State could boost services for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse with $20 million appropriation

Fighting back tears, Lauren Franzen described enduring years of physical and emotional abuse from her domestic partner.

“I had been isolated, degraded, beaten, and controlled by my partner,” she told the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee Thursday. “I felt broken and alone.”

After arriving at a domestic abuse shelter with her 1-year-old daughter, Franzen received food and shelter immediately. During her five-month stay, she received clothes, money to pay past due utility bills, transportation, child care, and help dealing with eviction notices and obtaining permanent housing, among other services.

“I moved into a new place, and for the first time ever, I have all my kids with me,” she said. “And it is a safe place.”

But opportunities for happier endings like hers are dwindling.

Rep. Kelly Moller

“We are in dire straits with victim services in this state right now,” says Rep. Kelly Moller (DFL-Shoreview).

The safety and support these kinds of shelters provide to victims is in jeopardy due to chronic underfunding, said PaHoua Vang, interim executive director of Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Vang described how a 21-bed shelter in Hastings operated by 360 Communities and serving about 200 people annually has closed. “This was the first closure related to the lack of funding,” she said. “But we know without additional crime victim services funding it won’t be the last.”

Moller sponsors HF3398, which would appropriate $20 million in fiscal year 2025 to the Office of Justice Programs within the Department of Public Safety “to provide grants for direct services and advocacy for victims of sexual assault, general crime, domestic violence, and child abuse.” It was laid over by the committee.

“Advocacy programs are critical to public safety. They are critical services to victims and survivors,” Moller said.

But despite increased funding to the office in last year’s biennial budget, Moller said the needs of victims and survivors are still not being met, in part because promised federal funds have not materialized.

Rep. Elliott Engen (R-White Bear Township) unsuccessfully offered an amendment — it failed on a 9-6 party-line vote — to redirect the $20 million to the funds used by the Crime Victims Reimbursement Board to compensate crime victims for monetary losses resulting from a crime committed against them.

The Office of Justice Programs uses a small portion of money it is given to cover administrative costs; advocacy groups do the same and have to pay their staff, he said.

“This [amendment] would just ensure that every single dollar goes toward victims,” he said.

While the function of the board is important, Moller said not all crime victims are eligible to receive reimbursement, and the board only distributes funds months after a crime has been committed.

The victim support that would be funded by the bill is immediate, and includes clothing, transportation, shelter, medicine, and food when victims need it most, Moller said.