused and that the Centers for Disease Control’s violence-prevention grant staffing has been cut, reducing available federal support and prompting layoffs at victim-service programs nationwide.

Against that backdrop, the network requested an initial $1.2 million in base General Fund support to preserve services statewide. Robinson said the House version of the budget included $450,000 in one-time funds to the DSV special fund; the network supports preserving that $450,000 and converting the larger requested amount into base funds to avoid returning each year for one-time requests.

Committee members asked for additional historical data about the fund’s peak revenue; Robinson offered to follow up, stating that the fund has been “over a million in the past” and has been at about $784,000 “for many years in a row.” Members also asked operational questions about shelter capacity and motel overflow arrangements. Robinson said shelters are full in many regions — citing an example of 35 children currently in shelter in one program — and that average shelter stays have lengthened from 30–60 days a decade ago to six to 12 months for some families because of a lack of affordable permanent housing.

Robinson described how some programs use separate homelessness- or housing-opportunity grant dollars to operate motel overflow when shelters are full; those motel-overflow arrangements typically include intensive case management and are intended to move families into shelter as openings occur. She said the motel overflow program in some regions is not subject to a state day-cap that applies to other emergency housing programs.

Committee discussion touched on possible revenue alternatives and the political sensitivity of some revenue sources, such as the marriage-license surcharge that funds the special fund. Senators expressed support for preserving current one-time funds and for exploring long-term revenue options. The committee asked staff to prepare revised language for a letter reflecting the committee’s discussion; members planned to vote on an associated item on April 18.

— Ending note: Robinson asked the Legislature to treat the requested investment as a public-safety priority and said $1.2 million is a “bare minimum” to preserve services rather than expand them.