Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 10 a.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Public Health Committee
0:01 Thank you.
0:08 Alright. Good morning everyone.
0:10 I called to order this meeting of the Austin City Council public health committee.
0:14 It is 10:03 am on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, and we are in City Hall council chambers.
0:22 Welcome everyone to our February public health committee meeting.
0:26 And, uh, we are joined today with our vice chair Council Member uchin, as well as Council Member
0:31 Alter is joining us online and also joined by Council Member crystal lane.
0:36 Uh, our other committee member Council Member Velásquez is not feeling well and we send him a swift
0:42 recovery as he gets better.
0:44 So thank everyone for joining us.
0:46 We have a packed agenda today.
0:48 Uh, we'll start with first with our public communications.
0:51 Then we'll move to considering the approval of meeting minutes from our December 3rd committee meeting.
0:56 From there, the committee will hold an important discussion and possible action on the city manager's comprehensive review
1:03 of the city's social services portfolio.
1:06 Then we'll receive a briefing on our homeless Austin homeless strategies and operations offices strategic plan for fy
1:15 25 26. And then we will have a briefing on the 2025 Austin travis county community health assessment.
1:23 Any questions on the agenda?
1:27 Okay, well then we will now move on to public communications.
1:29 Well welcome speakers from the community.
1:31 May the clerk's office please start us off with the first speaker.
1:34 Yes, if I can have dewey smith.
1:39 Yes. Good morning. I'm dewe smith.
1:42 Thank you for having me.
1:44 I'm an engaged Austin resident and a board member of the safe alliance.
1:48 I'm here to comment on item two.
1:51 I come as a steward of this organization in a constituent, deeply invested in the future safety and
1:57 health of Austin. To be very clear, the social services portfolio you are considering cutting is not supplemental
2:05 to Austin safety, safety infrastructure.
2:08 It is central. Safe operates at the intersection of public safety, public health, and community stability.
2:15 When the system works, it's difficult to tally what didn't happen.
2:19 A family that stayed housed, a survivor, a sexual assault or domestic violence who avoided emergency medical care,
2:26 a child who never entered foster care.
2:29 Those outcomes must be planned for.
2:31 They are the direct result of sustained intentional investment.
2:35 And right now, that investment feels as though it's at risk.
2:40 From a governance standpoint, the greatest danger is the compounding impact of instability.
2:46 Survivor safety systems cannot be paused and restarted when specialized staff leave.
2:51 When clinical capacity shrinks, when survivors lose trust in where they can go safely for help, those losses
2:59 take years and significantly more funding to rebuild.
3:03 Austin became a national leader because it invested early and consistently in survivor-centered infrastructure that created resilience across
3:11 our entire public safety ecosystem.
3:14 Eroding it now will not create savings.
3:17 It'll simply shift those costs to hospitals, law enforcement, housing systems, and most importantly, to the families in
3:23 crisis. Defunding survivor safety is not a neutral choice like water, electricity, e, and emergency response.
3:30 This is infrastructure that must work.
3:33 The moment is needed.
3:35 In closing, as you finalize the fiscal year 27 budget, I urge you to please treat safe and
3:41 social services as core risk mitigation infrastructure for this city.
3:46 Stable funding is not about growth, it's about preventing irreversible loss.
3:51 Thank you in advance for your thoughtful deliberation and for joining us in taking the long view of
3:58 austin's safety and help.
4:00 Thank you. Up next, I'll have dr.
4:04 Pierre bernstein,
4:15 chair Fuentes, members of the committee.
4:17 Thank you for letting me speak.
4:18 My name is dr.
4:19 Beta and I serve as the ceo of the safe alliance.
4:22 We are the largest provider of services for survivors of domestic sexual violence, sex trafficking, and child abuse
4:28 in the south and among the three largest in the united states.
4:32 I want to begin by acknowledging that just last week we heard and learned of the murder of
4:36 the denise tiina killed by her boyfriend.
4:39 We often say that one death is too many, but those words must be matched by the budget
4:45 choices that we make.
4:46 Budgets are moral documents.
4:48 They show who we are willing to protect and who's suffering.
4:52 We are willing to endure and absorb later at far greater cost.
4:56 This year's $145,000 cut to save translates to about $500,000 lost for us.
5:04 And it means that 345 survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their children will go without support.
5:11 Naming denise here matters because it shows what happens when, when we defund early intervention, people do not
5:20 disappear. They show up later in other systems when harm is greater and costs are higher.
5:28 In fact, this year's cut to save alone will shift an estimated 3.5 to $7 million in cost to
5:37 other public systems. That is a negative return of $29 to $57 lost for every dollar that we've
5:45 cut. That's not just a moral failure.
5:49 It is a fiscal one.
5:51 Saves work is an act of love, and it is also sound economic policy because it prevents avoidable
5:57 crisis spending. Looking ahead, my concern is the stability of core infrastructure that Austin relies on.
6:05 For example, we operate a city-owned shelter serving about 550 people a year.
6:10 The city contributes $2.1 million, but the true cost is closer to 3 million, which safe covers through philanthropic funding.
6:20 Our results speak for themselves.
6:22 Nearly a hundred people in safe shelters transition to a hundred percent of people in our shelters transition
6:28 to stable housing. By comparison, the city run marshaling yard is funded at over $8 million a year, and
6:34 it has housing exits around 30%.
6:37 Safe also conducts 85 to 95% of all sexual assault forensic exams in travis county.
6:44 We currently are carrying an $800,000 shortfall just to keep the program operating this year with no funding
6:51 secured beyond it. That leaves austin's forensic backbone one budget cycle away from collapse if it fails, exams
6:59 revert to hospitals and law enforcement within 30 days.
7:02 These are the conditions the city has spent years working to correct.
7:06 Safe is not alone as a member of one voice, central texas.
7:10 I can tell you this strain is being felt by organizations serving elders, immigrants, people with disabilities, and
7:16 families across the city.
7:18 We are just a microcosm of a system under compression.
7:21 Thank you for your time.
7:25 Doctor, if you wouldn't mind, would you share that data that you've got, the numbers that you shared
7:30 a moment ago with, uh, the public health committee?
7:33 I'm sorry, would you mind repeating the question?
7:35 Sure. Would you mind, you just shared a bunch of numbers regarding and and data that you put
7:39 together regarding the impacts of the cuts and the work that you do.
7:43 Can you share that information with the public health committee?
7:46 100%, Absolutely. I would also invite you to read, uh, a five page letter that I sent to,
7:51 uh, all of you, uh, further detailing these cuts.
7:54 But absolutely my office will send this to yours, uh, and to all of you.
7:58 That'd be great. Thank you for time.
8:01 Up next, we'll have dr. Rose.
8:03 Maria. Maria,
8:12 welcome.
8:21 Good morning. I'm dr. Rosa maria murillo, and today I'm here as a chair of one voice, central texas,
8:29 a coalition of over 80 nonprofit health and human services organizations who together employ over 8,000 central texans
8:41 and provide essential services across Austin.
8:45 Our organizations help keep Austin healthy house and working.
8:51 Today, I am here because the city reduced social services contracts by 10%, about $5 million retroactive to October 1st, 2025.
9:05 This is forcing immediate service reductions, breaking trust midstream.
9:12 We are requesting four things.
9:14 First, no further cuts to social services contracts.
9:19 Second, conduct an impact assessment of the current reductions.
9:25 Third, facilitate a budget cycle work session on social services, infrastructure and outcomes.
9:32 That includes providers at the table.
9:36 Fourth, convene a cross sector engagement that includes the city, the county, central health, philanthropy, and community to
9:45 develop stabilization, innovative ways to achieve, uh, equity and stabilization in Austin.
9:55 Let me just be clear that these cuts are not future.
9:59 They're retroactive. It is not, uh, a situation where agencies can plan.
10:12 Staff were already hired.
10:16 Programs were already offered to the community, and residents were told help was available.
10:23 Then funding was cut,
10:29 retroactive cuts, trust, retroactive cuts, break trust and force immediate crisis.
10:39 On top of that, the city reduced the I belong in Austin eviction prevention by $1 million.
10:46 That is a 25% reduction.
10:50 And pause. The project connect community initiated solutions procurement, which delays community design pathways to stabilize and in
11:02 and decrease the displacement that is happening our, in our city.
11:08 We understand fiscal con constraints.
11:12 Believe me, we live that every day, but we are alarmed that the impacts have not been fully
11:20 assessed, especially as we hear that next year there will be a
11:37 up next we'll have dr.
11:38 Aaron aorn, followed by verron verda durden and sharon vigil.
11:46 Your name has been called.
11:47 Please feel free to come to the front.
11:49 Grab a seat.
11:56 Do I, I thank you for the opportunity to speak.
12:02 My name is dr.
12:03 Erin alarcon and I come to you as ceo of fili elder care, a nonprofit organization serving Austin
12:09 for 44 years. Vice chair of one voice, representing more than 80 health and human services nonprofit, and
12:16 most importantly, as a fierce advocate for asking older adults our parents, neighbors, veterans, and long-term contributors who
12:25 are too often overlooked in policy priorities.
12:28 The data is clear across the nation and here in texas, including Austin, social services for older adults
12:36 are under resourced and failing to meet demand at the federal level, about $39, about 2.37 billion nationally, which
12:45 is about $39 per older adult per year.
12:49 Hardly enough to find the nutrition, transportation, caregiving supports, and in-home services.
12:56 So many rely on locally.
12:58 That poor funding translates into people waiting years for services that would allow them to at home.
13:05 Texas has one of the largest home and community-based services waiting lists in the country.
13:11 These waiting lists are not just names.
13:14 They represent real lives at risk, older adults being denied the support needed to avoid nursing home placement
13:23 or homelessness. What's more disturbing is that homelessness among older adults in central texas increased by 70% in
13:33 two years at family elder care.
13:36 Our financial advocacy program provides tailored financial tools and case management that help older astronauts age in place.
13:45 Our data shows that 85% of our clients report that if not for our services, they would not
13:53 live independently. Yet, this program faced a 10% cut this year and is threatened with deeper reductions next
14:01 year. Social isolation and loneliness among older adults are widespread and underdressed approximately one in four older adults
14:10 over the age of 65 report feeling socially isolated or lonely.
14:15 Isolation is linked to higher mortality, dementia, cardiovascular disease, and frequent hospitalizations.
14:23 Our in-home counseling program directly fights isolation.
14:28 These two suffer a 10% cut and faces farther.
14:32 Funding risks. This committee has the power to change outcome for Austin seniors.
14:39 I urge three immediate actions, no further cuts to social services contract funding, especially program serving older adults.
14:48 What we invest in now prevents far greater costs.
14:52 Later, engage the stakeholders to evaluate funding models that focus on return on investment programs like ours.
15:01 Save taxpayer dollars.
15:13 Good morning council members.
15:15 My name is veranda durden and I serve as ceo of any baby can.
15:20 I'm here today on behalf of the ready families collaborative, a partnership of eight trusted community rooted organizations,
15:28 communities in schools, Austin pbs avan, the jeremiah program, the literacy coalition safe alliance, the ymca and any
15:39 baby can for more than 11 years, the ready families collaborative has delivered coordinated evidence-based services to families
15:49 with children ages zero to five, who are living 250 cent below the federal poverty, poverty level.