Bellevue Legal News: Seattle Divorce & Domestic Violence Lawyer

King County Plans Major Cuts To Domestic Violence Support Funding

Still struggling with worsening budget issues, King County has made the move to cut all of its funding of domestic violence and sex crime abuse victims. These two programs are the last two human services left that receive money from the county’s general fund – as all other programs had been cut earlier as Seattle grapples with ongoing financial problems.

According to King 5 News, the proposed cut would drop Seattle’s spending on domestic violence 82 percent and drop the Seattle’s spending on sexual assault and other sex crimes by 68 percent. Many worry that these cuts will leave domestic violence victims – many of them children – without support, help, or guidance in the wake of domestic abuse. Mary Ellen Stone, Executive Director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, warned that the cuts would mean more women without counseling, more women without homes or jobs, and more women forced to stay with their abusers. At the same time, domestic violence and sexual assault criminals could remain free if women do not have the ability or resources to successfully prosecute.

Before the budgeting problems began to plague King County in 2007, $21 million of the county’s general funds went toward human services programs, such as domestic violence programs, sexual abuse programs, drug addiction programs, and mental health programs. If the proposed cuts go through, none of these programs will be left.

Stacey Caves, a Seattle resident, was in an abusive relationship for seven years before she got her and her kids out with the help of King County domestic abuse resources. She believes that she and her three boys could have been homeless or dead without the help of the women’s shelter that took her in.

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