Women’s Advocate Astrid Piñeiro Vázquez took credit Monday for securing a $1.6 million transfer from the Office of Management and Budget (OGP, in Spanish), but she could not say how the $856,984.88 shortfall facing shelters for domestic violence survivors would be covered because the transfer is not earmarked exclusively for those institutions.

Last Friday, Gov. Jenniffer González and OGP Director Orlando C. Rivera Berríos, publicly announced the transfer to the Office of the Women’s Advocate, just one day after the Gender Investigative Unit — an alliance between Todas and the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo — published a report detailing how the cuts were affecting shelters. The unit also questioned the Women’s Advocate about why the government had failed to act to prevent this crisis, even though it had been foreseeable since early 2025.

Among the few details Piñeiro Vázquez was able to provide was that $343,224 of the transfer from the OGP will be used through June of this year to cover programs and services left unfunded after cuts to STOP VAWA funds, which ended Jan. 31.

Ten organizations will receive the money, including three shelters: Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos, Hogar Ruth and Casa de la Bondad. The other entities that received smaller STOP VAWA allocations in the last round of funding and will now be supplemented through the Women’s Advocate’s new distribution are Casa de Pensamiento de Mujer del Centro, Centro de la Mujer Dominicana, Centro de Servicios Comunitarios, Vida Plena, Oficina Legal de la Comunidad, and offices providing services at Inter American University and the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus.

From the OGP transfer, the Women’s Advocate will also distribute $1 million to subsidize organizations, municipalities and government agencies that apply through a competitive process. Piñeiro Vázquez said she will prioritize direct services, including transitional housing, legal services, psychosocial assistance and immediate mental health care.

Still, she said that before determining how much of that $1 million each organization will receive, it is necessary to wait for the Department of Justice to award funds from a special $2 million grant competition that closed March 10 and is expected to help cover part of the deficit.

“First we need to know the results of the application process submitted to Justice, so we can see which needs were covered and they can then tell me which ones still remain, so we can fill that need with the $1 million I mentioned,” the Women’s Advocate said.

Another $133,000 from the OGP transfer will go toward developing a virtual educational platform for workshops, certifications and training, as well as collecting statistical data at the Office of the Women’s Advocate. Another $72,900 will be used to digitize cases handled by the office’s social workers and attorneys, and $105,000 will go toward training shelter staff and other professionals in trauma management, risk assessment and the prevention of revictimization.

Piñeiro Vázquez made the announcement at a press conference after meeting with representatives of shelters and other organizations.

“We don’t have anything in writing. There is a promise to cover some needs from the funds that stopped being awarded, through June,” Lisdel Flores, executive director of Hogar Ruth, said as she left the meeting.

Flores said shelters had already been forced to cover February and March with money from their general funds, which are intended for other purposes.

Lenna Ramírez Cintrón, executive director of Casa Protegida Julia de Burgos, said that while the Women’s Advocate’s efforts to secure the transfer may address some very specific needs, “what shelters have been saying is that the cuts have been systemic across different agencies, and we remain uncertain about what will happen in the coming fiscal years.”

All the representatives of the organizations who attended the meeting insisted on the need to identify a recurring fund to cover shelters’ needs without having to rely on federal grant formulas, which vary from year to year.

“It is deeply concerning that we have to go through this situation every year. For us, it is important that some kind of fund be created so we can have guaranteed money and our participants can continue receiving the services they need, and so we don’t have to worry every year that they will be left without the services they so badly need,” said Emma Santiago Cabrera, executive director of Hogar Nueva Mujer.

Asked again about the proposal developed by the Red de Albergues to impose a 5% tax on firearms and ammunition to create the Fondo Vida Segura and guarantee recurring funding for these shelters, Piñeiro Vázquez again declined to comment, saying she has not yet reviewed it.

A representative of the Red de Albergues handed the Women’s Advocate a copy of the detailed proposal at today’s meeting. The organizations had already discussed the proposal with the Women’s Advocate and the secretary of Justice in earlier meetings.