Trump grant freeze stokes fear for Long Island victims of abuse

Nonprofit organizations serving survivors of domestic violence on Long Island say the suspension of a federal grant program has jeopardized critical services for their clients, including those who have fled abusers.

Leaders of East Hampton-based The Retreat and Suffolk County-based Brighter Tomorrows said they had planned to renew grants for transitional housing through the federal Office on Violence Against Women. The office, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, removed grant opportunities earlier this month for fiscal year 2025, just as many area nonprofits were preparing to submit their applications. The office, also known by its acronym, OVW, was the source of $63 million in grants last year across New York State to victim service organizations, local governments and other recipients.

The Feb. 6 notice on its website read in entirety: "At this time, OVW has withdrawn notices of funding opportunities, and you should not finalize any applications started under them. Please continue to check back on the OVW website to stay up-to-date on current and future open funding opportunities."

Application in progress

Cate Carbonaro, executive director of The Retreat, said she and her colleagues received an email from OVW with similar language. They had already begun work on an application for a transitional housing grant through the office. Had it been successful, Carbonaro said, the grant would have provided $800,000, starting in October, to continue funding rental assistance on Long Island, where housing costs are high and rental apartments scarce.

"It’s housing money for victims of crimes," she said. "The way these people are eventually able to get out of these situations is by getting financial support that lets them become independent from their abuser. It’s temporary money to help them get back on their feet."

The OVW press office referred a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which did not respond when asked for comment. Rosie Hidalgo, the office’s director from 2023 through 2025, left the office in January. The office’s website does not list a current director.

Carbonaro said she worried too about the status of a legal services grant through OVW that her organization uses to hire lawyers to represent its clients in family court.

Shelter funding at risk

Dolores Kordon, executive director of the Suffolk-based Brighter Tomorrows, said her organization had also planned to reapply for a transitional housing grant, which it uses to run two houses that complement its emergency shelter program. Shelter space is limited, as is the time of stay for survivors. The houses Brighter Tomorrows runs through its transitional housing program give more time to those who need it, Kordon said.

"You might have to recover from physical injuries or emotional trauma ... or say someone is having a baby or just gave birth. That’s who we usually put in," Kordon said, adding that her organization had hoped to win a $600,000 grant for the work.

Without that money, she said in a subsequent interview, the organization will try to cobble together funding from other sources to keep the houses open. The cost is probably too high to fundraise, she said. "We'll rely on donations as long as we can," she said. "It'll be a struggle to keep them open."

In 2023, the latest year for which data are available, police departments in Suffolk County reported 5,902 domestic violence victims, according to the state Division of Criminal Justice Services. Departments in Nassau reported 4,410.

The Trump administration and its supporters have identified federal grants as a possible source of waste. Project 2025, a blueprint for conservative governance that President Donald Trump disavowed as a candidate.but has followed in parts since taking office, called for a "comprehensive review of all federal grant disbursals" and an overhaul of the Department of Justice grant application process "to ensure that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are going only to lawful actors who support federal law enforcement and demonstrate the ability and willingness to engage in lawful activities."

OVW was a product of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, a law written by then- U.S. Sen. Joe Biden and then-U.S. Rep. Chuck Schumer. In an interview Monday, Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the suspension of 2025 OVM grants appeared to be connected to work by the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk.

More efficient government

"They slash, and no one knows what the reasons are," Schumer said. "These programs are not waste. They’re lean, they’re efficient and they work." Schumer said the suspension on 2025 grants was not directly connected to the Trump administration’s brief January freeze of current federal spending for what it called at the time "nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal."

In an emailed statement, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) said that removing the grant opportunities amounted to an attack "on some of the most vulnerable members of our society. After decades of progress in protecting victims of domestic violence, Long Island’s women and children will be forced to choose between living in a car, or returning to their abusers."

U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) said the grants needed to be seen in the context of $36 trillion in national debt and "rampant inflation that is putting a heavy strain" on families in his district.

"The Trump Administration's reforms align with its commitment to make government more efficient while safeguarding essential programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid," LaLota said in an emailed statement. "However, if these necessary cuts go too far, I will vigorously advocate, both in the appropriations committee and on the House floor, to ensure that critical funding is restored."

U.S. Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport), also in an emailed statement, called grant funding "critically important for so many local organizations that serve our communities" but said a suspension was needed to "identify waste, fraud, and abuse so that all resources can be allocated appropriately." 

Said U.S. Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Rockville Centre) in an emailed statement: "Organizations across Long Island rely on this funding to help survivors of domestic abuse escape violence."

Billions for programs

Since OVW’s inception in 1995, the office has awarded more than $10.5 billion to community programs nationwide aimed at ending domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. Besides The Retreat, 2024 recipients on Long Island included Patchogue-based advocacy group Sepa Mujer, Suffolk County and Molloy University.

Word of the application withdrawal rocketed around an electronic mailing list used by personnel from hundreds of New York human service agencies, said Sarah Brewster, chief director of services and operations for Long Beach-based Circulo De La Hispanidad, which has used OVW grants in the past.

"We’ve never had this happen before, not that they’ve restricted people from even applying for the grants," Brewster said.

Janine Kava, a spokesperson for the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, which received $9.8 million in 2024 in grants to strengthen victim services and the criminal justice system's response to violent crimes against women, said her agency was "actively monitoring the situation and will determine next steps as additional information becomes available."

The agency's current funding is not affected, she added.

Wendy Linsalata, executive director of Ronkonkoma-based L.I. Against Domestic Violence, which has used OVW grants in the past, said the office’s work should find bipartisan support.

"This is about people being tortured ... their basic human rights being taken from them by the very person who is supposed to love them and care for them," she said. "This is not about DEI."

Some nonprofit leaders said they worried the move signaled a broader pullback from federal funding.

"There are 2,400 domestic violence shelters in the U.S., and I think all of them probably get some federal money, and ... a significant number probably get funding from OVW," said Liz Roberts, CEO of Manhattan-based Safe Horizon, the nation’s largest victim services agency, which is in talks to expand into Nassau.

Her own agency was awarded $2.1 million in OVW grants in 2024 and draws a little more than a quarter of its funding from the federal government.

"We feel that all our federal funding could be at risk," Roberts said. "It would have a huge impact throughout the country if [the federal government] no longer funds the kind of work we do for survivors of violence."