TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A recent murder suicide has put a fresh, sharp point on a problem that’s really always been there: domestic violence and now there’s an additional problem. Agencies like Emerge are losing some of the Federal resources they need to prevent and respond to that problem.
“We're facing a $2.5 million shortfall this fiscal year,” says Anna Harper, CEO of Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse.
That is about one-third of the budget for Emerge.
Harper can not apply for some of the Federal grants Emerge usually depends on. They’re just not offered anymore.
She says in an average year Emerge helps five to six thousand people, adults and children, find shelter from abusers, cope with injuries, get counseling to avoid falling back under the power of an abuser and push through abuse prosecutions.
Now she is trying to preserve a system that’s evolved over fifty years of cooperation with Emerge, law enforcement and other service agencies.
“We have to find a way to maintain our full continuum of services, or we'll continue to spin our wheels and we'll see the same folks cycling in and out of the system.”
Harper says when domestic abuse programs are not funded, expenses rise throughout the system, with higher emergency medical care, greater need for food programs, and more demand on school systems because of how children are affected.
Those other agencies have their own funding problems with tight budgets and changing Federal priorities.
She’s hoping political leaders will see domestic abuse as an issue that cuts across politics and help restore the resources that help keep families safe.
