The recent major wildfires in Los Angeles and its surrounding communities are now ranked the seventh-costliest American natural disaster of the last 45 years, coming in at $80 billion so far.
The enormity of the federal, state and local response to the wildfires overshadows the ongoing response to domestic violence in this country, but not the severity of the problem.
Just like wildfire, the domestic violence crisis cannot be extinguished without the proper systems, resources and accessible workforce. In the case of domestic violence, the efforts to address, intervene and prevent intimate partner violence with complicated infrastructures and human resources are seriously lacking. The chaos caused recently by President Donald Trump’s stop on all federal grants—and the subsequent legal pause ordered by a federal judge—only highlight the urgency to maintain and enhance financial support for domestic violence victims.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 1979, the U.S. surgeon general declared violence one of 15 top public health priorities, and in 1983, the CDC established the Violence Epidemiology Branch to focus on violence prevention. In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, which lapsed in 2019, but in 2022 was restored until 2027.
Just like wildfire, the domestic violence crisis cannot be extinguished without the proper systems, resources and accessible workforce.
The National Network to End Domestic Violence requested a total of $1.9 billion for federal and state budgets to address the prevention of domestic violence. This funding is essential to maintain 24/7 hotline, provide confidential emergency shelters and legal aid. It is necessary to keep many domestic violence agency’s doors open.
In the U.S., more than 16 million people per year experience domestic violence, including one in two women, and two in five men. The numbers show that a person in this country experiences abuse every 32 minutes. In California, 35 percent of women experience domestic violence.
Indeed, many programs and interventions have been developed over the last few decades at the federal, state, local and community level to help those experiencing intimate partner violence. As a professional domestic violence advocate, working on the local city, regional and federal levels, I see the advances as well as the ongoing needs.
When a victim has the courage to leave the person who caused them harm, there are systems in place to facilitate that. A victim has access to 24/7 hotline and could ask for a confidential emergency shelter. An emergency shelter has strict rules to maintain confidentiality and preserve as much as possible safety for the victims but also other participants and staff.
These staff members provide case management and connect the individual to the services that are the most needed. But there is a shortage of space in emergency shelters—whether due to a lack of beds, or lack of staff to do the intake and transfer. This hopeless attempt to flee often validates the abuser’s common threats that, “Nobody will help you besides me.”
The response to domestic violence is not humanely funded. To provide compassionate, adequate and effective services, frontline staff must be paid a decent living wage. Underfunded structures and programs force victims of domestic violence to remain in unsafe situations.
Frontline staff in the nonprofit sector have been sacrificing themselves financially because they care for others. They need to earn more to continue to work for a good cause.
The response to domestic violence is not humanely funded. To provide compassionate, adequate and effective services, front line staff must be paid a decent living wage.
According to Payscale, the average wage for a victim advocate is less than $19 per hour. Domestic violence advocates make a median annual salary of less than $62,000 per year, according to Glassdoor, while a domestic violence counselor can earn a median of $58,000 a year. The modified adjusted gross income for the federal poverty level of a family of four is $43,000.
Oftentimes victim service providers have very little liberty to set the frontline staff pay rate. The case manager’s role is the most common within the pool of victim service providers. They are tasked to support a victim on their journey to healing; from conducting the intake process and working on a plan as assessments and referrals are the basis of it.
Often during the first two hours of the intake process, the case manager and victim are going through an intense summary of the types and level of abuse. As case managers, they hear details about traumatic experiences, so the case manager taking care of themselves can be challenging.
The case manager will review the needs that the client expressed, whether for legal services, medical needs, connection to public benefits, a support group, shelter or employment. Finding a job may be difficult especially with a case open with child protective services or any mandatory services.
As a result of the wildfires in California, as well as displacement from recent hurricanes in other areas of the country, many case managers need to assist victims with re-housing. The case manager works in partnership with the survivor to identify a unit that fits their budget. That problem is worsened if the survivor experienced financial abuse and was not able to go to school or work.
Some domestic violence survivors may be eligible to benefit from a program that provides rental assistance with the need for them to be self-sustainable within a year or so. The staff advocate needs to continue the stabilization process and meet with the survivor during this long journey. Each advocate has perhaps 20 survivors to help through this process.
Many people say they would prefer to see funding going directly to the survivors in the program that aims to serve them, rather than to staff and overhead. But there must be adequate compensation for those who do the work. This is why allocation and priority are also part of the systemic problem.
Without firefighters, the fires that have destroyed one million acres in California would continue to burn more communities. Similarly, the massive public health crisis of domestic violence cannot be met with a minimal budget to adequately fund human resources.
It is urgent to change how policy makers, nonprofit leaders and administrators compensate victim service providers through allocation of funds and making sure that all funds delivered are used, not returned or unspent.
Domestic violence advocates and nonprofit staff provide priceless help and assistance to survivors. But to move them beyond the edge of the poverty level has a price. They need to be paid more.
