AUSTIN, Texas — City budget staff have recommended eliminating or reducing dozens of social service contracts for the coming fiscal year, according to a city memo released Wednesday.
The recommendation, submitted to the mayor and City Council by Kerri Lang, director of Austin’s Budget and Organizational Excellence Department, calls for eliminating 24 contracts and reducing 53 others for fiscal year 2026-27. Combined, the changes would cut about $5.35 million from the roughly $56.4 million the city currently spends on social service grants. Seventy-eight contracts would be maintained at current funding levels.
The memo said the recommendations follow direction from the City Council at a July 22 budget work session, where members asked staff to review contracts individually rather than apply an across-the-board percentage cut.
The proposed reductions touch nearly every city department that funds outside social service providers, including Austin Public Health, the Austin Police Department, Austin Economic Development, the Austin Homeless Strategy and Operations Office, and Austin Parks and Recreation.
Kerri Lang, Director, Austin Budget and Organizational ExcellencePDF previewPreview PDF
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Contracts recommended for full elimination include Easterseals Central Texas’ behavioral health services for young children, worth nearly $170,000, and a Communities In Schools of Central Texas program that provides crisis counseling to students, worth $81,000.
Also slated for elimination is Austin Theatre Alliance’s Literacy to Life+ program, which served more than 10,000 clients last year and would lose nearly $142,000 in funding; Mexic-Arte Museum’s Community Art and Screen It program, a $135,000 contract that uses art programming for youth as an alternative to policing; and Sunrise Community Church’s Prevent Violence by Intervention program, which serves the homeless community and would lose $58,500.
Some of the largest dollar reductions target homelessness and behavioral health programs. Integral Care’s Road to Recovery treatment program would be cut by nearly $328,000, and Caritas of Austin’s rapid rehousing program would lose about $216,000.