'Deadly consequences': Trump takes a 'sledgehammer' to California crime prevention efforts

Dozens of California violence prevention and victim service programs, including ones to protect survivors of domestic violence and end sexual abuse in jails and prisons, are facing devastating cuts after the Trump administration abruptly pulled funding from them.

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“These programs literally save lives – not just for the victims, but for our entire communities,” said Tinisch Hollins, executive director of the nonprofit organization Californians for Safety and Justice. “When they go away, we lose a safety net.”

The U.S. Justice Department last week slashed grants that were initially valued at $811 million. In California alone, the department cut just over $80 million, the majority of which was for groups based in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco, according to a U.S. Justice Department document obtained and published by Reuters.

The organizations might have already spent some of the grant funding, which typically lasts for three years, and it’s unclear how much the administration clawed back. They have 30 days to appeal the decision. The U.S. Justice Department did not respond to repeated attempts to confirm the list of affected grant recipients in California.

In a statement to CalMatters, Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said, “Under Attorney General (Pam) Bondi’s leadership, the Department of Justice is committed to ensuring its resources are spent on arresting criminals, getting drugs off the streets, and crucial litigation. We will always protect victims of crime and legitimate law enforcement initiatives, but we will no longer spend millions on ‘listening sessions’ and ‘bridging socio-ecological contexts.’”

California officials rejected the Trump administration’s characterization of the grants, and described the programs as critical.

“The Trump administration is recklessly disregarding the safety of the people it is sworn to serve,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta in a statement to CalMatters. “These resources are not optional luxuries, they are essential, and critical to ensuring the security and stability of our communities nationwide. My office will do everything in our power to stop the potentially deadly consequences of freezing federal funding.”

Representatives from three organizations that lost money told CalMatters they were committed to continuing their programs, and they stressed that they provide vital services to vulnerable people.

In Oakland, the nonprofit organization Youth ALIVE! lost its $2 million grant to support the nation’s first hospital-based violence intervention program. The organization’s staff appear at the hospital bedside of youth who have been violently injured in order to help them navigate their recovery and prevent retaliatory violence.

Through ongoing support such as mental health and housing services, the organization maintains that it can break cycles of violence. Last year, it served 113 clients, only one of whom was injured again.

“It’s an essential part of the ecosystem, because you need to be in specific places to help quell violence and help people heal,” said Dr. Joseph Griffin, executive director of Youth ALIVE! “It’s about increasing the health of the community.”

When he learned that the organization had lost its funding, he said he was in disbelief.

“It’s not an impact that we can absorb lightly,” he said. “Replacing $2 million is never easy.”

A banner hangs on a wall in the Youth ALIVE office in Oakland on April 28, 2025. Youth ALIVE!, which aims to break the cycle of violence in Oakland, is one of the many California organizations impacted after the U.S. Justice Department terminated more than $800 million in grants to justice-focused organizations. Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters

Elsewhere in Oakland, the organization Impact Justice lost $8.5 million in grant funding.

“This was a sledgehammer,” said Alex Busansky, its founder and president.

The organization was awarded a $4 million grant to expand opportunities for reentry housing for people returning home from prison. It also received three grants totaling $4.5 million to support its work in eliminating sexual abuse and sexual harm from confined facilities, such as prisons and jails.

“To take that away puts the most vulnerable people in a much riskier and potentially harmful situation,” Busansky said.

Asian Women’s Shelter, one of three domestic violence shelters in San Francisco, lost its $500,000 grant to support Arab survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking through connecting them with legal and social services.

The competitive grant had only been awarded to five organizations last year, according to the Asian Women’s Shelter’s communications and community engagement specialist, Saara Ahmed.

“The irony is that the reasons given by the Justice Department is that they’re shifting funding toward law enforcement to combat violent crime and trafficking. But violent crime and trafficking affects survivors so there’s a lot of contradiction,” Ahmed said. “It’s a matter of asking: Whose safety and security are they prioritizing?”

On April 25, over 600 local, state and national organizations, including the Asian Women’s Shelter, signed a letter to Attorney General Bondi expressing “deep concern” over the Justice Department’s federal funding decisions, including the canceled grants.

“This longstanding bipartisan commitment to supporting services and prevention efforts for victims of [domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and trafficking] remains strong; however, the Department’s recent actions have left these critical lifesaving programs uncertain about their ability to continue serving victims,” advocates wrote.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office also lost a grant in the culling. “It is heartbreaking to see funds cut for such critical work,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, whose grant supported at-risk youth and young adults from underserved communities.

“Public safety, at its core, is fewer victims of crime overall. And as a government, we cannot simply be reactionary,” she said. “We have to do the front end, proactive work so that people don’t feel the need to get involved in crime in the first place.”

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.