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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- Budget cuts throughout the state of Iowa means that change is on the way for Iowa's Crime Victim Assistance program.

A lack of funding has already caused staff cuts and reduction of services across the state and at least 11 programs have closed over the last ten years. To provide better services and programs, the Iowa Attorney General's Office is looking for feedback from the public and local leaders on the plan to reorganize victim services and divide the state into six different regions.

A meeting was held in Ottumwa Monday afternoon and representatives of the Crime Victim Assistance Office offered a breakdown of funding, spending and how the state will be divided into regions. The structure of the map puts Wapello County in the same region as Polk county, which caused some raised eyebrows in Monday's audience, fearing that all of the funding in our region will be funneled into the Des Moines area. However, the presenters say that making Polk County its own region was impractical, and having the area with the most concentrated population could actually be good for the rural regions, as there will be more funding available.

All together, the reorganization will shift the focus from short-term shelters and housing to permanent housing, food assistance programs, education and employment. The biggest change? Less shelters across the state.

"After we really took a look at our numbers, we found that only 11% of victims are utilizing shelter, and when we say that, that means in conjunction with the total number of victims that are actually being served in our programs, but we're allocating almost half of our resources to shelter-based services," said Janelle Melohn, Director of the Crime Victim Assistance Division. "What we're hearing overwhelmingly is that shelter is not meeting the needs of victims, there are a great deal of victims that don't ever come to shelter services, they don't identify with shelter services and it definitely begs the question; are we utilizing our money most efficiently? So I think the big change will be that we will see the closing of some of the shelters around Iowa so that we can redistribute those funds to the housing needs that we're hearing victims need."

Melohn said the feedback from the meetings have so far been varied based on region and resources and if that specific area is used to covering a large area.