November 4, 2025

Dear Chair Manning, Vice Chair Reynolds, Ranking Member Hicks Hudson, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,

Thank you for this opportunity to provide proponent testimony on Senate Bill 225. We are proud to support this bill as a critical step to safety for crime victims.

The Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ) is a multi-state organization that promotes effective approaches to public safety and healing for victims of crime across the country. We bring together diverse crime survivors via our flagship project, Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, to advance policies that help underserved crime victims and stop cycles of crime. We have more than 12,000 crime survivor members across the state of Ohio.

We support SB 225 because it would help more victims of violent crime stay safe by expanding eligibility for the Secretary of State’s successful Safe at Home address confidentiality program to more victims of violent crime.

Ohio’s Safe at Home program was created in 2016 to allow victims of domestic violence, stalking, human trafficking, rape, or sexual battery to conceal their home addresses in order to stay safe from people who may harm them. In the decade since, this program has played a critical role in helping participants navigate their daily lives more safely. The program allows eligible crime victims to do things like move to a new house, register to vote, purchase a property, enroll their kids in school, or navigate court proceedings without fearing that doing so will expose their home address to someone seeking to use that information to harm them or their family.

However, some victims of other types of violence may also need to protect information about where they live, but are not currently eligible to participate in Safe at Home. For example, a gunshot victim may need to relocate for safety reasons and then shield their new address from people who may come to harm them again. Or a parent who lost a spouse to homicide may need to sign their children up for school without endangering their family by exposing where they live.

SB 225 would extend eligibility for Ohio’s Safe at Home address confidentiality program to survivors of more types of violent assault, including victims of gun violence and family members of homicide victims. This bill has the strong support of crime victims across the state, including our membership network.

Importantly, the funds for the Secretary of State to expand Safe at Home have already been set aside in the most recent state budget. SB 225 would provide the legislative authority to expand the program without requiring any additional resources. For nearly ten years, the Safe at Home program has been providing a critical safety service to crime survivors, and it’s time to extend those same protections to more victims of violence who need help to stay safe in their homes.

Thank you to Senator Manchester for championing this critical step forward for crime victims in Ohio, and for the opportunity to express our support for SB 225.

Leah Sakala
Senior State Policy Manager
Alliance for Safety and Justice