As Federal Funding Withers, NYC Must Support Community Violence Intervention
For the past few years, advocates, neighborhood leaders, and nonprofits on the frontlines fighting gun violence had a strong partner in the federal government. Under the previous administration, billions of dollars were unlocked for community-based strategies known as community violence intervention (CVI). Across the country, people closest to the pain of gun violence finally had the resources to meaningfully implement solutions.
That era of federal support came to a destabilizing halt two months ago, when the current administration suddenly cut or rescinded over $800 million in grants administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ) because they “do not align with the administration’s priorities.” Numerous programs in violence prevention, victim services, mental health, and other public safety efforts were affected, causing pain, fear, and anxiety among service providers.
The cuts have had a devastating impact for CVI professionals across the U.S. Leaders in cities such as Cleveland, the District of Columbia, and Oakland are fighting to keep their work going in the face of sudden and drastic change. A nationwide coalition is fighting the funding cuts in the courts, with New York City’s Vera Institute taking a lead role in the lawsuit.
New York City faces its own challenges; $8 million in federal funding evaporated overnight. Four organizations that received grants to conduct vital violence prevention work now each face $2 million budget holes without warning or time or absorb the blow. They are Exodus Transitional Community, Getting Out and Staying Out, LIFE Camp, and the Osborne Association, which all received support from the DOJ’s Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) to serve neighborhoods in the Bronx, Harlem, East Harlem, and Queens.
Neighborhoods that have historically experienced high levels of gun violence and other socioeconomic challenges need more resources, not less. Violence tends to rise in the summer months. Yet at the very moment when community leaders need resources to save lives, the support is yanked away.
Persons working with, or for, some of these programs, and who wish to remain anonymous, stated that there have been immediate layoffs and program cuts. They said that the cuts hurt people who are doing direct service violence prevention work and have developed relationships with young adults who are most exposed to gun violence and face the highest likelihood of being involved in a violent incident.
Nearly a month before the federal cuts, the New York City Comptroller’s Office issued a report on the benefits of CVI strategies in the city and the value of investments in community-based work. It found that the City’s Crisis Management System (CMS), which supports multiple CVI programs citywide, was responsible for a 21 percent drop in gun violence between 2012 and 2024. (Since 2017, much of this work has been supported by the Institute for Transformative Mentoring project of the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.)
State and local leaders need to stand in the gap left by federal abandonment, and there are opportunities and reasons for hope. New York State created a permanent Office of Gun Violence Prevention with the passage of the budget for Fiscal Year 2026; this follows a trend in at least 15 other states, including California, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Governor Kathy Hochul touted $347 million included for gun violence prevention across the state in the budget, which is inclusive of law enforcement agencies and not specific to CVI.
The citywide elections this year could provide an impetus for greater support of the City’s Office of Neighborhood Safety, which houses CMS. The Comptroller’s report noted that CMS funding rose to close to $100 million in the last fiscal year, which is a tremendous increase over the initial $5 million City Council investment in 2013. However, keep this contrast in mind: that funding covers 23 organizations operating 30 sites across all five boroughs, while the budget for NYPD civilian staff alone is nearly 20 times greater, at close to $2 billion.
Whoever will be occupying the offices in City Hall next year must look at providing more support for frontline organizations that are essential to addressing violence. If the federal government will not keep its commitments to community safety, then it is up to state and local leaders to allocate the resources necessary to keep essential programs running. It is not a question of whether the money exists, but rather, the question is if there is the political will to allocate resources to CVI.
Nor can community leaders wait for next year’s budget season to get the funding they need. Programs are shuttering now, valuable professionals are losing their jobs, and there are no apparent stopgaps in place to stem the immediate crisis. It might be the case that legal action to reverse the cuts ultimately proves successful, but how long will that take? Even then, there is no guarantee that the current administration will restore every dollar lost. And even if they do, how many more lives will be touched by gun violence while lawyers, judges, and politicians sort things out? State and local leaders need to act now and provide the support that the federal government took away.
Talib Hudson, PhD, is the founder of The New Hood, which develops community-based public policy to build thriving urban Black & Brown neighborhoods He is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School.
Photo by Whitney Welshimer.