Federal Funding Cuts Harm N.J. Efforts to Help Domestic Violence Victims

Domestic violence is an ongoing crisis in New Jersey. In 2023, the state recorded 70,828 domestic violence incidents — a 15 percent increase from a decade earlier — and 57 domestic violence-related homicides, a 46 percent jump from 2019. Against that backdrop, the Trump administration abruptly ended at least 373 public safety grants in April 2025 that struck at programs working to keep women safe and alive.

The cuts pulled roughly $500 million in DOJ Office of Justice Programs funds from assorted state programs across the nation. New Jersey was among the hardest-hit states, losing 21 programs and an estimated $13 million in active, mid-stream awards. At a public briefing, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin stated the cuts would get people killed.

The cuts fell with particular force on New Jersey's network of domestic violence organizations — programs that serve some of the state's most vulnerable women: low-income, Black and Hispanic, and many with children.

Why it Matters

Compounding the cuts, New Jersey faces losses from two federal funding streams that have underwritten domestic violence services:

• The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed in 1994, funds shelters, legal advocacy, counseling, emergency housing, and more.
• The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), created in 1984, supports victim services using criminal fines — not taxpayer dollars.

New Jersey received an average of $9.1 million per year in VAWA grants from 2020 onward and $9.9 million in VOCA Crime Victims Fund allocation in FY2024 alone. New Jersey providers received no VAWA funding in 2025 despite getting $11.2 million in 2024.

What happened? In 2025, DOJ froze VAWA grants. Applications and information were taken down from the Office on Violence Against Women’s website right before the usual application deadline. As of May 29, 2026, the grant opportunities still say, “not currently accepting applications.”

Background

The funding cuts have real impacts on real programs.

The Essex County Family Justice Center (ECFJC), New Jersey's first family justice center, opened in 2010 with a mission to bring coordinated services — legal advocacy, counseling, safety planning, housing assistance, law enforcement connections — under one roof so survivors would not have to navigate multiple agencies while in crisis.

The center has served more than 11,300 survivors of domestic violence since its founding. The demographics tell the story of who is most at risk: nearly all clients are female. Most are African American (53%) or Hispanic (35%); and 82% earn less than $20,000 annually. Seventy-six percent have at least one child under 18.

The federal cuts eliminated 87 percent of the center's operating budget virtually overnight — all government grants were either withheld, suspended, or not renewed.

In Camden — one of the cities where $3.5 million in combined Community Violence Intervention (CVI) and violence intervention funding was cut — the New Jersey Association on Correction's Camden Bilingual/Multicultural & Legal Advocacy Project has been a cornerstone of services for domestic violence survivors since 1986.

Prior to the cuts, the program had assisted more than 3,268 victims, providing trained bilingual staff to navigate barriers that language, immigration status, and cultural context create for survivors seeking help.

Camden County also relies on VAWA-funded Domestic Violence Response Team coordination and county prosecutors' office grants — both now frozen or terminated.

The funding crisis falls disproportionately hard on New Jersey's rural counties, where community-based prevention programs are already scarce and distances to services are vast.

Organizations like Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Intervention Services (DASI) in Sussex County, Salem County Women's Services, the Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center of Warren County, and AVANZAR in Atlantic County have each served as the sole lead domestic violence agency in their counties — entirely dependent on the VOCA and VAWA funding streams.

What We're Watching

The loss of federal funds has forced organizations into wrenching choices: lay off staff, drain reserves, shrink services, or close.

Emergency philanthropic responses have filled only a fraction of the gap. The Community Foundation of New Jersey's NJ Strong Emergency Fund raised just over $1 million — against $3.7 million in requests.

The most direct legislative response to the funding crisis is already law. The New Jersey FY2026 state budget (S2026), signed by the Gov. Phil Murphy on June 30, 2025, includes a provision requiring that funding for domestic violence agencies and the NJ Coalition to End Domestic Violence be no less than FY2021 levels, plus an additional $6 million to strengthen and expand domestic violence services statewide.

This floor provision was designed to prevent state-level erosion as federal funds disappear.

However, the $6 million increase does not come close to replacing the $13 million in active federal grants terminated in April 2025, let alone the full VAWA allocation of $11.2 million that NJ received in 2024. 

Other Updates

• State budget add-on: The NJ Coalition to End Domestic Violence is urging the legislature in the FY 2027 budget to increase funding for DV services by $15M bringing the total funding for Domestic Violence services to $38.4M to offset the loss of federal funding, ensure the availability of critical core and culturally specific services, to maintain hotels as an option for emergency safe housing, and to support public awareness and education.
• Federal advocacy: More than 100 congressional Democrats, led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Young Kim, R-Calif., wrote to former Attorney General Bondi demanding restoration of VAWA funding. Congressman Frank Pallone and 32 House colleagues separately called for the immediate release of nearly $10 million in withheld New Jersey funds from the Crime Victims Fund. As of May 2026, those funds have not been fully restored.
• The most concrete win on the federal funding front came not from legislation but from litigation filed in August 2025. In November 2025, former New Jersey Attorney General Platkin announced a settlement with the DOJ ensuring that VOCA and VAWA funds would flow to NJ programs without new immigration-related restrictions that would have cut off services to undocumented survivors. The settlement preserved existing funding conditions — but did not restore the funds already terminated in April 2025.

Resources

Brennan Center - Crime-Prevention Efforts Face Setbacks After Federal Cuts
New Jersey Monitor - Feds' Funding Cuts Will Get People Killed, AG Says
New Jersey Monitor - NJ Democrats blast federal restrictions on domestic violence aid
Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. - Pallone Fights to Unlock $10 Million for NJ Domestic Violence Survivors
The 19th - Without federal funding, almost no money exists to fight domestic violence
Time - 'People Are Going to Die': Cuts Leave Domestic Violence Support Groups Reeling
Council on Criminal Justice - DOJ Funding Update — A Deeper Look at the Cuts
Essex County Family Justice Center
NJ Coalition to End Domestic Violence — Policy