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Local nonprofits urge Blanco County to fund housing navigation and food-security aid
Summary
Representatives from a housing foundation and a county food pantry urged the commissioners to provide direct financial support for rental assistance, security deposits and short-term motel sheltering. Commissioners asked follow-up questions and said funding will be considered in the budget process.
Monique Hacker, who identified herself as representing the Texas Housing Foundation and Community Resource Center (Speaker 9), asked Blanco County commissioners to provide immediate funding to support housing navigation and emergency financial assistance for residents facing eviction.
"Our funds that we request will provide immediate direct assistance to vulnerable households and help prevent these crises from escalating," Monique Hacker said, describing services that include rental assistance, security deposits and short-term motel stays to keep people housed. She told the court the Johnson City Community Resource Center will remain an access point for services while an affiliated health provider develops clinical capacity at the site.
Hacker said the organization has fielded a large volume of rental-assistance requests and that an existing regional partnership will cover clinical services if contracts proceed as planned; the funding requested from the county would be used for direct client assistance rather than operations or staff salaries.
Representatives of the Johnson City Christian Food Pantry (also represented in the transcript by Speaker 9) reported growing demand for food assistance. The pantry manager told commissioners the pantry distributes roughly 6,500 pounds of food per month, spends about $2,800 monthly on supplemental purchases, and has seen a 45% rise in the number of individuals served (from about 215 to approximately 312 per month) compared with the prior year.
Commissioners asked about timing, matching funds and whether federal or philanthropic partners are committed; staff said some outside partners have pledged support and that the county would consider funding requests as part of the budget process. No appropriation was approved on the spot; commissioners and staff agreed to follow up on available child-safety and emergency-service funding lines and to verify timing before obligating county funds.
What happens next: Commissioners asked staff to verify existing fund balances and to return with projections and recommended appropriation lines for the requests; potential county funding would be evaluated as part of the broader budgetary process.
