By Michael Hill
Correspondent

All over the Garden State, victims of violent crimes ask their government for financial assistance to help them cope.

“Once it lands on your doorstep it becomes a different issue,” said Lakeesha Eure.

Social worker Eure is talking about the murder of a loved one on South 12th Street in Newark in 2010. She put up $1,500 for his funeral. Difficult decisions in the middle of grief.

“You have to pick and choose. Do I contribute to a loved one being buried so he doesn’t have to sit in the morgue for another month or so or do I pay my bills,” Eure said.

But that money fell far short of the total cost.

“At that time, the comp bd didn’t want to pay the funeral costs upfront so paid for the funeral upfront. In the funeral, we had to raise more money because the funeral home was not going to bury the body that day and threatened to cancel the funeral while people were sitting,” Eure said.

Three months later, the Crime Victims Fund compensated Eure for most of what she paid.

New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Office Executive Director Marsetta Lee is the executive director of the New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Office (VOCCO). The program is funded through federal and state money as well as by restitution from convicted criminals.

“The agency makes an incredible difference because we are the payer of last resort,” said Lee.

Some of the qualifications for compensation? You must live in New Jersey or the crime happened here. The crime had to be reported to law enforcement within nine months and you applied within three years. You cooperated with law enforcement. And you didn’t contribute to your own injuries, provoke the incident.

The state relies on prosecutors, police and victims’ advocates to spread the word. The fund rejected more than 1,200 of the nearly 4,000 claims it received last year. The general cap is $25,000. But the fund has paid $60,000 to accommodate the disabled.

In 2013, the Victims Compensation Fund paid New Jerseyans nearly $10 million. Essex County victims got more than a third of it — 785 victims split just over $3.3 million. In Camden County, 265 victims received almost $932,000. One hundred eighty-one crime victims in Union County received just over $640,000.

Lee says she doesn’t worry about the fund running out of money. She would just borrow from next year. She says she’s just glad the fund exists because the $10 million given out last year to victims of crime proves just how much it was needed for their recovery.