Louisville’s Office of Violence Prevention is facing a fiscal cliff next year when one-time federal pandemic funding is set to run out.
The office, formerly known as the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods, or OSHN, works with community leaders and nonprofits to prevent gun violence from occurring in the first place. Its programs include the Community Sanctuary Project, providing free mental health care and faith services after shootings, and setting up neighborhood anti-violence coalitions.
The office has gotten more than $22 million in recent years from the city’s allotment of American Rescue Plan Act funding. But all of that money has to be spent by the end of next year, a deadline imposed by Congress when they approved the pandemic-era spending package in 2021.
On Wednesday, OVP Interim Director James Tatum said that many of the programs the agency believes have been most effective at preventing gun violence are entirely funded by American Rescue Plan Act money.
“With the [Community Violence Intervention] sites, that’s something that we will either have to majorly restructure to cover under our current funding, or something that we would need help with,” he said.
The OVP runs four such sites in Louisville neighborhoods with high numbers of shootings, including Russell, Taylor Berry, Algonquin and Newburg. As part of that program, violence interrupters work to build relationships with youth and young adults at risk of being involved in gun violence.
All but the program in Newburg are currently funded through American Rescue Plan Act funding. Each site costs nearly $300,000 annually.
Tatum told Metro Council that OVP believes programs like the Community Violence Intervention sites and the Community Sanctuary Project have contributed to the recent decrease in shootings. Last year, the number of nonfatal shootings was down about 12% year-over-year, although there were only three fewer homicides. Homicides have decreased by a third so far this year, compared to this point in 2024, while nonfatal shootings are down 28%.
“I think that’s something really to be celebrated and something that we are using to then hone all of the programs … and try to find out exactly what our neighborhoods can use the most,” Tatum said.
Tatum was speaking before Metro Council’s Budget Committee, which is asking departments to justify their proposed budgets. Last month, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg released his desired spending plan for fiscal year 2026, which starts July 1. He called for increasing OVP’s funding by about 10%, or $557,000.
Metro Council is now reviewing Greenberg’s spending plan and will propose its changes in mid-June. District 17 Democrat Markus Winkler, vice chair of the council’s Budget Committee, indicated he’d support expanding the number of Community Violence Intervention sites.
In a follow-up interview, Winkler said he sees a great deal of value in the program that comes at a relatively low cost. In total, the current sites cost about $1.1 million dollars per year.
Even if Metro Council adds sites this year, finding ongoing funding for the program in a $1.2 billion city budget shouldn’t be difficult, Winkler said.
“I don’t want to minimize it, it’s not necessarily easy to find a million dollars, but we should be able to manage that fairly easily,” he said.
Winkler said it’s important that the city invest more in its efforts to reduce gun violence right now, as Louisville sees some early progress.
“We can either let off the gas and risk going back to where we were, or we can double down and drive those numbers even lower,” he said.
He did caution, however, that it’s not realistic that the city will be able to find replacement funding for the millions in federal dollars OVP has been able to give to community groups since the pandemic. Winkler said there will have to be serious discussions over the next year about which anti-violence programs are working and are worth investing in.
For OVP, Tatum said they are already thinking about how their agency will need to change with the loss of pandemic relief.
“With the closeout of a lot of ARP funding, I think that OVP will become less of a grantor,” he told Metro Council. “However, we’re always a partner and always trying to provide as many services as possible, including capacity building.”
Tatum said even if OVP can’t offer funding to community groups, the agency can still provide expertise in violence intervention and community engagement, and they can help organizations apply for state and federal grants.
Metro Council is accepting comments from residents on what should be included in the city’s budget for the coming year. The online feedback form will be live until June 9 at 6 p.m.
