Case Explained: Domestic Violence Survivor Advocates Push SF to Fund Legal Counsel Voters Approved – Legal Perspective

Pajares eventually worked up the courage to leave, spending nights on the street and couch surfing with friends, before she finally found assistance from the nonprofit Compass Family Services and moved into a new place. But she has not yet obtained a restraining order from her abuser, and now that her housing is more stable, navigating the legal system has been a new nightmare.

“It’s extremely scary as someone who’s been through the trauma of having to go to jail as a result of trying to speak up,” Pajares told KQED. “We don’t get the legal assistance we need, and therefore we feel that we don’t have a voice.”

Several years ago, San Francisco took a step aimed at making sure women in the city don’t have the same experience as Pajares. But advocates say the city hasn’t gone far enough, and are calling on officials to do more to support survivors amid concerns budget woes will push their cause to the back burner.

In 2022, voters approved Proposition D, a ballot measure championed by former Supervisor Catherine Stefani that created the Office of Victim and Witness Rights and tasked the new department with establishing a right to legal counsel for survivors of domestic violence.

But the successful measure did not allocate any funds to operate the new office or legal services, and no funding has been directed toward the program, effectively rendering it inactive.

San Francisco has also slashed spending in recent years to address a yawning budget deficit. This year, Mayor Daniel Lurie directed all departments to make cuts to close the city’s $900 million shortfall.

The mayor, who campaigned on being tough on crime, has so far refrained from making cuts to public safety. Many types of crime have decreased over the past year in San Francisco, but domestic violence has fluctuated, going up 1% from December 2024 to December 2025, then down 2% this January compared to the prior year, according to San Francisco Police Department crime reports.

Domestic violence work “is such an essential part of the mayor’s initiative for safety,” said Sierra Sparks, the associate director of Development at Open Door Legal, which provides legal aid services to domestic violence survivors. “We need to ensure that our most vulnerable residents are also protected and that there’s a plan in place.”

Advocates are calling on the city to stave off cuts and find alternative sources of funding, such as supporting the proposed Overpaid CEO Tax, which would tax companies where the CEO earns at least 100 times the median-income employee. They also want the city to fund more legal aid services for survivors of domestic violence, and say the city is obligated to do so.

“[Prop D] is exactly the kind of thing we need for our economic recovery and helps the most vulnerable communities,” said Anya Worley-Ziegmann, coordinator for the People’s Budget Coalition, a group of unions and community organizations fighting anticipated budget cuts. “We want to see no cuts to domestic violence and we need to see an increased investment in it.”

As the city looks to make difficult budget cuts across departments, Sparks and others are concerned that the funding for legal and other domestic violence services could be on the chopping block. It’s deja vu for advocates who sounded the alarm for similar threats to domestic violence services during last year’s budget cycle. The issue is now even more dire with the Trump administration making major cuts to federal health care and social services, advocates said.

“We heard that they’re looking at taking deep cuts from some small agencies that serve really marginalized communities, like the Asian Women’s Shelter. There are other places to cut besides lifeline services,” said Beverly Upton, executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium. “We are hoping to see a better outcome in the mayor’s budget. We are really hoping he will find a different place where it won’t have such a huge impact.”