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Local domestic violence providers warn committee budget cuts would curtail services
Summary
Shelters and community-based domestic violence programs told the Budget & Finance Committee that state and local cuts could close community offices, eliminate liaisons to CPS and case managers, and remove emergency client funds; providers estimated roughly $1.5 million in combined state and local cuts affecting the sector.
Representatives from the Riley Center, Woman Inc. and the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium told the committee that proposed state and local reductions would substantially reduce their ability to serve survivors of domestic violence.
Maria Chavez of the Riley Center said the community office would close under the proposed cuts, eliminating domestic violence liaisons who assist with CalWORKs waivers, child-protection system coordination and other wraparound services. "The closing of our community office would be significant," Chavez said, and she listed losses that would include case managers, crisis drop-in services and $12,000 in client emergency funds.
Roberta Toomer, executive director of Woman Inc., said the agency operates the city's crisis line and subcontracts with shelters; she warned that funding reductions to core shelter providers would ripple to her organization's revenue. Beverly Upton of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium said the governor's May revise and local cuts could combine to produce about $1.5 million in reductions across shelters and subcontractors, and estimated approximately $665,000 in local city cuts.
Kate Howard of the mayor's office said the mayor's budget had not made cuts to those programs previously and that she hoped the mayor would not need to cut these services in the coming budget.
Supervisors and staff asked departments to continue to monitor the proposals and to highlight vulnerable direct-service programs as the city refines its budget assumptions.
