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The San Antonio City Council discussed the budgets for Animal Care Services (ACS), Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD), and the new Homeless Services and Strategy Department (HSSD) on Wednesday.
Homeless Services and Strategy Department
HSSD has a proposed 2026 budget of $26.1 million — $13.1 million of which would come from the city’s general fund.
Much of the department’s work and staff is being transferred from the Department of Human Services, and Chief Housing Officer Mark Carmona will lead the new department.
HSSD will spend $4.8 million to extend the lease for the city’s low-barrier shelter by one year. That shelter, inside a downtown-area hotel, has 313 total rooms, but only 185 are available due to operations costs. Those costs are absorbed by SAMMinistries and the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council.
The shelter was previously funded by federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, which have now run out. Carmona said HSSD and the city council would need to come up with a plan for how to maintain the shelter going forward.
District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte said he didn’t believe it was a smart investment: “$4.8 million is a lot of money to be putting people in this hotel with results I would deem mediocre, to be nice."
More than half of the 526 people who stayed in the shelter over the last two years had "positive exits," meaning they left the shelter to another form of permanent housing or to a medical treatment center.
HSSD will also take over leading encampment abatements, and it has a goal of completing 1,300 next year.
The city conducted 1,369 abatements in 2025, with an average cost of $2,046 per site, for an overall estimated cost of $2.8 million.
That average cost doesn’t include the indirect costs from SAPD and SAFD for the abatements.
District 4 Councilmember Edward Mungia said more abatements “doesn’t solve the homelessness problem,” and interim District 2 Councilmember Leo Castillo-Anguiano said the abatements often end up hurting the city’s other efforts to help unhoused residents.
“I just want us to kind of consider whether this is a good investment, because every time we abate, we’re making it harder for our outreach workers to build that trust,” Castillo-Anguiano said.
District 9 Councilmember Misty Spears also suggested that if the abatements aren’t bringing down the number of unhoused people on the streets, the money might be better used elsewhere.
Neighborhood and Housing Services Department
NHSD has a proposed 2026 budget of $90.5 million — $22 million of which would come from the city’s general fund.
A significant portion of the department’s budget, $18.4 million in 2026, comes from two major federal grant programs under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: the Community Development Block Grant and the HOME Investment Partnership Program.
Congress is considering cuts to both programs this fall following the White House’s request earlier this year to eliminate them.
NHSD is expecting 3,400 new affordable homes to be complete, under construction, or in the construction pipeline by the end of next year. That would get the city to 47% of the 28,000 affordable homes it has targeted to build or preserve by 2031.
The department is cutting $1 million each from its major and minor home rehab programs. Garcia said the cuts to the major rehab program, down to $7 million, would not lead to any fewer residents served because of increased partnership with nonprofits like CPS Energy and Merced Housing Texas who will help reduce costs.
The department’s down payment assistance is down $185,000 to $1.5 million, which will help 59 first-time homeowners with down payments.
NHSD is maintaining funding levels for its eviction prevention and rental and relocation assistance programs at $100,000 and $5.7 million, respectively.
The eviction prevention program will support 330 households, and the rental and relocation assistance program will support 1,839 households.
Animal Care Services
ACS has a proposed 2026 budget of $33.6 million, all of which would come from the city’s general fund.
The budget is more than double what it was in 2019; the city council has invested heavily in the department in the last several years following a spate of dog maulings.
As a result, the department’s critical call response rate has nearly doubled over the past several years, up to 83% in the past year. The department expects to respond to 100% of critical calls by the end of next year.
With the addition of two new spay and neuter clinics on the East Side and West Side earlier this year, ACS projects it will conduct more than 41,000 spay and neuter surgeries in 2026 — 8,000 more than it conducted in 2024.
ACS Director Jonathan Gary said the department had increased its animal live release rate to 86%, which he said was the second highest in Texas.
The department has also revamped its pet search page to make it easier for residents to find and adopt pets.
ACS is making $258,000 in reductions without an impact to services and expects to generate $12,000 in new revenue from some increased commercial permit costs.
