Texas rape survivors charged for rape kits

Looks like Alaska isn’t the only state with a history of charging sexual assault victims for rape kits.
A local Houston news source featured the story, in which a number of survivors confirm that despite police authorities assuring them they wouldn’t pay a penny for medical evidence gathered after an assault, they end up getting letters of delinquency and denial letters for funding from the state’s Crime Victims Compensation Fund.
These denial letters are generally sent due to strict guidelines imposed by the legislature as to how the bills are paid. (The survivors must exhaust any other potential funding sources like the local police department or their insurance company.) The (not-so-)funny thing about this is that this fund exists to assist survivors financially yet has millions laying around, unspent every year:

Texas State Comptroller’s office figures show the fund has tens of millions of dollars left over at the end of each year.
In September 2006, the balance was $67,058,646 and one year later, the balance was $57,669,432.
In 2008, that figure was up again to $66,572,261 that was left unspent in the fund.

“A lot of people aren’t going to ask. They’re just going to go ahead and pay it and move forward with their lives. They don’t want to keep re-living that experience,” said Kelly Young of the Houston Area Women’s Center.
The sad thing is, as Cara points out, that there are several states that charge victims, despite the violations committed against receiving grants under VAWA by doing it.
I couldn’t find a Texas organization taking action on this (if anyone knows of one, please put in comments!), but what you can do is contact the Crime Victim’s Compensation Fund directly and tell them to start putting their money where their mouth is. It’s just shameful.