(North Dakota Monitor)–North Dakota domestic and sexual violence advocates are bracing for a sharp decrease in federal funding over the next two years at a time when they’re seeing an increase in violence.
Lawmakers in the upcoming legislative session are expected to see budget requests for additional state funding to compensate for the loss of federal dollars, plus a separate request to bolster nonprofit service providers.
“We have seen a very significant increase in violence across the state of North Dakota,” Liz Schneider, executive director of the McLean Family Resource Center in Washburn, told lawmakers last month. “Especially, coming out of COVID, we’re seeing higher levels of lethality, and the level of violence is almost unfathomable.”
Organizations that serve domestic violence and sexual assault victims receive about half of their funding from federal and local sources, said Coiya Tompkins Inman, president of the Community Violence Intervention Center in Grand Forks, during a recent meeting of the Legislature’s Interim Human Services Committee. About 16% of the funding has come from state dollars, with private donations making up 33%, she said.
The North Dakota Monitor reports that much of the federal funding comes through the crime victim fund established by the Victims of Crime Act, which has seen its balance plummet nationally.
North Dakota expects to award $3.4 million through federal Victims of Crime Act funding this fiscal year and $2.4 million next year, said Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation director of communications Kayli Richards. That is down from average annual funding of $5.2 million over the past few years, she said. Those dollars helped serve more than 17,000 victims of crime last year, she said.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation plans to ask for additional state dollars for the 2025-27 budget to make up for the projected loss, Richards said. The details of the budget request are still being developed.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services will submit its own request to support programs that aid domestic violence sexual assault victims around the state. The agency said it has not finalized the budget request. The programs are advocating for $19 million in state funding for 2025-27, more than double what they received in 2023-25, according to a presentation to lawmakers.
Seth O’Neill, executive director for CAWS North Dakota, said the domestic and sexual violence coalition encompasses 19 different organizations across the state.
“Oftentimes in these smaller communities, they serve as the main resource that people go to when they need help because they know these programs will serve them,” O’Neill told lawmakers.
Crimes against persons in North Dakota jumped 11.5% in 2021, stayed flat in 2022 and increased about 3% in 2023, according to the most recent crime index report from the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office.
Last year, in about 30% of those cases, the victim’s relationship to the offender was boyfriend or girlfriend, spouse or former spouse or intimate partner, the report shows. The categories of rape, aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation and stalking all saw increases last year. The figures do not include statistics from tribal law enforcement and do not include cases that were not reported to law enforcement.
O’Neill said he’s hearing from the service providers about an increase in the level of violence that may not be reflected in the statistics.
“Even if the crime levels aren’t going up a lot, they’re more lethal and more serious,” O’Neill said in an interview. “The danger levels are increasing dramatically.”
Last year, the CAWS North Dakota organizations served more than 7,400 survivors of domestic or sexual assault. In the sexual assault cases, about half of the crimes were reported to law enforcement, according to CAWS.
The organizations did see an increase in state funding from the Legislature for the 2023-25 biennium. The funding through the Department of Health and Human Services increased to about $7.5 million compared to about $3 million in 2021-23.
“The funding that came through last session was historic for our work,” Tompkins Inman said.
The increase allowed programs to increase wages to recruit and retain staff and invest more resources into prevention.
But even with the additional resources, there were needs that were not met. On Sept. 6, 2023, the organizations participated in a survey through the National Network to End Domestic Violence. During a 24-hour period, victims in North Dakota made 70 requests for service that were not met because the programs lacked sufficient resources.
The programs are advocating for additional state funding for assisting domestic violence victims, bolstering sexual violence prevention and providing safe havens for family exchanges and visitation.
