Guilford County is preparing a fiscal stress test to anticipate future cuts to federal and state funding.
The move comes after the recent government shutdown raised fears of significant delays to food and nutrition benefits. North Carolina lawmakers have also not approved a new state budget.
Local officials said in a Guilford County Board of Commissioners Work Session on Thursday that the loss of federal and state dollars couldn't be filled by county funding alone.
Mary Herbenick, director of the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium, said nonprofits were already experiencing the impact of shifting federal funding policies before the shutdown.
"Organizations have been scrambling across the sector to step into gaps, as they've had to lay off folks and to reconfigure their programming and figure out what they can do with reductions in donations," she said.
Herbenick said delays in federal grants and funding freezes also coincided with North Carolina seeing a 19% increase in homelessness.
The fiscal stress test will prepare the county for future shifts.
The Board of Commissioners is expected to revisit the plan in a future work session.