Nonprofits in limbo as DOJ deletes domestic violence grant notice

WASHINGTON — The YMCA in Fargo, N.D., was gearing up this year to once again apply for a key Justice Department grant, one they’ve used to help provide transitional housing for more than 700 domestic violence and sexual assault survivors over the past 18 years.

But information on the funding opportunity was wiped from the office’s webpage in February — well ahead of the grant’s March deadline — and hasn’t returned since, said Erin Prochnow, CEO of YWCA Cass Clay.

“My fear is that there could potentially be no awards provided, which would be incredibly detrimental to those we serve,” Prochnow said. The nonprofit, she said, uses the grant to help house about approximately 25 women and their children annually.

Nonprofits say the removal of Office on Violence Against Women grant information has left them in the lurch on funding they have used for years to provide or assist victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault with temporary housing.

The Justice Department awards tens of millions of dollars each year through the program, and a fiscal year 2025 notice put the expected amount of funding at $40 million.

The situation is driving fears that the transitional housing grants will simply disappear, or return in a diminished form, stifling money for programs that grantees say is vital to helping survivors flee violent or abusive relationships.

The Retreat, a nonprofit on Long Island, currently uses a transitional housing grant to subsidize rent for its clients. The organization started working on their application for this year’s grant, only to see information about the notice get pulled from the OVW webpage.

“It’s devastating, honestly,” said Cate Carbonaro, executive director of The Retreat.

In early February, just weeks into the new Trump administration, funding opportunities were deleted from an OVW webpage, according to nonprofits and archived versions of the page.

“At this time, OVW has withdrawn notices of funding opportunities, and you should not finalize any applications started under them,” the webpage now states. The page says it was updated Feb. 6.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a March memorandum that raised the potential of significant department overhauls, also proposed “consolidating grantmaking work” taking place in OVW and other units, including the Office of Justice Programs.

Justice Department officials did not respond to questions about the memorandum, or the notices being pulled off the webpage.

The dynamic has left the nonprofits in limbo, fueling uncertainty as the organizations instead pivot to considering painful contingency plans.

In Minnesota, Southern Valley Alliance, a nonprofit that supports victims of domestic violence and their families, uses the grant money to provide housing and housing assistance to five families in their transitional housing program.

Christie Larson, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the organization would be forced to make changes without the funding.

“Our transitional housing program would have to be significantly reduced in size, and we wouldn’t be able to serve as many families in need with transitional housing without the support of these funds,” Larson said.

The program helps provide families safe and secure housing, giving them an opportunity to regain their stability, Larson said.

“A lot of times, victims are coming and they have been through significant trauma in their lives,” she said.

Coburn Place, an Indianapolis-based domestic violence housing organization, uses money from the Justice Department’s transitional housing grant for expenses on a building with 35 units, which has security and fully furnished units, said Rachel Scott, the nonprofit’s president and CEO.

Without the funding, there would be “a lot” of deferred maintenance to the building and there would likely be a caseload increase for advocates who work with survivors in transitional housing, Scott said.

It’s easy to ask the community to help launch a new program to help kids, Scott said.

“It’s not as easy to say, ‘Will you pay utilities at our building?’ That’s not something that’s easy to fundraise for,” Scott said. “And that’s why Congress has set up funding sources like this to pay for things that are not easy to fundraise for.”

Nonprofits that have received past grants also say they have largely been left in the dark from OVW on the 2025 transitional housing grants, receiving little to no official communication from the Justice Department.

Scott, in an interview late last month, said she’s received zero official communication from OVW on when the notices might be posted again.

“The program officer who I’ve known for almost four years, who I have emailed, has not responded to me,” Scott said. She described that as “unusual.”

Pulling information on the funding opportunities has also sparked concern about the longer-term viability of OVW funding.

The Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in Massachusetts uses their current OVW transitional housing grant to provide housing assistance to survivors and their children.

Suzanne Dubus, CEO of the organization, said she worries about if the episode is a glimpse of what’s to come with OVW grant funding down the road. Outside of the transitional housing grant, the organization said it has one OVW grant that will end next year and another that will end in 2027.

“If they’re not made to us anymore, then what is that going to mean long term — it’ll be millions of dollars to the organization over the next few years,” Dubus said. “But more than that, it’s going to be hundreds of women and child survivors who are not going to be getting the services.”

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