city memo<\/a> posted Wednesday offers the first detailed look at the nonprofit programs that could lose city funding as Austin officials seek to reduce spending on outside social services, though it does not explain the reasoning behind each cut.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-channels-pixel.ex.co\/events\/0012000001fxZm9AAE?integrationType=DEFAULT&template=design%2Farticle%2Fplatypus_two_column.tpl\")
<\/p>\n
The recommendations would eliminate city funding for programs operated by some of the region\u2019s best-known nonprofits, including the Central Texas Food Bank, Foundation Communities, Communities In Schools of Central Texas and the Girl Scouts of Central Texas.Other major providers, including Integral Care, Caritas of Austin and Workforce Solutions Capital Area, would retain contracts but absorb some of the largest reductions.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The City Council directed staff last week to review each contract individually rather than impose an across-the-board cut. The recommendations are part of the first phase of a two-year reduction cycle that officials estimate will total $17 million.<\/p>\n
Overall, staff recommended maintaining 78 contracts, representing nearly $33 million in next year\u2019s budget. Another 53 contracts would be reduced by a combined $3.23 million, leaving them with about $18.1 million in funding. Staff recommended eliminating 24 contracts entirely, cutting another $2.13 million.<\/p>\n
Among the largest proposed eliminations is $250,000 for The Other Ones Foundation\u2019s bridge-housing program at the Esperanza Community, which the city says serves 20 people experiencing homelessness. The Central Texas Food Bank would lose two contracts totaling $235,066: $141,750 for food access at colleges and $93,316 for grocery deliveries to 860 older adults. The food bank would retain three other city contracts totaling about $822,000.<\/p>\n
Foundation Communities would lose a $79,200 transportation contract that provides rides and bus passes to 314 residents. Its tax-preparation program also would be reduced by $21,806, although several of its housing, behavioral-health and food-access contracts would remain fully funded.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Foundation Communities Executive Director Walter Moreau said he saw no clear pattern or rationale for individual contract cuts from the memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCutting our tax center contract makes no sense,\u201d he said, adding that Foundation Communities has helped more than 15,000 families file their taxes for free and receive more than $25 million in refunds.<\/p>\n
The city memo lists performance information for each contract, including the number of people served and, in many cases, outcome measures. It does not provide an overall explanation of how staff weighed performance, cost, duplication of services or other factors when deciding which contracts to maintain, reduce or eliminate.<\/p>\n
Other proposed eliminations include $169,823 for an Easterseals Central Texas preschool behavioral-health program; $150,000 for Sunrise Community Church\u2019s homeless mobile outreach and housing-navigation program; $141,792 for an Austin Theatre Alliance family-literacy program; and $135,000 for a Mexic-Arte Museum youth arts program.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
![\"Billy]()
<\/p>\n
Billy Danton speaks with Eugene Ewers, an outreach practitioner for Hungry Hill, after receiving food, water, and information on June 26, 2025. The Hungry Hill Foundation, established by ex-convict Chase Wright in 2022, addresses homelessness in East Austin through job training, food, transitional housing, and outreach services across seven zip codes.<\/p>\n
Ricardo B. Brazziell\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Staff also recommended ending $91,800 for Girl Scouts school-based programming, $81,000 for a Communities In Schools mental-health program, $78,612 for Common Threads nutrition education and $56,027 for Con Mi MADRE\u2019s college-readiness program. (City staff released a corrected list Thursday that cuts $50,400 from that Con MI MADRE’s contract.)<\/p>\n
Several of the eliminated agreements are described in the memo as \u201cdeliverables-based\u201d rather than \u201cperformance-based,\u201d including contracts with Mexic-Arte, Catchafire, Austin Community College and United Way for Greater Austin. But the memo does not explain how that distinction factored into staff\u2019s decisions for each proposed cut.<\/p>\n
Among the largest reductions to contracts that would remain funded are Integral Care\u2019s Road to Recovery program, which would lose $327,801, Caritas of Austin\u2019s rapid-rehousing program, which would lose $216,256, and Workforce Solutions\u2019 child care \u201cbridge\u201d funding and wage supplement program, which would lose $212,000.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
AISD would lose a combined$391,582 in city funding across its remaining contracts. Casa Marianella would lose $16,193 from its Open Doors to Homeless Immigrants Program. Integral Care would lose $403,645 across three reduced contracts serving a combined 148 clients, including behavioral health, treatment and homelessness services.<\/p>\n
The staff recommendation will now go to the mayor and council City Council, who will deliberate the cuts over the next few weeks as they consider next year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect new information included in a corrected list released Thursday related to a Con\u00a0MI\u00a0MADRE program contract.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Central Texas Food Bank driver TreMayne Lewis efficiently unloads the food inventory on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Nicole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,8002],"class_list":["post-392661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392661","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=392661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}