They have an uphill battle in their plea to spend less on law enforcement. Public safety remains a top <\/a>priority<\/a> among Houstonians and violent crime went down by about 19 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to a year-end report<\/a> issued by the city. Non-violent crime was reduced by about 8 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston has been described as having one of the highest homicide clearance rates among large U.S. cities, with a rate of about 85 percent of cases closed from 2024 to 2025. That happened after the departure of former Police Chief Troy Finner, who retired in 2024, while under investigation for suspending more than 260,000 cases due to a lack of personnel. Missouri City officials announced last week that they appointed Finner as chief of the city in nearby Fort Bend County.\u00a0<\/p>\n But public safety isn\u2019t about closed cases, more cops and more jails, Evans says. It\u2019s about making sure people can afford a place to live and have access to mental health resources and substance abuse treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTraditionally, the way people view safety is in prosecution of people they view as less than. We put more money into classism, sexism and racism than we do into liberation of the people who have the hardest and biggest challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cThe budget is so important because we\u2019re spending more money on law enforcement, prosecution, jails, probation, parole and carceral systems, and yet we\u2019re lacking money in healthcare. We\u2019re lacking money in mental health and drug treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n Evans is clear that he\u2019s not a \u201cdefund the police guy,\u201d although he says he\u2019s never called law enforcement for assistance and never will. \u201cLaw enforcement is reactionary,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you was to take my jewelry and someone called the police, they\u2019re coming after you\u2019re already gone. In order to prevent you from even having an urge to take my jewelry, you need to look at the reason why. It\u2019s because of what you need. It\u2019s because you need a job, housing or healthcare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The group at the Multi-Service Center on April 9 proposed what it\u2019s calling the \u201cHouston People\u2019s Budget,\u201d a plea to Mayor John Whitmire and the city council to fund social services, to tax corporations and to oppose police overspending.\u00a0<\/p>\n Organizers behind the movement described it as a 2.0 version of last year\u2019s Houston Says No<\/a> campaign. A $7 billion budget<\/a> was approved last June, 14-3, with council members Abbie Kamin, Edward Pollard and Tiffany Thomas voting against it. Because last year\u2019s effort wasn\u2019t successful in thwarting the budget as proposed, and ended with some protesters being removed from council chambers, this year\u2019s approach started earlier and is focused more on education, awareness and peaceful dialogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston is now facing a $174 million general fund deficit, and adoption is scheduled in June. Whitmire has said he will present a proposed budget<\/a> on May 5, and Budget and Financial Affairs Committee Chair Sallie Alcorn is accepting feedback online via a survey<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alice Liu, co-director of West Street Recovery<\/a>, an organization that formed in 2017 to assist northwest Houston residents who were trapped in their homes during Hurricane Harvey, says the People\u2019s Budget campaign aims to engage flood survivors and immigrants by proposing initiatives they believe need funding and areas that can be cut.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe budget impacts so many different issues that cut to the core of what it means to be living in this city and to continue to live in this city for not just our lifetimes but for generations to come,\u201d she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the April meeting on the People\u2019s Budget primarily included members of Pure Justice, West Street Recovery and its subsidiary Northeast Action Collective, several individuals have also raised concerns about the city\u2019s debt and what appear to be diminishing services.\u00a0<\/p>\n After last year\u2019s budget was adopted, Houston Democracy Project<\/a> founder Neil Aquino said, \u201cThe budget cut essential services on behalf of over-generous public safety union contracts, did not plan for the inevitable costs of our next disaster and left the city vulnerable to substantial future budget shortfalls.\u201d<\/p>\n Whitmire has maintained that he\u2019s done what he promised on the campaign trail: address long-standing inefficiencies and financial mismanagement. The FY 2026 budget was informed by an efficiency study that \u201cexposed waste, duplication and conflicts of interest that undermined the services Houstonians rely on,\u201d Whitmire says, adding that no services were cut and no taxes were raised last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n Chris Hollins Pushes Back \u2026 Again\u00a0<\/p>\n City Controller Chris Hollins sparred<\/a> with Whitmire a year ago over the budget, telling the Houston Press that the mayor wasn\u2019t being honest about the deficit or what had to happen to balance the budget, which is a legal requirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n He even threatened not to certify, or sign off on, last year\u2019s budget because the city had not yet received a settlement agreement<\/a> related to drainage funds. The document arrived at the last minute, and Hollins reluctantly blessed the budget, but he warned that the growing deficit would remain a problem for future cycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not my job to say whether I like [the budget] or not,\u201d Hollins said last year. \u201cIt is my job to talk about fiscal responsibility and fiscal sustainability. My job is to say whether there is money in the account to be able to pay for this.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not unusual for a controller to be at odds with the mayor over a budget. Hollins was elected to his position and could run for mayor next year against Whitmire. He filed for the seat in 2023, when Whitmire was elected, but withdrew when Sheila Jackson Lee entered the race and instead ran for controller.\u00a0<\/p>\n Again, this month, Hollins went before the city council and said the $174 million deficit is deepening the financial hole and the amount that will have to come out of reserves. The budget is \u201cnowhere close\u201d to being balanced, Hollins said in an April council meeting. Whitmire responded that the numbers were \u201coverstated\u201d and the budget can be balanced without raising taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a press release, Hollins pointed out that his office warned repeatedly that the city\u2019s overtime assumptions were unrealistic, with police, fire and solid waste projected to exceed their overtime budgets by more than a combined $54 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis outcome was foreseeable and avoidable, yet the mayor chose to reduce the overtime budget instead of either controlling costs or budgeting honestly for them,\u201d Hollins said. \u201cThe result is another hit to our fund balance at a time when credit rating agencies already have a negative outlook on the city. A budget that ignores predictable costs may pass a vote, but it doesn\u2019t pass reality, and Houstonians are left paying the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu says that last year\u2019s budget raised police pay by $67 million, underfunded drainage by $9.5 million, and cut social services \u2014 including public health, libraries and parks \u2014 by $122 million. \u201cUnfortunately, this year, the forecast shows us only sinking deeper into this fiscal crisis,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Whitmire said at the adoption of the 2026 budget last year that he was proud of the document and that there were no cuts to services or tax increases. Hollins, in an extensive report, refuted those claims<\/a>, saying, for example, that an increased water rate would cause residents\u2019 bills to go up, even if it\u2019s not labeled a new fee.\u00a0<\/p>\n The mayor has also said he doesn\u2019t want to politicize the budget. Liu claims that everyone at the People\u2019s Budget meeting this month hopes to do just that. \u201cThe budget is fundamentally political,\u201d she says. \u201cThe budget is a means by which wealth is being further concentrated, by which democracy is being threatened and by which power is being further concentrated for special interests instead of the people. So yes, the budget is political.\u201d<\/p>\n Liu\u2019s research shows 36,000 complaints about Solid Waste were registered in 2025. More than two dozen department employees retired recently and few have been replaced, she says. Additionally, some of the department\u2019s equipment is inoperable and the workers make about 20 percent less than the national average. Public Works lost 249 employees last year, according to Liu, and the department was already understaffed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no more room to cut,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a lie that the city is overstaffed. The very opposite is true. Workers are being asked to do more with less funding and fewer resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The budget cuts made in recent years \u2014 including buyouts or voluntary retirement packages for more than 1,000 employees \u2014 didn\u2019t create efficiencies but rather damaged the ability to provide services, Liu says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re fighting for a budget that actually works for us,\u201d she says, referencing the priorities of protecting social services and opposing police overspending. \u201cWith what money? The city of Houston has a $174 million deficit. Are we just dumb? No. First of all, the broke city of Houston found $832 million for the police last year. Not a single city councilor voted against it. It\u2019s the highest-paid police department in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n The Controversial Police Contract\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, the Houston City Council entered an unprecedented five-year $832 million contract with HPD. It\u2019ll cost the city $122 million this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n What some deem to be overspending on law enforcement has resulted in hiring freezes and cuts in other departments, Liu says, suggesting that HPD accounts for 60 percent of the spending in the general fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have learned some very important lessons from how people already see the impacts of last year\u2019s budget cuts playing out for residents and city workers,\u201d she says. \u201cIn Fiscal Year 2026, we saw drastic cuts across almost every single city department except for police and fire. These reductions are permanently reflected in the budget, so once folks left, their positions were eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n Evans says he\u2019s fine with putting money toward public safety resources but believes that his definition of public safety differs from that of the mayor\u2019s. \u201cWhen we look at this budget, one thing we ought to know is that we can never jail or incarcerate our way to safety. The only way we\u2019re going to have a safe household, block, neighborhood or city is by making sure that the most vulnerable have access to resources,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey keep finding money for law enforcement and keep squeezing money from stormwater, solid waste, libraries, early childhood development, mental healthcare and drug treatment. They\u2019re setting us up for failure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Evans\u2019 Pure Justice has been at the forefront of a fight to eliminate \u201cnon-safety traffic stops\u201d such as tinted windows, broken tail lights or expired tags, suggesting that officers can enforce those laws but can\u2019t pull someone over for that sole purpose. Some council members supported the initiative as part of an ordinance to limit how HPD interacts with immigration agents but that piece was temporarily set aside due to a lack of support.\u00a0<\/p>\n The immigration ordinance<\/a> that passed on April 8 eliminates a directive that Houston police have to wait 30 minutes for an ICE agent to arrive on the scene when they encounter a person with a non-criminal warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis new ordinance didn\u2019t even have any teeth,\u201d Evans says. \u201cIt only looked good on paper for some people who are running for re-election or running for a new office.\u201d<\/p>\n After the ordinance passed \u2014 with no mention of non-safety traffic stops and a provision removed by the city attorney that would have allowed officers to use discretion when contacting ICE \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withdraw $110 million<\/a> in public safety grants. Abbott said the ordinance is illegal and therefore violates an agreement that Houston had with the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whitmire, in an effort to repeal the ordinance, said Houston can\u2019t afford a $110 million hit to public safety. While advocates encouraged the council to keep the ordinance on the books and stand up to Abbott, they acknowledged that Whitmire would argue that the funds used for police operating costs and overtime might have to come from somewhere else, further impacting the general fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Houston City Council is set to discuss<\/a> amending the immigration ordinance at its April 22 meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Evans says HPD can save money by changing its approach. \u201cI understand that they have to pay the police, but having to pay somebody doesn\u2019t mean you have to keep giving them raises or keep expanding the base.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He\u2019s heard the pushback from those who say it\u2019s not the job of city government to provide mental health resources and substance abuse treatment. \u201cThe responsibility of government is to take care of the people, because the tax dollars come from the people,\u201d Evans says. \u201cIt\u2019s the duty of elected officials to prioritize their policy-making and the things they uplift and support to benefit people with the greatest needs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Alcorn\u2019s budget survey asks Houstonians what city services should receive more funding in the upcoming budget. Public health, mental health, drug treatment, housing, parks and libraries are all on the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Flood Mitigation\u00a0<\/p>\n West Street Recovery was created to help people who suffer the most when a storm hits. That mission hasn\u2019t changed, and its members have repeatedly expressed frustration with how Houston\u2019s general fund dollars are allocated.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs always, we will be fighting for the city to adequately and equitably invest in flood mitigation infrastructure,\u201d Liu says. \u201cThe newly updated FEMA floodplain maps<\/a> reflect a reality that Houstonians have already lived through. Climate change means we\u2019re getting more rain and more flooding. We are billions of dollars short of drainage infrastructure that can keep up with this increased flood risk.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Police-stats.png\")
Credit: Houston Police Department<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Whitmire-sign.jpeg\")
A group of Houston residents is mobilizing ahead of budget adoption in June to advocate for flood mitigation and social services rather than what they say is overspending on law enforcement. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hollins-slide.png\")
City Controller Chris Hollins says that, once again, Houston didn\u2019t accurately budget for police, fire and solid waste overtime pay. Credit: Office of City Controller Chris Hollins<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Whitmire-1.jpeg\")
Houston Mayor John Whitmire called, then canceled a special meeting for April 17 to repeal the ICE ordinance. <\/p>\n