By Amelia Orjuela Da Silva

This article originally appeared in The Miami Times.

Leaders warn the proposal could undo progress in public safety, small business growth, and immigrant support

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava during a Black media budget briefing on July 16, 2025.
(Armando Rodriguez/ Miami-Dade County)

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s proposed $12.9 billion budget is triggering alarm among community-based organizations (CBOs), nonprofits and small business advocates. Faced with a projected $402 million shortfall, the FY 2025–26 budget plan slashes key programs, including $55 million in nonprofit subsidies, over $25 million in CBO grants, and $1.17 million from the long-running Mom and Pop Small Business Grant Program.

“We have to focus on what are the most essential services,” the mayor said, “and some of our grants and contracts, however valuable they are — which they are — unfortunately, they have to go to get to that $400 million number.”

Community leaders warn the proposed cuts would undo years of progress in economic development, immigrant support, public safety and reentry programs, especially in underserved neighborhoods.

Lyle Muhammad, executive director of the Circle of Brotherhood, speaks into the microphone.
(Amelia Orjuela Da Silva for The Miami Times)

Lyle Muhammad, executive director of the Circle of Brotherhood, emphasized the risks.

“This is not the time to go backwards,” he said. “The most shameful thing for me is it sounds like a repeat of the poorest of our citizens having to bear the brunt of both the loss of service and financial compensation to do things.”

Boots on the ground

Mayor Daniella Levine Cava explains her 2025-2026 fiscal year budget proposal.
(Armando Rodriguez/ Miami-Dade County)

The budget would eliminate the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), an initiative led by Levine Cava aimed at addressing gun violence and reducing crime through community outreach programs like the Safe in the 305 Community Grant. Under the mayor’s plan, the office would merge with Juvenile Services to form the Community Services Department, while the Peace and Prosperity Plan would face a $300,889reduction.

“Anytime any administration considers either cutting or defunding neighborhood safety programs, that should ring an alarm,” Muhammad said. “Our neighborhoods are not yet as safe as we need them to be.”

The Circle of Brotherhood is a local nonprofit focused on community violence intervention.
(Amelia Orjuela Da Silva for The Miami Times)

According to county records, the Circle of Brotherhood received $400,000 in community violence intervention (CVI) funding under the OMB and ONS through a subagreement with the Carrie Meek Foundation, which ended in April 2025. The nonprofit is also under contract for $554,000 in grant funding through the Juvenile Services Department for the current 2024-2025 fiscal year, which ends in September.

Grassroots groups like Mothers Fighting for Justice, based in south Miami-Dade, say the proposed cuts would strip communities of essential support.

“These grants are very important, not just to me but to the whole community,” said Romania Dukes, who founded the organization 10 years ago after her son De’Michael was killed by a stray bullet near Goulds. “With my seniors program and all the others … they're not going to have food, school supplies or medicine.”

Dukes has received up to $2,000 through Safe in the 305 for youth field trips and engagement. She’s also relied on funding from the Supporting Safer Communities Program through the Carrie Meek Foundation and ONS — resources she says are now drying up.

While she says she knows of others mothers affected by gun violence who have launched well-funded foundations throughout the years, Dukes said she’s still waiting for some backing of her own. 

“Why do I have to reach out to parents who lost kids like myself when I’m in Miami-Dade County, where commissioners could give money?”

Re-entry programs

Safe in the 305 grants, distributed under the Peace and Prosperity Plan, have further supported organizations like Transition, Inc., which assists formerly incarcerated individuals with re-entry services. The organization earned around $4,500 to help clients secure identification, an essential first step for employment and reintegration.

Transition earned around $4,500 from the Safe in the 305 program to help clients secure identification.
(Transition, Inc. via Facebook)

“Should our services disappear, large gaps in employment would appear,” said Henryfrank Cole, lead placement specialist and supervisor at Transition, Inc. “One less-than-better life event, like having an ID lost or stolen, can set someone back for months.”

Transition also receives about $80,000 in CBO grants through the county’s OMB. Without that funding, Executive Director Stephen Gilmore says critical services will collapse.

“We will lose at least two full-time positions, and this means our entire boot camp program for youth incarcerated at TGK's Boot Camp Program will discontinue,” he said.

‘A hard challenge’

For Aline Francois, executive director of the Family Action Network Movement (FANM), the proposed CBO cuts feel like another blow to Miami-Dade’s immigrant and low-income residents.

“We’ve always served more people than the dollars allowed,” Francois said. “Even when we were funded, it was never enough. So cutting that down could push us into staff restructuring, longer waitlists, and even the threat of program shutdowns.”

FANM receives approximately $179,000 in CBO grants for case management, housing assistance, job assistance and social services. 

"They (elected officials) need to look at the impact. Eliminating something like [The Office of New Americans] is crazy. It’s not proactive. It’s almost as if you’re undoing years of work." -Aline Francois, FANM
(New Florida Majority via Youtube)

“The community’s needs don’t go away. They are greater now than ever,” Francois said.

The Office of New Americans (ONA) is another casualty. ONA, which works with FANM and other groups to support immigrants with documentation and referral assistance, would close at the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1. Francois noted that this closure would create higher demand for services at organizations like FANM, but with fewer resources to meet that need.

“Imagine not having the services, the partnerships that we have to be able to help people get their proper documents in place,” she said. “It’s going to be a hard challenge.”

Eliminating programs outright, she warned, is shortsighted.

“When there’s a shortage of funding, what happens? You have the community that suffers,” she said. “They [elected officials] need to look at the impact. Eliminating something like that is crazy. It’s not proactive. It’s almost as if you’re undoing years of work.”

Mom and Pop in jeopardy

The Mom and Pop Small Business Grant Program, created in 1999, is set to lose all $1.17 million in funding. The grants, typically under $10,000, support small business owners in all 13 County Commission districts.

“100% of the dollars go to the business community,” said Leroy Jones, executive director of Neighbors and Neighbors Association (NANA), which administers the program. “No administrative dollars ever came out of this. If it’s eliminated, it will be a great cost for the small business community.”

NANA also receives CBO funding and manages county-supported business incubators and storefront rehabilitation programs worth over $700,000, according to county records.

“Now is not the time to go backwards,” Jones said. “There are a couple of billion-dollar projects that are gonna break ground soon. There’s no reason why the programs that help small businesses should be on the chopping block.”

At Catalyst Miami, Small Business Support Director Nathalie Setoute sees the grants’ role as vital gap funding.

"These grants assist new small business owners who traditionally do not have an easy time finding funding through traditional banks." -Nathalie Setoute, Catalyst Miami
(Courtesy of Nathalie Setoute)

“These grants assist new small business owners who traditionally do not have an easy time finding funding through traditional banks,” she explained. “They don’t have to worry about paying back the money, and it helps them obtain all the documentation they need for compliance.”

Losing them, she warned, would cause a domino effect, harming both entrepreneurs and the economic growth of neighborhoods alike.

What’s next? 

Food banks are not spared, either. The proposed budget would eliminate general fund support for nonprofits like Curley’s House, which could lose up to $200,000 in county aid.

“We’re just waiting to see what’s going to happen,” said Executive Director Lavern Spicer, who noted the funding is critical for food purchases and overhead. The food bank, located in Liberty City, serves over 5,000 people monthly.

Levine Cava has described the budget cuts as “painful,” and she’s proposing that the Board of County Commissioners receive additional discretionary funds to potentially fill the gaps. Still, many in the nonprofit world remain wary.

“The mayor comes from the nonprofit world,” Jones said. “She knows how hard this work is. I believe she wants to do the right thing. But ultimately, the vote is in the hands of the commission.”

Community members will have a chance to voice their concerns during a series of upcoming budget town halls before the final vote in September.

Next town halls:

• July 31 at 6 p.m. at Main Library 

• Aug. 2 at noon at North Dade Regional Library 

• Aug. 4 at 6 p.m. at Westchester Regional Library 

• Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. at Arcola Lakes Senior Center

• Aug. 6 at 6 p.m. at the Dennis Moss Center 

•  Aug. 7 at 6 p.m. at Oak Grove Park