Oklahoma City Free Press: Palomar breaks ground on $42M justice center in Okla City

By: Zoe Elrod

Date: May 11, 2025

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OKLAHOMA CITY — On May 9, city officials, community leaders, and survivors gathered in Midtown to break ground on the MAPS 4 Family Justice Center, the future home of Palomar. Located at 1135 N. Hudson Ave., directly across from its current location, the three-story, 72,000-square-foot facility will triple Palomar’s current space and double its capacity when it opens in 2027.

Palomar was originally launched within the Oklahoma City Police Department to improve public safety by supporting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, and childhood trauma. Working alongside 45 partner agencies, Palomar has served over 29,000 individuals and families and delivered more than 300,000 services.

The new building marks progress in meeting Oklahoma’s urgent need for trauma-informed care in a state where half of women and two in five men face domestic violence or sexual assault, and which ranks second nationally for women killed by men in single-victim incidents.

“This isn’t just another building,” Palomar’s founder and Chief Visionary Officer, Kim Garrett-Funk, said in an interview with Free Press. “It is a message to every survivor in our city that you are seen, heard, and valued.”

The facility was designed over two years in collaboration with the MAPS 4 team and the architecture firms Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and ADG Blatt. Guided by trauma-informed design principles and shaped by the lived experience of survivors, the new center will include private rooms for clients, therapeutic offices, group rooms, a sensory space, a pet kennel, medical and forensic care, and a 24-hour children’s sanctuary with an outdoor playground.

Survivors will have access to a virtual courtroom, a spiritual room, a client shop stocked with fresh food and essentials, and eventually a café. A public event space and training wing will host community education and university classes.

Among those who shared their story at the groundbreaking ceremony was Tara, a survivor who came to Palomar after being shot by an ex-boyfriend in March 2022. After receiving care at Palomar, Tara began offering her experience as a volunteer, putting in over 200 hours and helping lead a peer-led survivor support group.

“As you begin to tell your story, you feel empowered knowing you’re not alone,” she told the audience. “We’re there to uplift, cheer, and support each other.”

The crowd filled the block west of the new site as Mayor David Holt, MAPS 4 Citizens Advisory Board Chair Teresa Rose, and others spoke at the groundbreaking. Purple chalk messages lined the sidewalk in honor of survivors, and attendees wrote supportive notes for future clients and received gifts hand-painted by children in Palomar’s programs.

“I think that we, as a city, are going to be very proud of this facility,” Rose said at the ceremony, while recognizing the city staff, councilmembers, architects, and volunteers who contributed to the project.

Mayor Holt emphasized Palomar’s role in long-term prevention.

“The prevention that stops violence and homicides in our city is not what happens two minutes before the act, it is what happens days, weeks, months, years before the act,” he said. “Palomar is doing exactly that type of work.”

The journey to funding

Palomar’s journey toward a new facility began in 2019, when staff shared their vision during Oklahoma City’s MAPS 4 planning process. Approved by voters that year, MAPS 4 is funded by a temporary one-cent sales tax dedicated to community improvements without creating public debt. As the first human-needs project presented to the City Council, Palomar secured $38 million in MAPS 4 funding for its expanded facility.

“I’m 100% confident that this is the most transformative MAPS project yet,” Garrett-Funk said on stage at the groundbreaking. “This is a message to families that we’re committed to your safety and healing, and a message to children that your future can be brighter than your past.”

David Todd, MAPS program manager, said the groundbreaking marks the start of an important project under the MAPS 4 initiative.

“This is one of those projects where we really get to do great things,” Todd said in an interview with Free Press. “I know I speak for my staff when I say we couldn’t be happier to provide Palomar with a new building.”

Todd noted the strong turnout at the ceremony as a sign of the community’s investment.

“This is the biggest groundbreaking we’ve had so far in the program,” he said.

By 2022, higher-than-expected sales tax revenue added $100 million to the overall MAPS 4 fund, increasing Palomar’s total funding to $42 million. Of that amount, $4 million was placed in a trust to earn interest and help cover long-term operational costs. However, as inflation drove up construction expenses, Palomar withdrew $2 million from the trust to help meet immediate needs.

To stay within budget, the facility, originally planned at 80,000 square feet, was reduced to 72,000 square feet, requiring a more efficient layout. Some features, such as a daycare and medical components, were eliminated, and elements like the third floor and a planned café will remain unfinished for now, but the core vision of the project remains intact, and construction continues to move forward.

“I can’t say it enough how fortunate we are in Oklahoma City that our leadership has taken this to heart,” Garrett-Funk said in an interview. “We will never have a safe community if we don’t have safe homes.”

In April 2025, Palomar’s headquarters project faced another setback when the Department of Justice rescinded $500,000 in federal grant funding, part of a broader $5.6 million cut from Oklahoma City nonprofits. Although Palomar provides nonpartisan services for victims of domestic violence, the grant termination was attributed to the administration’s efforts to eliminate programs it deemed aligned with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

“We’ve lost some of that federal funding, but the Board and everyone involved is fully committed,” said Teresa Rose at the opening ceremony. “The services that we provide for survivors will always remain.”

While the grant cut does not affect the building project itself, it will eliminate funding for about one-third of Palomar’s frontline staff. This could limit the organization’s ability to scale services to meet the growing demand for its trauma-informed care.

Leadership is working with federal and local representatives to appeal the funding cuts, and Garrett-Funk said she is committed to finding additional revenue sources.

“It’s so important to us that I even told my husband I’d sell my wedding ring,” Garrett-Funk told Free Press.

Despite the setbacks, construction continues, and Palomar remains focused on its mission. Ideas such as hiring domestic violence survivors at the future café in the new facility to provide job skills continue to drive the organization forward. With funding sources diversified, Palomar is determined to fulfill its mission of providing safety, healing, and hope for those in need.

Oklahoma City Free Press: Palomar breaks ground on $42M justice center in Okla City

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