Statewide indicators of need
Intimate-partner and familial violence accounted for 51 of Utah’s 137 homicides from July 2023 through January 2025, according to state data cited in prior Hoodline reporting. The article also cited Utah Department of Health and Human Services findings that one in three Utah women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime, and that domestic abuse is involved in roughly one in three homicides statewide.
Utah passed Senate Bill 117 in 2023, requiring officers to complete an 11-question lethality assessment during intimate-partner violence calls. From July 2023 through May 2024, officers conducted more than 16,000 assessments statewide; 63% identified a potentially lethal situation for the victim.
Assessment does not always lead to an immediate advocate connection. In a yearlong period ending in June, about 28% of 6,458 high-risk police referrals included an on-scene phone connection to a shelter advocate, according to Utah Domestic Violence Coalition data cited by the Utah News Dispatch. Utah ranks 49th nationally for meeting unmet domestic-violence service requests, with about 44% of shelter and housing requests unfulfilled because of space limits, according to the Utah Women & Leadership Project.
State funding for shelters
For FY24, all 16 domestic violence shelters were slated to receive an additional $200,000 each in base-budget funding, according to the DCFS FY24 Domestic Violence Program Spending Plan.
Orem campus will add beds and services
The Refuge Utah broke ground Thursday on a 34,000-square-foot campus at 866 N. 400 West in Orem, as Domestic Violence Awareness Month began. Plans call for emergency shelter capacity to grow from 25 beds to 138, according to KSL.
Founded in 1984 as the Center for Women and Children in Crisis, The Refuge serves Utah, Wasatch and Juab counties. The population in those counties has tripled since the organization’s founding while its shelter remained limited to 25 beds, the Daily Herald reported.
Plans also include a 12,000-square-foot advocacy and services center and 12 transitional housing units for families, according to KSL and the Daily Herald. The Herald reported that domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness in Utah County, accounting for more than 25% of local cases.
The Refuge had raised more than $13 million toward a $35 million goal to fully equip the campus, KSL reported.
