Gov. Jeff Landry will seek to increase state domestic violence prevention funding permanently, the governor said Monday. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
Gov. Jeff Landry will seek more stable funding for domestic violence prevention services after his initial budget proposal threatened to cut them.
“Throughout my years as an elected official, I have never wavered in my support of domestic violence services. They are necessary, live-saving [sic], and essential, and must be treated as such,” Landry said in a written statement Monday.
Landry’s first budget plan last week reduced funding for anti-domestic violence programs by $7 million for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence had received the additional $7 million the two previous years and used the money to expand shelter capacity and open new outreach offices across the state.
Mariah Stidham Wineski, the coalition’s executive director, said she would have to close domestic violence shelter beds and services for survivors unless the money was restored.
“It would have an almost immediate and catastrophic effect,” she said of the proposed cut last week.
In response to Landry’s public statement Monday however, Wineski said she was happy to see the governor’s swift reaction and commitment to keep domestic violence services whole.
“We are certainly encouraged to work with the administration on this issue,” she said in an interview. “Domestic violence victim services are just basic infrastructure at this point.”
Domestic violence is one of the largest public safety issues facing Louisiana. In 2020, the state had the fifth highest female homicide rate in the country, and more than half of women who were victims that year were killed by an intimate partner, according to the Violence Policy Center.
A 2021 investigation by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor concluded the state desperately needed more shelter beds for domestic violence survivors. At the time, Louisiana’s 16 shelters had a total of 389 spaces and an average of 2,700 unmet requests for shelter beds every year.
Landry is a former sheriff’s deputy and was responsible for helping with state domestic violence prevention efforts as state attorney general from 2016-23. Specifically, his office helped train law enforcement on handling domestic violence cases.
The governor attributed the initial funding reduction in his budget proposal last week to the temporary nature of the $7 million for domestic violence prevention in previous years. In 2023 and 2024, legislators had added the money but did not put it permanently into the budget.
“I am committed to work with the Legislature to ensure there is a higher funding base for these services, and that it remains permanently in our budget, rather than as one time funding,” Landry said in his statement.
The governor did not say he would provide the full $7 million, but his spokeswoman Kate Kelly, said he wanted to find enough money, possibly the whole $7 million, such that services weren’t reduced or cut.
Over 2023 and 2024, Wineski’s organization used the $7 million they received each year to add 229 shelter beds statewide, which brought the total number of spaces to a little over 600 slots. The money also opened 11 new outreach offices.
The number of unmet requests for shelter from intimate partner last year was 1,400 – a historic low for Louisiana, she said.
“This is an ongoing need for our state, and this issue is important enough to our state to be deserving of a permanent allocation,” Wineski said.
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