{"id":340262,"date":"2026-06-17T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340262\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T20:08:10","slug":"city-of-houston-to-provide-financial-assistance-for-garbage-related-fee-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/340262\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Houston to provide financial assistance for garbage-related fee \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Council<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Council member Alejandra Salinas listens to City Attorney Arturo Michel on Apr. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

With a $5 charge related to solid waste services coming to Houstonians’ monthly utility bills in August, the city council voted Wednesday to offer financial assistance to certain residents. <\/p>\n

“I think this is going to provide real relief to Houstonians who are worried about the upcoming fee,” said council member Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded the change.<\/p>\n

Under a preexisting program<\/a>, residents above the age of 59, households with incomes at or below the federal poverty line<\/a> and people with disabilities are eligible for up to $100 in assistance toward their utility bills every six months. With Wednesday’s vote, the program can now provide relief with the garbage-related fee.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Mayor John Whitmire’s administration advanced the “administrative fee” for solid waste services last week, when the city council approved his $7.5 billion budget<\/a> in a 15-1 vote. The fee does not currently cover the full cost of garbage and recycling services, calculated at more than $25 per customer per month by a cost-of-service study unveiled this year. <\/p>\n

Whitmire’s proposal contemplated raising the fee incrementally until it reaches $25 per month in six years \u2014 at which point approximately 400,000 solid waste customers would face a $300 annual expense. <\/p>\n

During townhalls, council member Carolyn Evans-Shabazz said, the financial burden of the new fee was “one of the main concerns we heard, especially from seniors, families on fixed incomes, and those doing everything they can to keep up.” <\/p>\n

“We have a responsibility to make difficult financial decisions but also to provide solutions,” she said. <\/p>\n

Applicants for assistance must provide the city<\/a> with a copy of a water and drainage bill, federal award letters for disability-related financial assistance \u2014 like supplemental social security \u2014 as well as income information and official identification for all households residents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media Council member Alejandra Salinas listens to City Attorney Arturo Michel on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3766,6606,11793,102099,56,65718,4626,58,57,121360,66,223,287],"class_list":["post-340262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-city-of-houston","tag-finances","tag-financial-assistance","tag-garbage-fee","tag-houston","tag-houston-budget","tag-houston-city-council","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-solid-waste-department","tag-local","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}