Women’s Advocate Astrid Piñeiro Vázquez acknowledged Thursday that she did not respond promptly to the funding cuts hitting shelters that provide refuge to women who have survived domestic violence, even though the organizations had warned her about the budget complications they expected.

Asked Thursday at a news conference at La Fortaleza — Puerto Rico’s executive mansion — whether opening a Puerto Rico Department of Justice grant solicitation in February was the best the government could do in response to a cut that had been anticipated since early 2025, Piñeiro Vázquez pointed to failures in government processes.

“Every day there’s room for improvement, and this is something we’d been concerned about for a long time. It also took time to identify the funds, and we were looking for the best solution so we could provide support,” she said. “And you’re right — not every process is perfect. I’m not perfect either. We’re an agency that tries to get better every day,” she told the Gender Investigative Unit, a collaboration between the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo and the outlet Todas.

The Domestic Violence Shelters Network and the directors of several of those refuges have been sounding the alarm about the funding cuts since early last year. In May 2025, Piñeiro Vázquez told the Gender Investigative Unit that it was “too premature” to act. At the time, she said she had requested that her office’s budget increase to $9.6 million from $4.6 million but received only $5.3 million.

The $856,984.88 reduction in federal funds for the shelters has now taken effect, resulting in fewer available beds, staffing and hours cutbacks, and disruptions to prevention programs since September 2025.

The government’s response arrived in February, when the Puerto Rico Department of Justice opened a $2,047,317 grant solicitation to all organizations that provide services to domestic violence survivors, not only shelters. The solicitation closed on Wednesday.

Piñeiro Vázquez confirmed that, before opening the solicitation, the Justice Department had planned to transfer local funds to the Office of the Women’s Advocate (OPM, in Spanish) so the office could distribute them among the shelters.

“The Secretary [of Justice, Lourdes L. Gómez Torres] and I believed the best plan was for us [OPM] to manage the funds, but it didn’t work out,” she said.

The Gender Investigative Unit asked whether the plan fell apart because the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico would not approve it.

“That’s correct,” Piñeiro Vázquez replied. “It wasn’t exactly because we took too long to address it — it was because the plan we had in place didn’t work out,” she said.

The Women’s Advocate also said she distributed “some money” her office had available, but that it, too, fell short.

Coraly León Morales, chairwoman of the board of the National Network of Gender Violence Shelters, said it was not an extraordinary allocation. Instead, she said, the money came from the STOP VAWA grant — a federal program under the Violence Against Women Act — which the office has received for years and must distribute annually to organizations that serve survivors of gender-based violence, not just shelters. Three refuges received awards totaling $247,563 from that fund, which ran out Jan. 31.

The Gender Investigative Unit sought explanations from the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. The request was referred to the Office of Management and Budget, which sent an email stating it would respond “within the timeframe established by Act 141-2019, as amended, known as the Transparency and Expedited Procedure for Access to Public Information Act”—meaning it could take up to 20 business days.

León Morales reiterated that the government never put forward a proactive plan, as some states did, “preparing for these cuts that we knew were imminent.”

“Unfortunately, they waited until the cuts were already on top of the organizations,” she said.

She insisted the underlying problem remains: There is no mechanism to guarantee recurring funding for shelters, which are the first line of defense for women who survive domestic violence and their children.

No comment on proposal to secure recurring funding

The Shelters Network developed a proposal to establish a 5% tax on the sale of firearms and their accessories, with proceeds directed to sustain these facilities.

Based on its estimates — drawn from Puerto Rico government foreign trade reports — the measure could generate more than $1 million a year. But the Women’s Advocate said she knows of the proposal only through verbal discussions and will not offer an opinion until it is formally introduced.

León Morales said the Women’s Advocate recently received a summary of the proposal. She added that it was also included in the Shelters Network’s position paper on Joint Resolution 0011, which sought to allocate $1 million from the government’s General Fund budget to shelters to ease the fiscal crisis.

The resolution, introduced in January 2025 by Popular Democratic Party Sen. Ada Álvarez Conde, received a negative report Tuesday from the Senate Committee on Treasury, Budget and PROMESA.

Piñeiro Vázquez also declined to take a position on that report.