Sexual assault forensic exams return to SAFE's Eloise House in January. What the city funds at SAFE

Sexual assault survivors in Austin will again be able to get forensic exams at the SAFE Alliance's Eloise House starting Jan. 3, 2027, KUT reported on Oct. 22. SAFE stopped the exams in May after it came up nearly $2 million short on operating costs. Before that, the program did about 600 exams a year.

A forensic exam collects evidence after an assault and is often a survivor's first contact with medical care, counseling and legal help. From May until the new partnership starts, survivors have had one less place to get one.

What's changing

According to KUT:

• SAFE will partner with the Forensic Center of Excellence, run by the nonprofit Texas Forensic Nurse Examiners. The partner will help pay for the program and supply nurses to do exams at Eloise House.
• The Forensic Center of Excellence started in Houston in 2019 and operates in several Texas cities. Its founder called Austin its "fifth community expansion."
• SAFE's CEO, Pierre Berastain, told KUT that "survivors deserve choice" and that the exam can lead to ongoing counseling, legal help and shelter.
• Other services at Eloise House continued while exams were paused. In May, Mayor Kirk Watson said the Brave Alliance would work with local hospitals to do exams, KUT reported.

KUT did not report any city or county money in the new arrangement.

What our records add

The council was warned. At the Public Safety Committee on April 6, a month before the exams stopped, Council Member Krista Laine asked: if the primary provider of sexual assault forensic exams closes in May, what is the backup plan? Austin Police Commander Deanna Lichter, of the Special Victims Investigations Bureau, said a secondary forensic provider was prepared to take on many of the exams. Hospitals were also available, she said, but are not survivors' "first choice" because of the setting.

What the city funds at SAFE. The council contracts with SAFE for other services, and has continued to do so:

• On Sept. 24 the council approved, on consent, a 12-month extension of SAFE's survivor services contract through September 2027 for $1,084,975. The consent agenda was adopted without objection. The previous one-year extension, approved in August 2025, was $1,205,528, about $120,000 more. Council Member Zo Qadri said at the meeting he could not imagine Austin without SAFE.
• On Sept. 10 the council added $200,000 in one-time money for SAFE's management of the city-owned domestic violence shelter. Laine said SAFE's work, from exams to advocacy, saves lives.
• In December 2025 it approved, 11-0, up to $3 million over five years for SAFE to provide supportive housing for people made homeless by domestic violence.
• During budget adoption on Aug. 6, Qadri laid out an amendment for $1 million more for services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

The city's own sexual assault work is separate. In August the council approved, 11-0, a contract for outside review of Austin Police sexual assault cases.

What's next

The partnership begins Jan. 3. SAFE's current city contract for survivor services runs through Sept. 30, 2027. KUT did not report whether SAFE will seek city money for the exam program. Any new city contract would come to the council as an agenda item.