Local nonprofit leaders warn of the dangers of budget cuts at League of Women Voters panel

Local nonprofit leaders in Orlando are struggling to keep up with the federal government’s threats of cuts to funding, while the Orange County public school system is grappling with potential cuts from the state and consequences of recent declines in student enrollment.

All of this was discussed Wednesday at the local League of Women Voters’ monthly Hot Topics luncheon focused this month on the effects of government downsizing.

The issue has been hot (or hotly debated) in recent months indeed, as the Trump administration takes chaotic action to reduce the federal government. A similar state-level task force was subsequently launched by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to scrutinize state spending.

“When one part of the safety net is weakened, the entire system feels the strain,” said Kelly Astro, senior vice president of community impact for the Heart of United Way Florida.

The nonprofit operates the 211 resource hotline for a full one-third of Florida. Just over the last week, Astro said her organization received about 2,500 calls for assistance and the vast majority of those — “more than half of them” — dealt with housing and shelter.

An increase in the cost of living in Central Florida in recent years, coupled with a new state law that bars people from sleeping on public property (including sidewalks), have served as challenges to local homeless service agencies.

But now, under the Trump administration, threats to federal funding for programs that serve homeless people or people at risk for homelessness have created a greater sense of anxiety and uncertainty.

“When those cuts happen to the housing subsidies, then people are starting to look not only for how are they able to support where they’re living, but what cuts can they make, and what other organizations can they go to to help cover the costs for other things, so that they are able to pay for that housing,” Astro explained.

Housing and developers and homebuilders have also warned that Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants could stand to affect builders’ ability to construct more homes, amid an ongoing housing shortage, and could drive up home prices.

According to the New York Times, nearly one in four construction workers are undocumented immigrants, making up a critical portion of those who help build new homes. Florida in particular has the third-highest population of undocumented immigrants in the nation — and has been a target for U.S. Immigrant and Customs Enforcement raids, detention and deportation efforts under Trump.

DeSantis, who approved one of the harshest new immigration policies just a couple of years ago, has been eager to comply, coordinate and expand the state’s own efforts.

“I’ve insisted that Florida be the tip of the spear when it comes to state support of federal immigration enforcement,” he said in a recent statement. “Florida is proud to work closely with the Trump administration and help deliver on the 2024 mandate from America that our borders be secured and our immigration laws be followed.”

Orange County Public Schools superintendent Dr. Maria Vazquez was also on the League’s panel Wednesday. Vazquez said schools have themselves recorded a rise in the number of students they serve who are homeless. The local school board has prioritized the development of resources, she said, including the placement of social workers in schools. These social workers serve to then help connect kids from troubled homes with assistance, including students who don’t exactly have a stable home to return to.

“What we’re seeing at the state level and at the federal level has great potential to impact those services to our children,” she said. “And what happens when those are gone? Do they drop out? Do you have children then that you see … an increased number of children that want to harm themselves, hurt themselves? Do they turn to violence and crime because they don’t have the supports necessary within the school, within the community?”

As of early April, the Orange County school district had more than 8,000 students identified as homeless — the highest number of any district in the state, according to preliminary data. Nearly 600 were living without any form of shelter — living in a car or on the streets — while the rest were doubled up with other families, temporarily living with a friend or family member, or living in a hotel.

Advocates say there’s a shortage of roughly 1,000 shelter beds in the Central Florida region, and efforts to establish a new shelter south of downtown Orlando have been stalled due to neighborhood pushback.

“We currently have strong partnerships with many of our community organizations to provide those supports for them. But when they’re gone, I think we will see an increase in crime, we will see an increase in suicide rates, and then we will have to deal with those issues,” said Vazquez. OCPS accepts private donations to support their efforts.

Meanwhile Derrick Chubbs, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, said his organization has already seen cuts in funding from the federal government.

“Just over the past four to five weeks, we’ve had two significant funding sources that have been eliminated,” Chubbs shared. That includes their emergency food assistance program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program and the Commodity Credit Corporation branch — both of which have seen cuts.

“Just those two basically will equate to 8 million meals now not making it to somebody’s place,” said Chubbs. Food insecurity, or not having affordable access to enough food, has been on the rise in recent years, with the rising cost of some food staples and basic necessities. Chubbs emphasized, however, that it’s not just families who receive food assistance from their nonprofit who stand to lose out as a result of federal funding cuts, it’s also the laborers who produce the food.

“That food is sourced from American growers,” he explained. “So it not only impacts the people that we serve at our partner agencies, it impacts the agriculture community as well, because that’s where we would be purchasing that food.”

Affordable access to childcare, job opportunities and healthcare have also been key issues on the minds of those who call 211, according to Astro. While threats to federal funds under Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency initiative have drawn concern, so too have uncertainties from the state government.

Although state lawmakers concluded most of their policy work this year on May 2 — the date originally meant to mark the end of the 2025 state legislative session — lawmakers failed to reach agreement on a state budget for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. Budget talks, growing more fiery by the day, are ongoing as of publication.

The problems stem in large part from disagreements between the Florida House and Senate leaders on proposed tax breaks, plus a property tax relief plan first pitched by Gov. DeSantis. Of the current budget talks, “It’s a real hot mess, is how I would describe it,” admitted Skyler Swisher, an investigative and state politics reporter for the Orlando Sentinel. Swisher joined LWV panelists to discuss government downsizing efforts Wednesday.

“The House speaker, he was really pushing for a cut to the sales tax. He wanted to reduce the rate from 6 percent to 5.25 percent — that’s about $5 million in lost revenue from the state,” Swisher explained. “The governor, however, is really pushing for property tax relief. And what he would like to see done is he would like to see a $1,000 tax rebate for homestead properties.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican, however, isn’t fond of the idea. “He said that he thinks that’s kind of like a California-style program where you’re just going to be essentially writing checks to homeowners,” said Swisher.

DeSantis’ broader idea is to eliminate property taxes entirely. Because Florida requires voter approval for certain tax changes, DeSantis would need legislators to develop a ballot initiative in 2026. The initiative would then need to be approved by at least 60 percent of Floridians who vote on it.

As the Florida Policy Institute points out, the elimination of property taxes would result in a loss of billions of dollars in revenue that currently support the operations of local governments — including road construction and housing assistance programs — plus local schools.

The Orange County public school system, one of the largest in the country, is already facing down a nearly $28 million cut to funding due to a decline in student enrollment.

The district this year sent more than 800 teachers letters informing them they would not have a job at their school next year, pointing them instead to job opportunities at different schools throughout the district with more students.

“We are trying to match them with 400 vacant positions that we have,” said Vazquez. The district recently contracted with a third party consulting firm to try and recruit students in Orange County back to public schools. Under their agreement, the firm will be paid nearly $1,000 by the district for every student who re-enrolls and attends a district-operated school for at least 30 days.

Astro, the United Way representative, called on the community to do what they can to support local families and the entities (private and public) within the county that serve them.

“We need for you to find causes and missions that mean something to you,” she said. “It isn’t just all about money. We need your time. We need your talent.”

Chubbs, with Second Harvest, said volunteers save his organization roughly $5.4 million annually in labor costs. “I can buy a lot of food with $5.4 million dollars,” he said.

“So find a cause,” he asked of the audience. “It doesn’t have to be us. But please let it be something.”

The League also urged the public to contact their state legislators to protect funds for critical programs (and you might try your Congressional representatives while you’re at it, too).

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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.