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…