Understanding VOCA and Funding Issues

VOCA stands for Victims of Crime Act. Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, VOCA is a Crime Victims’ Fund made up of criminal fines, penalties, forfeited bail bonds and special assessments collected by the federal government. It is essentially funding for crime victims from fees paid by those who commit crimes. This is a non-taxpayer fund.

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A set amount of the Crime Victims’ Fund is released each year based on a cap set by the federal appropriations bill. States apply each year for those funds and then distribute them through a grant process to eligible agencies like The Haven. In Virginia, the Department of Criminal Justice Services applies and distributes these funds.

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For various reasons, the deposits being made into the fund have been dwindling for the last five years or so. In 2024 congress passed the VOCA Fix act to allow for other funds to be deposited into the VOCA fund for a 5-year period to rebuild the very necessary fund. While it is a possible long-term solution, it does not help with the funds that have already been reduced for many programs across the nation. 

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We have been fortunate that Virginia lawmakers have made victim services a priority and have used state funds as well as American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the state to help fill in the gaps left by reductions in VOCA. However, the ARPA funding was temporary and ends this year. 

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The Haven Shelter and Services, Inc., and programs like ours have been making every effort to increase other sources of funding. However, we have also seen a significant increase in demand for services, and the needs of those seeking our services have increased in complexity, requiring additional staff and other resources to effectively meet their needs. Survivors are reporting higher rates of potentially fatal violence such as strangulation and use of firearms. Survivors are facing greater barriers to building violence-free lives for themselves and their children such as fewer jobs within our service area that pay a living wage and a lack of affordable housing options in the area. Additionally, the costs of making advocacy services and shelter available to the community have increased significantly. Our service area lacks the presence of larger corporations that have the resources to provide significant funding to non-profit programs. Local churches, civic groups, foundations, businesses, and individuals help to sustain a wide variety of non-profits that are vital to our community.

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The Haven currently provides 24-hour access to our no-cost services through our toll-free hotline. Unfortunately, we have had to reduce crisis response staff who answer the hotline and now depend on the state coalition hotline to answer some of our calls and page on-call staff to respond. While this system works, it is a poor substitute for immediately reaching an advocate who knows the local resources to recommend to a caller and who can assist with safety planning and arrange for emergency shelter, if necessary. 

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The Haven’s advocacy staff are already struggling to ensure that survivors who need accompaniment to hospitals for emergency treatment due to violence, to courts for civil and criminal cases, and other appointments related to the violence they have experienced. There is no fat to trim in our budget. Reducing advocacy or hotline staff further would mean that many survivors would be without the support that they need to address the abuse they are experiencing. Our services save lives. A reduction in services would be a reduction in safety for many in our communities.​