After 15 years, crucial Valley domestic violence hotline will go dark

A domestic violence hotline serving Maricopa County stopped accepting new clients earlier this month and will close down altogether on May 15 because of a lack of funding. 

The hotline, SAFEDVS, costs nearly $600,000 a year and received 60% of its funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. Those funds ran out last fall, leaving the hotline in a funding shortfall, said Jenna Panas, the CEO of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, the pass-through organization for the funds. 

The organization originally thought it would find new funding through sources such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but those funding sources dried up when Donald Trump returned to the White House. 

“We thought we had a plan and then those funding pieces fell through,” Panas said.

Funding for domestic violence work in Arizona is tenuous in general, she said. Eighty-seven percent of funding is from the federal government.

Telecommunications company Solari, which runs other crisis call centers in Arizona and the country, most recently ran the hotline. It searched for other options and self-funded the shortfall for a brief period, said Panas, but it was not viable in the long term and Solari ended the contract.

Solari declined to comment for this story and told New Times to reach out to ACESDV. 

SAFEDVS served as a central hub for people experiencing domestic violence to connect to services. It streamlined the process for providers and clients alike.

It stopped accepting new clients on April 15 to give Solari time to work through its waitlist, which is typically 200 people long, Panas said. People already on the waitlist will be able to speak with an employee. A caller newly in need of help will be directed to a state hotline and a website that lists the phone numbers for seven shelters in Maricopa County, encouraging them to call directly.

According to a report published by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, more than 25,000 people called domestic violence hotlines in Arizona in 2025.

A sudden end

Domestic violence organizations and shelter providers say that they knew the hotline was ending, but that they didn’t realize it would close down to new people so soon. They’ve already begun receiving direct calls and are rushing to implement stopgap measures to make sure that people who need help can get it.

“We’re staffed in shelter work and community work. We’re not staffed in answering phones to the level that we will need now that the hotline is no longer available,” said Kathy DiNolfi, the lead program officer at A New Leaf, a community services nonprofit that ran the hotline for about a decade. Three of the seven Maricopa County shelters on the list are New Leaf shelters.

Panas said that ACESDV is trying to ensure a smooth transition, despite possible communication issues with providers.

“We’re trying so hard with very little funds to make sure the system doesn’t fail and trying to do it very quickly,” said Panas. “I was startled by the turnaround time on the line as well, but I understand the lack of funding and not being able to pay staff to continue the work.” 

Before the hotline, people had to call individual shelters, often hitting dead ends because they had no space, wouldn’t take families or didn’t allow pets. Sometimes shelters would even be too overwhelmed to answer the phones, said DiNolfi, who’s worked with A New Leaf for 30 years and remembers the hotline’s creation about 15 years ago.

The hotline cleared that logjam. It relieved a huge burden on providers and even went beyond connecting people to shelters by connecting them to other community resources, too.

“It was the tool,” said DiNolfi.

Some shelters relied entirely on the hotline for referrals, while others still had their own smaller hotlines. Providers, including A New Leaf, will now need to hire and train more people to take calls and help people in crisis, she said.

“We didn’t hire staff to answer the phone,” DiNolfi said. “It was no longer needed.”

Right now, New Leaf staff are directed to connect callers with team members at DVStop, a program that provides hotel rooms to people who can’t immediately get into a shelter. It’s a temporary fix. That team will soon be overwhelmed.

DiNolfi emphasized that the hotline’s current restrictions and impending closure don’t mean that help isn’t still available. 

“We’re mostly concerned for the victims and survivors,” DiNolfi said. “We want them to reach out.”