The City of Houston is bringing in an outside contractor to help with permitting, plan reviews, inspections, and code enforcement as officials say growing workloads have overwhelmed existing resources.
Houston City Council unanimously approved an agreement Tuesday allowing SAFEbuilt Texas LLC to provide on-demand services for Houston Public Works. The agreement gives the city spending authority of up to $20.4 million over five years.
City officials say the additional resources are intended to help reduce backlogs and move projects through the permitting and inspection process more efficiently.
The city’s motion says the services could include permitting and administrative support, multi-discipline plan reviews, engineering and development reviews, residential and commercial building inspections, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire inspections, right-of-way and infrastructure inspections, code enforcement and compliance support, and other technical services.
The services would be provided through individual work orders, allowing the city to bring in additional staffing and technical resources based on its needs.
Houston City Councilman Joaquin Martinez said Houston’s development has increased the number of projects the city’s permitting operation must handle.
“Think of how much development that has happened over the past five, 10, 20 years. It’s increased the number of projects,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the city’s resources are limited and that it needs additional help to keep projects moving.
“It is because, at the permitting center, we have limited resources. The personnel can only do so much work,” Martinez said.
The city says the agreement is designed to address fluctuations in workload, reduce backlogs and respond to specialized or emergency needs while maintaining permitting, inspection, code enforcement and public safety operations.
The agreement does not call for the city to replace its existing permitting employees with SAFEbuilt workers. Martinez said the additional workforce is intended to give the city more flexibility when demand increases.
When asked whether the $20 million could instead be used to hire additional city employees, Martinez pointed to the costs associated with maintaining permanent positions.
“Some folks should understand, when you have personnel, that’s usually the highest cost in our budget because not only are you paying their wages, you’re paying their benefits, vacation, sick, all of those things,” Martinez said.
Under the agreement, Houston would spend an estimated $1.31 million during fiscal year 2027, with approximately $19.09 million allocated for the remaining years of the agreement. The funding comes from the city’s Building Inspection Fund.
The city’s motion says the funding is included in the FY2027 adopted budget.
The contract is intended to let Houston scale outside resources up or down as needed, rather than maintain a fixed level of contractor staffing.
“We need to become more efficient to give the community the services they deserve,” Martinez said. “Specifically in this case, projects we should’ve been doing 10 years ago, five years ago, this allows us to move through those projects a little bit quicker.”
The procurement is exempt from the city’s Hire Houston First ordinance because the city is using a cooperative purchasing agreement.