Mahoning Valley - Ohio has recorded its deadliest year in more than a decade for domestic violence deaths, according to a new statewide report.

The Ohio Domestic Violence Network (ODVN) said it is “stunned” by the findings.

During 12 months spanning from the summer of 2024 through 2025, 157 people were killed in domestic violence incidents across the state, which is a 37 percent increase from the previous year.

Guns were used in 84 percent of those deaths, according to ODVN, and 69 percent of victims had prior involvement with the criminal or civil justice system.

There were 40 murder-suicides, accounting for more than one-third of the total cases.

ODVN said the combination of anger and easy access to guns is proving deadly, but local agencies explained that the complex issue runs deeper, pointing to economic pressures, housing shortages and systemic gaps that keep survivors in dangerous situations.

Lauren Webb, director of domestic violence services for Access Family Services and Someplace Safe Shelter in Trumbull County, said local cases are becoming more severe as resources are stretched thin.

"They are definitely more severe, the patterns that we're seeing. Any time you see any barriers put in place in regards to economical barriers, or housing barriers, transportation barriers, and that increases with the economy and how it ebbs and flows," Webb said "People have to feel that they stay in those situations longer than they would hope to, and there's less resources to go around with the organizations that help them get out."

In Mahoning County, Jennifer Gray, social services and development officer of COMPASS, said a lack of affordable housing can be the deciding factor in whether survivors can leave.

"When victims don't have affordable housing that is available to them to move back into, they will seek shelter in places, maybe with their abuser," Gray said, "Or they will endure an abusive environment just to have a roof over their head, so when there is not safe alternatives for them or for them and their children, they will endure a certain level of violence and we know that domestic violence escalates." 

Agencies describe the problem as systemic and multi-layered, compounded by mental health and substance use challenges, as well as staffing and funding shortages.

"Quite honestly, our resources are stretched very thin," Gray said. 

She said Sojourner House in Mahoning County can house up to 36 people at a time, often including young children, and said there are times when alternate placements have to be found because the shelter is full.

Someplace Safe logged roughly 13,000 bed-nights last year. 

Webb also points to fewer civil protection orders being filed and a reluctance among some victims to engage the justice system. 

She said youth violence is also rising locally, with more young victims and increasingly complex social dynamics as a whole, including how social media and technology can be used to control and isolate victims.

"We need to have more conversations with our youth that are direct about what violence can look like," Wedd said, "and also what the opposite of that is, what healthy relationships are."

Webb added that some long-term solutions will require earlier intervention, expanded affordable housing, faster funding and more funding opportunities, and continued community-wide efforts to address the root causes of escalating violence.

"It's not an issue with those who are responding. It is a human a humanity issue," Gray added, "It's mental health going unchecked. It's isolation. It's tough economic times, a lack of housing. There is so much that goes into it. And when abusers choose to abuse, they are on a course of violence that will escalate."