>>This week on NewsNight President Trump proposes a 24% cut to NASA's budget, puttin science programs and the future of the Space Launch Syste and Orion in doubt.

And a look at studen homelessness in Central Florida.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort welcome to NewsNight where we take an in-depth look at the top storie and issues in Central Florida and how they shap our community.

First, tonigh we want to return to the issue of homelessness in our region that we've been talking about over recent months here on the program.

Data released last month showed the number of people experiencing homelessnes in Central Florida remained flat over the last year, but the figures show a troubling number of public school students who are homeless.

Krystel Knowle talked to one Valencia student who experienced homelessness at times during high school.

>>And yeah, thi was the car I was sleeping in.

>>25 year old Yasmine Arencibia's life stor hasn't always been a happy one.

Her high school years looked nothing like those of her classmates.

While they were busy planning for college, Yasmine was facing a very different reality, one that forced her to drop out of school.

>>I was very very depressed in this picture.

>>Arencibia' life took a turn for the worse when on top of struggling with food insecurity, she also found herself facing housing insecurity.

Your mother kicked you ou of her house when you were 19.

>>Yes.

>>Where did you go?

>>I slept in my ca because I had nowhere to go.

I had I run that I hit up everyone.

I was like who - can I sleep with you guys?

And everybody said no.

>>For years, this car was the only home she had left in between stretches of couch surfing.

The instability of that lifestyle eventually took a toll on her health.

>>It was the most immense pain I've ever had.

And they were like, well, what are you eating?

And I was like, well, I'm eating McDonald's every day because I'm homeless.

I had to go to the doctor.

And I also developed scabie because of the heat in my car.

>>At 23, Arencibia was accepted into temporary housing through the Empower program a transitional housing program for homeless youth between 18 and 24.

But by the time she turned 24, she aged out of the program and once again faced an uncertain future.

Just in time, the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida welcomed her into its new Brighter Days community initiative.

The program, which spans Orange Osceola and Seminole counties, focuses on addressing homelessness among older teens and young adults.

Giving people like Arencibi a renewed chance at stability.

>>So I was granted the opportunity to get an apartment for three years, and then they gave me, an opportunity to go into college.

And and I think there's this new law is called Mckinney-Vento.

If you're a homeless student, you get college for free.

After years of setbacks, Arencibia finally achieved a major milestone.

She earned her GED.

Now she's enrolled at Valencia College, and come January next year, she'll begin working towards a degree, allowing her to map out a future she once thought was out of reach.

Krystel's report is part of a collaborative initiative of independent local news outlets working towards a more informed and engaged central Florida.

Let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Brendan Byrne, Central Florida Public Media, Assistant News Director over there.

You guys are part of the collaborative, reporting initiative on homelessness.

Thanks so much for being here Brendan.

Really appreciate it.

So are you guys at the Winter Park Voice Beth Kassab Editor of the Winter Park Voice.

Good to see you back.

>>Yeah, good to be here.

>>And for the first time on the program, Scott Martin from WFTV Channel 9 afternoon reporter over there.

Good to see you, Scott.

>>Yeah, thanks for having me.

>>Thanks so much for comin on, guys.

Really appreciate it.

Let me start with you, Scott, as it's your first time, WFTV has been covering, these recent figures on the number of K through 12 students that are experiencing homelessness.

What's your newsroom been seeing?

>>I think what's shockin and what's really even more sad to see and pu is it kind of puts a whole new perspective on just how serious homelessness is within our communities, is that some of our schoo districts are reporting a rise in some of their students that are living in cars, or they're in abandoned buildings or in parks.

And when you think of young students potentially facing that type of crisis, it really just, you know, kind of hits you.

It hits you in the heart.

But this is a new look at the public school, student homelessness, the people, students who are homelessness coming from the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida.

We talked with them earlier just last month about this issue.

And let's put Orange County into perspective.

It's one of the largest, districts in the nation.

They report-- >>The largest school district-- >>The largest school district-- >>Eighth largest.

>>Yeah, had 574 unsheltere or inadequately housed students.

And that's counting the students that were in cars, parks or other abandoned buildings.

Now, they also took into consideration folks who were maybe in hotels, maybe staying with another family member.

They didn't have an actual place to call their home.

That number was up to over 8,000.

Just to kind of put that int perspective, in Orange County.

>>Substantial numbers of people living in hotels, for sure.

And it's not just K through 12, is it Brendan, who are who are vulnerable, you guys at Central Florida Public Media, have been looking at sort of some of the unique challenge that face homeless college kids.

>>Our housing and homelessnes reporter profiled one of those college student experiencing homelessness and you really see the fac that they have to balance their academic success with survival and meeting their needs.

And, you know, the person that that she met, was living in a tent and, and trying to find Wi-Fi to do their, their schooling that happened to be in the summer online, which was difficult, and trying to find access to internet, but also access to fresh water so that, you know, they could keep up with hygiene.

And a lot of times their, you know, their future with, with the progra is dependent on their success.

And being able to have stable housing really influences your success.

It's not an isolated thing here.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates about 8% of college students across the country will experience homelessness during their time in school.

And advocates are really targeting this group with with programs to try to help them and give them stable housing because, you know, if they can get them now, this will prevent them from experiencing chronic homelessness throughout their the rest of their lives.

So it's a really important demographic that they've been focusing on.

>>I mean, we've been talking on this program about how various communities, Beth, are tackling this issue of homelessness, especially in light of in light of the state's camping ban, what's been happening in Winter Park?

There's been efforts afoot there.

>>Yeah.

So the Winter Park Police Department piloted a program last year and decided to start it up again this year after some success, where they've assigne two officers to focus almost exclusivel on the unhoused population in Winter Park.

So they have a truck, they, drive around, they make contact with, people who might need help.

And they, they try to connect them to various resources.

They, you know, when we've talked to the police department, they've said their goal is not to arrest people, but to simply connect them with resources such as maybe getting an ID after they haven't had one in a long time, or, finding some temporary housing or other services that could get them off the street.

>>But there has been issues, right with that program because of the government funding cuts.

Yeah.

So Winter Park applied for a federal grant and if you recall in the early days of the, Trump administration, that grant was put in some jeopardy.

We have to rewind a few months, but all of the federal grants were frozen and then unfrozen.

So it appears now that that money will come through with for Winter Park.

But, the city manager had told me that they would move forward either way.

>>Orlando as wel though recently approved funds, to help homeless people find shelter.

WFTV has covered that.

>>Yeah.

Orlando City Council approved $875,000 that was to help for th for the Christian Service Center to continue their work in funding, the resources that they do, whether it be teams that are out on the streets helping find, temporary housing shelter or even help folks, cover rent.

>>We've been getting point in time counts, Brendan, over recen weeks from all over the state.

We cover that here in Central Florida, in Brevard as well.

Some places seem to be having more luck at dealing with this issue than others.

>>Yeah, Jacksonville is one of them.

They found or recorded a 49% decrease in homeless population over year over year, which is a pretty astounding when you compare it to other state numbers.

They credited, that the city leaders have really put money and effort into, you know, resources, especially in wake of, of the camping ban to put into perspective, you know, locally, we saw some ups and downs.

Orange County dropped 2%.

But Seminole and Osceol were up 4 and 9%, respectively.

What was really interesting about, what our homelessness and housing reporter found.

Interesting was that the tri county area saw 40% of people experiencing homelessness were either very young or very old, which which was concerning to a lot of of of advocates and people trying to get support to them.

>>Interesting.

You know, we're coming up on hurricane season, Beth, and of course, a lot of people who advocate for the homeless get very concerned around this time of year.

It's definitely a challenging time.

What where do homeless people go during storms?

>>Well, there are a couple options.

Of course.

There are some shelters that exist all the time for people who are unhoused.

But, during hurricane season, as we all know, additional shelters open up that might accommodate all, all kinds of folks who just need, additional shelter or might opt to come inland.

So those are available.

You know, of course, my understanding is that this camping ban is suspended during emergencies, but a hurricane emergency is not the time you want to be in a tent in the woods.

So, and then, of course, there's the, issue of FEMA.

And again, you know, my understanding there is that, FEMA support is for people who are housed prior to the storm.

So that is another avenue that would not be available to people who are unhoused.

>>Yeah, it's a very tricky time definitely, for people who are experiencing homelessness.

Be sure to visit us onlin for much more NewsNight content, including some of Beth's reporting on the ongoing discussion over historic preservation in Winter Park.

It's all at wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay, next tonight, it's not only the budget that has proven to be a divisive issue for lawmakers in Florida of late.

As in previous years, the Florida House recently voted to repeal gun law passed in the wake of the 2018 Parkland shooting, which would have lowered the minimum age for buying a long gun to 18.

But during a legislative session that saw a mass shooting take place just nearby at FSU, the Senate refused to move forward with repeal.

I talked last wee with Democratic Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith and Florida GOP Chair Evan Power, and I asked both of them about the reasons the legislature has been reluctant to move on guns.

>>It is really, really importan that we continue to have a legislature a bipartisan effort to keep the post-Parkland er reforms on gun safety in place.

These are reforms that will save lives.

And we were reminded when this terrible tragedy and shooting unfolded on campus at FSU when we were in session here in Tallahassee, at Florida State University, the importance of making sure that we continue to expand on these gun safety laws.

>>There's a lot of internal dynamics, I think, in the Senate on that issue.

What I can tell you is the base of the Republican Part would like to fix that.

I think there'll be continue pressure to fix that.

And I think what we see is these gun incidents that are happening in gun free zones and people who who feel that their constitutional rights have been taken away need to be addressed.

And I think over time we're going to get there.

It's just you got to deal with the legislative process is not a fast one as much as the public would like it to get done immediately.

Sometimes it takes us a little time.

>>Evan Power though.

Okay, Brendan, it does seem like the Senate is a hurdle right, to repealing these post-Parkland gun laws.

What do we know about Senate President Ben Albritton's position here?

>>Yeah, so he's kind of has this this back and forth going for him internally.

He's got a very high rating from from the NRA, the National Rifle Association card carrying member.

He says he, you know, he' got a concealed weapons permit.

He always carries at least one weapon on him, but he's also been very move by meeting some of the families and visiting the site of the 2018 mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas.

So he's weighing these these two things, very heavily.

But he's keeping his cards pretty close to the vest as to where he's going to fall on this position.

>>Yeah.

And Evan Power told me that he doesn't believe the shooting at FSU had anything to do with the Senate not moving on the issue this session, how does the public come dow on repealing these restrictions that were put in plac after Parkland, Beth?

>>Right.

Well, the, the latest polls with the general public are showin there is not support for this.

In fact, overwhelmingly, people would like to keep that restriction in place.

The numbers were 80% are not in favor of repealing that measure.

And -- >>That's a large majority.

>>Yes.

And only about 7% undecided there.

And roughly 12% said, okay, they would they would, be in favor of, of repealing it.

But, yeah, I mean, the genera public is not for that change.

>>You were at FS after this mass shooting, right?

Did you get a feelin from FSU students that they were keen to see new rules on guns?

>>They want to see change.

Many students that I talked to had experienced Parkland as well.

And now they were livin through this again at FSU.

There was one studen I vaguely remember.

I overheard he talking about it, and I went up to jus to have a conversation with her to see if she wanted to share some remarks.

And she was so angry that she wasn't.

She wasn't ready to speak yet.

But anger and frustration was kind of this consensus I felt from a lot of the students there.

>>And one of the things that I've heard from Republicans is that this highlighted the fac that FSU, as other campuses are, was a gun free zone, that people can't protect themselves because they can't carry firearms on campus.

But the legislature tried to change that too right and failed.

>>That's right.

There was a bill proposed b then State Senator Randy Fine, that would allow, guns on campuses, including dorm rooms and residence halls.

And that was in the wake of the, he said that Israelis or students of Israel, Israeli students would need that protection on campus after the terrorist attacks.

And, that didn't make it out of out of its first criminal justice committee.

So that that bill essentially died and the House bill did not make it through either.

>>I mean the Parkland shooting really highlighted the role, didn't it, of those school resource officers on campus and the rol that they play in protecting K through 12 students?

The future of those SROs, though, has been in doubt, particularly here in Orang County up until fairly recently.

Right.

You guys have been covering that.

>>Yeah.

And before the negotiations, a tentative negotiation was met.

I talked to parents who were not happy about the potential of not having school resource officers.

And this all stemmed from how they were going to get paid.

Schools dealing with budget issues.

Everyone's dealing with budget issues.

But finally, a tentative agreement was made so Orange County schools will have those school resource officers.

>>I mean, you got a close up look at this issue in Winter Park as well.

I mean, how did the SO - SRO contract play out there?

>>Well, Winter Park was one of five cities that had not come to terms with the school district on how much they would be paid.

The individual police departments, such as the Winter Par Police Department, provide the officers for school and, they need some compensation for that as costs are going up everywhere.

So yes, school district budgets are extremely tight.

City budgets have gotten extremely tight too because of inflation.

Other factors we're seeing and as a result, this became a huge issue for Winter Park, Apopka, Windermere, some other towns there have been terms reached.

Parents were very concerned about the prospect, which was not raised by the cities, but was raised by Orange County Public Schools of perhaps using guardians or some other form of, private security, essentially in schools.

And the general sense is seem to be that, school resource officers would be the best way to go.

And, and, that is what what will take place.

I believe it's a now a thre year agreement that's in place.

>>Yeah.

Scott you recently, came to Florida, and I wonder whethe from your reporting elsewhere, this issue over school securit and of course, gun laws as well has been playing ou in other places to the similar to a similar extent that it does here in Florida.

>>Yeah, 100%.

I think it's a concern for any parent in any state and should be regarding you children and safety in schools.

And I Oklahoma is where I came from.

Schools had armed schoo resource officers, a gun laws.

There are folks fighting for gun laws.

Oklahoma being a red state, a lot of people like their guns, but there are people who are fighting for control still wanting that to take place.

>>Many similarities to Florida, for sure.

It's, certainly a subject that's bound to come u in future legislative sessions, but that is all the time we have for this part of the program.

My thanks to Beth Kassab from the Winter Park Voice, Scott Martin, first time on the show.

Good job from WFTV Channel 9.

Thank you so much, guys.

Brendan, stick around.

We're going to talk about space in just a moment.

Meanwhile, be sure to find us on social media we're at WUC TV, on Facebook and Instagram.

We're also @NewsNightWUCF on X.

Okay, finally tonight, the White House's proposed budget for NASA.

It includes a 24% funding cut and would shift the space agency's focus awa from scientific research and towards human exploration.

President Trump has an ambitious goal for humans to reach Mars within the next four years, but how they'll get there remains uncertain.

The budget proposals are reported to include a nearly 50 cut in NASA's science programs.

NewsNight spoke this week with Ken Kremer, managing editor of Space Up Close and a retired research scientist in Titusville.

He's particularly concerned about the Mars sample return project facing cancellation.

>>The Perseverance rover is on Mars, collecting 40 soil samples, soi and rock samples that would be collected by Mars sample return and bring him bac here roughly ten years or so.

So this project has been underway for several years.

A lot of money has already been spent.

It is very expensive.

NASA is looking for a cheape architecture, but those samples are really the best wa to determine if there has ever been life on Mars in the past, maybe even in the present.

We need those samples.

So it's crazy to cancel this mission.

Absolutely crazy.

And it sets science back and will force layoffs in among scientists.

>>Ken Kremer.

Okay, Brendan, let's break this all down.

Big picture.

What stands out to you from this, proposed budget?

>>The current budget, as i stands right now, $24.8 billion.

This the skinny budget proposal set forth by the Trum administration, $18.8 billion.

This is, a dramatic shift, in where this administration wants the agency to go and where it's putting its resources.

And I should say the pathway that NASA was on was set by the first Trump administration, right.

The Artemis program getting humans on the moon by the end of the decade.

And now this essentially says, nope, we're going to shift our efforts elsewhere.

We're going to send humans to Mars.

And the rationale behind it is to beat China and other adversaries to get there.

>>I mean, put this in historical context, if you can.

Where does it leave the space program?

You know, compared to other times in the past?

>>I asked Casey Dreier about this.

He's from the Planetary Society, which is a science advocacy organization.

This is, according t his analysis, the greatest year over year funding cuts in the history of the agency.

And to put it into perspective, by adjusting for inflation, the budget for NASA, if this goes through, as the president has recommended, the budget for NASA, this would be the same budget adjusted for inflation, that the agency had in 1961.

I mean, that is dramatic.

>>Yeah.

Talking of which, I want to talk about the the SLS and Orion in a moment.

But first, let's talk about those proposed cuts, for NASA' science programs and research, which we heard Ken Kramer talking about there.

Much spending has already been put into things like that Mars sample return, new space telescope as well.

That could be axed.

There's a lot of programs on the chopping block here.

>>The big on as as Ken mentioned, is the Mars sample return.

Yeah.

And this is the agency's highest priority scienc mission, the Perseverance rover.

Billions of dollars thousands of people, worked on this machin to get onto the surface of Mars.

It's out there exploring Mars, but really, its number one priority was to to grab these samples of the Martian dirt.

Pack the in these these little modules, that will then be picked u and brought back home to Earth.

Scientists believe that there could be signs of life ancient signs of life on Mars.

Once Mars once had water, the only way for us to conclusively say that that's true is for us to get our hand on those samples that goes away.

I've spoken to a number of scientists who are involved in this, and they are jus completely disheartened by this because their life's work is going into this mission, and we may never know the answer.

The Trump administration says, well, since we're putting humans on the surface of Mars, they can just snag up those samples and bring them home.

But it's very unclea if a human mission would even go to the same places that these samples are, or if it would even get there in the first place.

Well, what's all this going to mean then for the Space Launch System and Orion?

That's what capture a lot of people's imaginations.

They're the bits, the backbone of the Artemis program.

It's already cost tens of billions of dollars.

What's going to happen there?

>>According to this proposal, goes away after Artemis III.

So the next mission to launch is Artemis II.

That one's going to hav the crew on board, and Artemis III, which will land on the surface of of.

>>So II goes but without landing-- >>II goes without landing, III goes with landing.

And then, according to this budget that's done, we move.

We move on to Mars.

That means SLS future iterations go away.

The current plan has up to ten, launchers being manufactured.

Orion goes away.

And Gateway, which is a planned, space station, a tiny space station at that.

That would orbit the moon as well.

That would be needed to get, astronauts to the surface.

And the long duration science that we would learn from being on the moon for a long period of time.

>>Well, I mean, Artemis IV onwards was intended to sort of begin that work, to establish a, I guess, a long term huma presence, on the lunar surface.

I guess that concept is dead now?

According to this budget plan, the concept is dead.

The one thing that that, that could happen is Congress still has the power of the purse, right?

Congress is still, you know, responsible for appropriations-- >>This is just a proposal-- >>This is just a proposed budget.

>>SLS Orion, human exploration is so seated in so many different districts throughout the U.S you've got different spac centers all across the country, and a lot of lawmakers want to make sure that this money comes to their districts to continue a lot of the work on SLS, a lot of the work on Orion.

So it'll be interesting to see the dynamics between the lawmakers as to whether or not they'll they'll go with what the president wants or what their constituents wants, which is jobs and development with with the space agency.

>>I mean, there is the headline, of course, is the cut.

There is a slight bump for, for human exploration that includes an extra billion dollars, for Mars, which, as we kno and we've talked about before, is a Trump priority.

Do we get an idea where that extra funding for Mars is going to be spent, given the SLS and Orion are set to go away, is that going to go to private endeavors?

>>We don't know.

We would assume that it would go to private endeavors, because that would be the only way to make this possible.

But, I mean, a missio to Mars is very, very difficult.

And NASA has laid out its plans for moon to Mars.

Right.

You learn to live on the moon, which is far closer than Mars and moon takes just a few days to get to.

Mars would take months, if not years for one of those missions to go about it.

So a human mission to Mars at this particular timeline, most experts say, is not possible, and $1 billion not going to be enough to even pull it off.

>>And people should definitely check out your podcast "Are We There Yet?"

Because I know that you're covering this issue, regularly on your podcast.

To remind you you can find much more of our conversation about the proposed budget for NASA on our website.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnight.

That is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Brendan Byrne, Central Florida Public Media.

You wear many hats over there, so I appreciate you spending your time to to come on the show.

Thanks for being here.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.