Shelters and advocates ask Senate Finance for $10 million total to offset federal cuts and sustain expansions

Mariah Wineski, director of the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, briefed senators on statewide shelter funding and said House Bill 1 currently includes $7 million for domestic-violence victim services but that the coalition requested an additional $3 million to reach a $10 million allocation.

Wineski said the state funds enacted over the past two years helped create over 200 new shelter beds and 11 outreach offices; she noted the number of unmet requests for emergency shelter dropped from a historical 2,500 to about 1,400 last year but remains unacceptably high. She said federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding has fallen sharply—citing a decline from approximately $5.39 million five years earlier to $2.7 million in 2023 and about $1.1 million for FY24—and that state funding has had to plug gaps created by federal reductions.

Faith House, Family Justice Center and other local shelter directors described local impacts—lost staff, reduced capacity and slower expansion—and urged a $10 million allocation to sustain the network and restore services cut by federal funding losses.

Senators asked for clarifications on DCFS and VOCA funding lines and the committee received a detailed VOCA decline breakdown from witnesses. Several senators expressed support for further review and consideration of a supplemental increase to prevent service erosion.

Ending: The committee requested specific fiscal breakdowns from DCFS and the state commission that administers VOCA to confirm trends and to model the effect of a $3 million Senate increase.