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More and more people are finding themselves living paycheck to paycheck in the greater Tampa Bay region. In some places, rent has doubled. The cost of everyday goods — like gas and groceries — keeps creeping up. All the while, wages lag behind and the affordable housing crisis looms. Amid cost-of-living increases, WUSF is focused on documenting how people are making ends meet.

Tampa Bay area charities rally to help federal workers during shutdown

Exterior of James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital at night
James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital
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Courtesy
Federal workers at the Haley Veterans' Hospital are required to work without pay until the shutdown ends.

Local charities are stepping in to fill the gaps during the government shutdown.

The ongoing government shutdown means the approximately 31,000 federal workers in the Tampa-St. Petersburg metropolitan area will not get paid until it ends.

Local charities and nonprofits like United Way Suncoast, Feeding Tampa Bay and Crisis Center of Tampa Bay are stepping in to fill the gaps.

But it’s not their first time – in 2018, there was a 35-day shutdown.

“Nearly half of the households in our Suncoast community are living paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling to make ends meet,” said Nichole Peña-Miller, the director of financial security for United Way Suncoast. “So, we saw in 2018, and we’re seeing again now that even just missing a single paycheck can be disastrous.”

ALSO READ: How the government shutdown could affect you

One of the main worries is that workers will be laid off permanently, according to Clara Reynolds, the CEO of the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay.

“ We were already living in challenging economic times,” Reynolds said. “You know, housing prices, regular inflation, the cost of basic necessities. And we also know that if federal employees don’t get paid, it has a ripple effect across our community because that means rents and mortgages and utility bills won’t be paid.”

One of the main priorities of the charities is to assist impacted workers in finding information.

“ Many of these federal workers see themselves as the helper and not the helpee,” Reynolds said. “So, many of them don’t even know how to access the resources that are available for everybody.”

Still, it’s essential to be proactive and make a plan, according to Peña-Miller and Reynolds. They said affected workers should contact their mortgage company or landlord, phone provider and banker credit union to see what programs might be available to them.

Since the start of the shutdown, the local charities have banded together to pool resources. Reynolds said Feeding Tampa Bay and the United Way Suncoast led the effort to assist, bringing other organizations along.

Peña-Miller said that if the shutdown does exceed 2018’s month-plus length, they are prepared to continue gathering resources using that network.

Gabriel Velasquez Neira is a WUSF Rush Family Radio News intern for fall of 2025.
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