In the final days of Utah’s 2025 legislative session, lawmakers slashed funding for domestic violence and sexual assault services. State leaders budgeted just a fraction of the money advocates requested for sheltering survivors, staffing crisis hotlines, administering forensic exams and preventing sexual assault, and some programs were passed over altogether.
The cuts come at a time when advocates say the need for services is rising.
Two years ago, legislators enacted a law that requires law enforcement to ask a set of questions called the lethality assessment protocol (LAP) every time officers respond to a domestic violence call. Since then, shelters serving the Wasatch Back say they’ve seen significant spikes in referrals from police.
Kendra Wyckoff is the executive director of Peace House in Park City, which offers housing, counseling and support to survivors.
“We’ve never hit a plateau. Every year over year, we have an increase in people engaging in support,” she said. “We’ve seen a 65% increase in the number of referrals directly coming from law enforcement.”
In Utah County, The Refuge, which offers resources to sexual assault and domestic violence survivors, has seen an even bigger increase, according to executive director Ashlee Taylor.
“Just in our area, we have had about a 400% increase in the referrals coming from law enforcement conducting the LAP than before that mandate happened,” she said.
Both organizations are now facing economic uncertainty due to federal and state cuts. More than half of The Refuge’s budget comes from government sources; for Peace House, it’s 45%.
The financial pinch could impact the ability of each agency to respond to service needs in Summit and Wasatch counties.
Wasatch County has no domestic violence shelter, so The Refuge sends its hospital response team to every sexual assault forensic exam in the Heber Valley. Taylor said the organization is losing a fifth of its funding for sexual assault services.
Wyckoff said advocates specifically asked lawmakers for $1.4 million to increase shelter capacity statewide, but no funding was allocated in the budget.
Had the funding been approved, she estimated Peace House could have hired another legal advocate or case manager to keep up with clients’ needs.
There’s also significant uncertainty on the federal level. Wyckoff said that’s made it difficult for Peace House to plan its budget and grant applications for the next fiscal year, which starts in July.
“As part of our planning, we were really looking forward to applying for some specific discretionary funds from the Office on Violence Against Women,” she said. “Started applications, and then those solicitations were removed from the website, and there’s no information. It just basically says, don’t submit your application, don’t continue to work on it.”
Taylor said The Refuge has run into the same thing. She said there’s no indication what could happen next.
“There’s not a lot of information out there about what that looks like moving forward, if there will be any time that some of these grants will open back up,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s just a lot of uncertainty, and it’s really hard to make plans for the upcoming fiscal year with so much uncertainty.”
Wyckoff said the uncertainty means Peace House will need to rely more heavily on community support to keep its programs running.
“We have an unwavering commitment to ensure that every survivor in this community, when they’re reaching out for help, can get help,” she said. “And we have to find a way to make that happen. We go to our community supporters, we look for different resources and we do advocacy, both at the state and federal level.”
Taylor echoed that sentiment. She said The Refuge will keep offering services despite the economic uncertainty.
“So many times in the community, we hear, ‘I wish I would have known about these services when,’” she said. “And we just want the community to know, even though there’s funding cuts, there is somewhere that they can do, they can call anytime, and our advocates are happy to talk to them and happy to provide resources and support and service when they need it.”
Peace House’s 24-hour helpline is available at (800) 647-9161. To contact The Refuge for sexual assault services, call (801) 356-2511. For domestic violence services, call (801) 377-5500.
