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Chicago, July 29 (Chicago) – The Trump administration cut $158 million in grants to groups in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC and Baltimore, ending more than half of all federal funds in the U.S.
Of the total of over $300 million grants awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice, 145 Community Violence Intervention (CVI) grants, according to government data analyzed by Reuters.
The elimination of the CVI program is part of a broad rollback in the judicial program that issues departmental grants, which ended 365 grants worth $811 million in April and 365 grants that affected various public safety and victim service programs.
A DOJ official told Reuters that “gun violence grants have been eliminated because they no longer impact program goals or agency priorities. Thousands of judicial program grants are under review and officials are being assessed for how well they support law enforcement and fighting violent crime, officials said.
The majority of CVI grants were originally funded through the bipartisan safer community law of 2022 and part of the push that would hamper the rise of American gun violence by former President Joe Biden.
The office was “demolized on the first day” of Trump taking the office, said Greg Jackson, former deputy director of the office.
Prior to funding during the Biden era, most gun violence prevention programs were funded at the state level.
“These programs, if they existed five years ago, had very little budgets and no large multi-million dollar federal investments,” said Michael-Sean Spence, Managing Director of Everytown’s Community Safety Initiative, which has worked with 136 community-based violence intervention organizations since 2019.
Twenty-five members of the group were affected by cuts in funding.
The grant supported a wide range of CVI programming to prevent shootings such as outreach teams to escalate and mediate conflicts, social workers to connect people to services and employment, and hospital-based programs for victims of gun violence.
“(It prevents them from doing the work of those who need it most at the most urgent and deadly times,” Spence said.
According to Gun Violence Archives, gun violence deaths in the United States increased by more than 50% from 2015 to 2021 to 21,383 during the pandemic era. Since then, fatal shootings have declined to 16,725 in 2024, in line with pre-pandemic trends. As of May 2025, deaths have decreased by 866 from the same period last year.
Repaid programs
Cities such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles receive most of the funds for gun violence prevention, but southern cities such as Memphis, Selma, Alabama and Baton Rouge also relied on grants as Louisiana received millions and limited state support for the program.
“Now that state legislatures have rarely passed the funds, so federal cuts have been a very tragic hit,” said Amber Goodwin, co-founder of Community Violence Legal Network.
Almost 12 interviews with legal experts, gun violence interventionists and former DOJ officials said cuts in funding threaten the long-term sustainability of the community violence intervention initiative, which is primarily used by Black and Latino communities.
Pha’tal Perkins founded Think Outside Da Block in 2016, a nonprofit based in the Englewood district, which is plagued by Chicago’s violence. Federal funding allowed him to hire full-time staff, but when the grant was stripped, he was forced to fire five team members.
“It’s something people don’t see that having an outreach team in a particular place at the right time to have a conversation before things get out of hand,” Perkins said.
The program, launched in 2022, was the first time grassroots organizations could directly apply for federal community violence prevention funds without passing through law enforcement or state intermediaries, according to three former DOJ officials.
Aqeela Sherrills, co-founder of Los Angeles’ community-based public safety groups, provided training to nearly 94 grantees, including states, law enforcement and community-based organizations, to implement violence intervention strategies.
Before the cuts, “We had 30 new grantees through the federal government. Many of these cities and law enforcement agencies don’t know how to implement CVIs,” Sheryls said.
Police support
Some CVI critics argue that the program is not effective and that federal dollars are better spent on law enforcement to block gun violence. Others view the initiative as “anti-gun” in nature, and “it’s just a funnel to send federal taxes to anti-gun nonprofits opposed to our rights,” said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for American gun owners.
However, that view is not universally shared by law enforcement. In June, a letter signed by 18 law enforcement agencies and police chiefs in Louisville, Minneapolis, Tucson and Omaha called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to restore funds that have resulted in “measurable and substantial reductions in violence and murder.”
“These are not pleasant programs. They are strategies to save lives and strengthen law enforcement,” they write.
Melon Kelly, Deputy Police Chief of Columbia, South Carolina, was unaware of the letter, but told Reuters that the CVI program is relatively new in the city, but as a result, police have begun working more with community organisations.
Kelly said Columbia’s CVI program focuses on preventing retaliatory shootings that could escalate conflicts in the neighborhood.
“Public safety actually starts in the neighborhood before police get involved. CVI’s work is extremely important. There has been a dramatic decline in violent crime after Covid, and shootings have reached their lowest level in almost a decade,” Kelly said.
Now, the organization is trying to find a way to keep the door open, with federal money drying out.
Durell Cowan, executive director of HEAL 901, a Memphis community violence prevention nonprofit, received a $1.7 million CVI grant in October 2024.
Cowan’s organization received $150,000 in federal funds since the beginning of the year before his grant was cancelled. He had to soak up his personal savings to maintain a 14-person staff on his salary, he said.
Recently, he secured funds from out-of-state nonprofits and an emergency grant of $125,000 from the city. Still, if the federal dollars don’t start flowing again, he might be forced to layoffs.
“We should not withdraw from our own personal finances and life insurance to cover the costs of public safety,” he said.
(Reporting by Bianca Flowers of Chicago; Editing by KatSfortord and Michael Learmonth)
