Austin Staff Recommends $5.35 Million Reduction to Social Service Grants for FY27
Austin staff has recommended $5.35 million in reductions to social service grant contracts for Fiscal Year 2026-2027.
The recommendation would maintain funding for 78 contracts, reduce 53 and eliminate 24. Total funding across the 155 contracts would decline from approximately $56.4 million in FY26 to $51 million in FY27, a reduction of about 9.5%.
Kerri Lang, director of Austin Budget and Organizational Excellence, provided the recommendation to Mayor Kirk Watson and the Austin City Council in a July 29 memorandum.
The memorandum follows Council’s July 22 budget work session. During that meeting, staff presented preliminary reductions organized by service area. Council asked staff to review individual contracts and recommend specific changes instead of applying the same percentage reduction across the portfolio.
The resulting 25-page analysis lists each vendor, contract, service description, reported performance, FY26 funding level, recommended reduction and proposed FY27 amount.
What staff recommended
Staff divided the 155 contracts into three groups:
Maintained: 78 contracts would receive no reduction. Their combined proposed FY27 funding is approximately $32.98 million.
Reduced: 53 contracts would lose a combined $3.23 million. Their proposed FY27 funding totals approximately $18.06 million.
Eliminated: 24 contracts would lose their full combined allocation of approximately $2.13 million.
The recommendations cover contracts administered through Austin Public Health, the Austin Police Department, Austin Climate and Resilience, Austin Community Court, Austin Economic Development, Austin Equity and Inclusion, Austin Homeless Strategy and Operations, Austin Parks and Recreation, and Austin Small and Minority Business Resources.
The memorandum describes the recommendations as part of the City’s continuing effort to restructure its social service investments during development of the FY27 budget.
Examples of contracts recommended for elimination
The 24 contracts proposed for full elimination include programs involving behavioral health, youth services, food access, transportation, community planning, homelessness and workforce development.
Examples include:
The Other Ones Foundation, Bridge Housing: $250,000;
Easterseals Central Texas, High-Quality Behavioral Health Services: $169,823;
Sunrise Community Church, Mobile Outreach and Housing: $150,000;
Central Texas Food Bank, College Food Access: $141,750;
The Austin Theatre Alliance, Literacy to Life: $141,792;
Mexic-Arte Museum, Community Art and Screen It: $135,000;
Central Texas Food Bank, Travis County Senior Nutrition: $93,316;
Girl Scouts of Central Texas, School-Based Community Programs: $91,800;
Communities In Schools of Central Texas, Expanding Support for Students: $81,000;
Foundation Communities, Transportation: $79,200;
Austin Climate and Resilience, Climate Equity Grants: $75,000; and
Youth and Family Alliance, Workforce Development Program: $55,574.
Other proposed eliminations include two prekindergarten classroom startup contracts, food and nutrition programs, nonprofit capacity-building work, an Austin Independent School District attendance-software agreement and violence-prevention services.
Examples of proposed contract reductions
The largest single dollar reduction in the analysis is to Integral Care’s Road to Recovery contract through Austin Community Court. Staff recommends reducing that contract by $327,801, from $550,000 to $222,199.
Other examples include:
Caritas of Austin, BSS Plus Rapid Rehousing: a $216,256 reduction, leaving approximately $1.95 million;
Workforce Solutions Capital Area Workforce Board, subsidized child-care agreement: a $212,000 reduction, leaving $794,389;
Youth and Family Alliance/LifeWorks, Workforce Development+ program: a $172,190 reduction, leaving $688,759;
Austin Independent School District, Prime Time After-school: a $163,747 reduction, leaving approximately $1.33 million;
Sickle Cell Texas Marc Thomas Foundation, Sickle Cell Navigation Services: a $149,710 reduction, leaving $200,000;
Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, Ready to Work+ Program: a $137,199 reduction, leaving $548,797; and
Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, Literacy Partners Workforce Collaboration: a $127,550 reduction, leaving $510,201.
Several homelessness contracts would receive percentage reductions rather than elimination. These include rapid-rehousing, cold-weather shelter, outreach and supportive-service programs administered by Caritas of Austin, the Austin Area Urban League, Integral Care, Family Eldercare, LifeWorks, Family Endeavors and Casa Marianella.
Many contracts would remain unchanged
The recommendation would maintain 78 contracts with combined funding of approximately $32.98 million.
Examples include Integral Care’s Main Mental Health Services and Expanded Mobile Crisis Outreach Team contracts; Any Baby Can’s Ready Families Collaborative; Jail to Jobs’ community violence intervention program; several permanent supportive housing programs; and multiple behavioral health, youth, food-access and HIV-service contracts.
The proposal therefore does not apply a uniform reduction to every provider or service category. It combines full funding, partial reductions and contract eliminations based on staff’s contract-level review.
What happens next
The July 29 memorandum presents a staff recommendation for the proposed FY27 budget. It does not represent final Council action.
Council may maintain, modify or reject individual recommendations as it continues its budget deliberations. The attached contract analysis provides the detailed funding and performance information Council can use when considering those decisions.
The full memorandum and contract-by-contract analysis can be found here: https://services.austintexas.gov/edims/document.cfm?id=478053
ABOUT BINGHAM GROUP
The Bingham Group, LLC is an Austin-based municipal government affairs and lobbying firm serving corporate, real estate and nonprofit clients across Central Texas.
Learn more about our services or contact The Bingham Group to discuss your Austin or Central Texas objectives.