Nonprofit Saving Grace provides safety, hope and healing to survivors of intimate partner violence in Central Oregon. 

Congress may have found a way to help children and adults in distress less. Yes, less. Not more.

The Kids Center in Bend helps children and families heal from child abuse. It will get less federal funding.

Saving Grace in Bend helps survivors of sexual assault and violence heal. It will get less funding, as well.

It’s not only happening to those local organizations but to similar nonprofits across the country.

The Victims of Crime Act from 1984 set up a federal fund to provide money to crime victims. The fund is broken and its pot is shrinking. It is dropping by about 40%.

That would mean less money for the Kids Center, Gil Levy, the organization’s executive director, told us.

Most recently, the Kids Center received a grant of $329,000 from the act’s fund. If the cuts are passed along, it would mean about $131,000 less. The Kids Center’s budget is a total of about $3.7 million. Levy told us he is not going to have to cut staff.

“Nobody is looking to downsize over this,” Levy said. “It does mean you have to change your calculation of how you put everything you do together.”

Lisa Cohen, the interim director of Saving Grace, expects her organization may have to cut positions. Over two years, Saving Grace has received about $619,000 from the federal fund. She is expecting a cut of maybe $359,000 over two years. The organization’s annual budget is about $3.3 million.

Cohen said a cut in the funding would mean losing the equivalent of 2.5 positions, possibly translating into losses in outreach programs, bilingual advocates and more.

The root of the federal cuts is in the way the crime act fund is filled. It comes from criminal fines and penalties from federal court. That’s good because criminals pay to help crime victims. The catch is the type of crimes associated with the fund — white collar crimes — are at a low in prosecutions. The federal prosecutions have dropped substantially in the past decade. That means lowered deposits in the fund. At the same time, it’s not like the need for services the fund pays for are dropping.

There is legislation in Congress that aims to help, such as H.R. 8061, the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2024. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, has signed on as cosponsor. Will that or similar legislation in the Senate pass in this election year? Not sure we can count on that.

It may be that the state of Oregon will step in and fill the gap. But why should the state have to cut a state program to fill in the money when the federal government is faltering?