AGENDA CAPTION:
Title
Receive a Staff presentation and consider approval of Resolution 2026-170R, allocating to various non-profit agencies Human Services Grant funding of $750,000.00 from the city’s general fund; authorizing the City Manager, or her designee, to act as the official representative of the city in matters related to said grant funds, including authorization to execute funding contracts with selected agencies on behalf of the city; and declaring an effective date.
Body
Meeting date: September 15, 2026
Department: Planning and Development Services
Amount & Source of Funding
Funds Required: $750,000
Account or Project Number (C = CIP funds): 10001275 - Various
Funds Available: Yes, contingent upon FY2026-27 Budget Adoption
Account Name: Social Services
Fiscal Note:
Prior Council Action: July 7, 2026 received a presentation on the Human Services Advisory Board’s allocation recommendations.
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Background Information:
Annually the Human Services Advisory Board (HSAB), a City Council-appointed board, reviews applications for funding allocated to Human Services Grants through the City’s budget. For the FY2027 year, City Council allocated $750,000 for these grants. Applications totaling $1.7 million were received from 30 agencies for 40 programs. The attached blank application contains the eligibility requirements and evaluation criteria.
BOARD ORIENTATION
In order to provide objectivity, all applications were scored by the Board members on the evaluation criteria. Staff reviewed with the Board some key principles of funding based on the City Council guidance and other feedback received in the past. These include:
• The goal is to select the programs that will have the most impact on the highest priority needs of this community.
• The application does not specify any preference for uses of funding (for example, there is no preference for paying for direct services vs operational costs or other uses.)
• Do not place more weight on personal passions
• Do not include perceived additional resources in your consideration.
• Consider highest priority needs for San Marcos
• Look for most impact (either depth or breadth).
BOARD REVIEW
The HSAB had the CDBG scoring and allocation recommendations in hand when reviewing the HSAB applications.
Each board member scored each program and created a draft recommendation. At two discussion meetings, the board discussed each application, weighing the costs and benefits to San Marcos residents against the need described in the applications. This board had a diversity of opinions about these programs and a robust discussion and coming together on the recommended funding allocations. Applications are attached to the packet as requested by Council.
HSAB RECOMMENDATIONS
Discussion below refers to the attached presentation.
Board recommendations are presented in order of rank by score.
• Recommendations Page 1 The Board considered food for everyone and services for domestic abuse survivors to be of utmost importance this year.
• Page 2: Southside Community Center is recommended to receive funding for two out of three HSAB applications - Daily Services and Sunrise Village. CASA, Blanco River Regional Recovery Team (BR3T), and Salvation Army are all recommended to receive funding from both CDBG and HSAB.
• Page 3: The Board recommended that Prevent a Litter (PALS), Any Baby Can, and Bobcat Pride receive 100% of the HSAB funding requested because they direct services to populations not provided by others. The Family and Youth Support Services Program is recommended to receive funding from both CDBG and HSAB. It was uncertain at the time whether PALS would be included in the City Budget. It has now been confirmed that PALS is in the proposed FY2027 General Fund Budget for $45,000.
• Page 4: Hays Helping Hands and Community Action of Central Texas each submitted applications for two programs, but the board recommended funding for only one of the two in both cases. (Hays Helping Hands is the new name for Nosotros La Gente.) The HSAB board reviewed multiple requests for emergency assistance and rental assistance, and chose to recommended funding for some of those programs but not all. The Community Action Program shown here is for Tenant Based Rental Assistance and it was not recommended for funding because the Board wanted to support longer established programs. The others on this slide only requested funding for one program, and only from HSAB and were seen as important benefits to residents.
• Page 5: Centro Esperanza, Scheib Center, and San Marcos Youth Service Bureau were all recommended to receive support for their facilities, although there was some discussion on whether HSAB funding should go to facilities or direct services. Hill Country Mental Health stated in their application that $150,000 was the minimum amount they could accept to run this program, and the board preferred to spread the funding around to more agencies rather than fund fewer with high amounts.
• Page 6: Southside Community Center, Hays Helping Hands, and Centro Esperanza are each recommended to receive HSAB funding for other programs, just not the ones on Page 6. While this Board felt that subsistence needs are very important at this time, they discussed mental health as also being of special importance right now. The Board recommends funding for Cenikor and Rough Draft mental health programs. Rough Draft is recommended to receive HSAB funding for the first time for their program to make mental health support accessible through art at events.
• Page 7: Other than the ACCEYSS summer camp program, the programs shown on Page 7 not only ranked lowest but also had requests for high amounts, with a high minimum that would be acceptable to run the program. Although the ACCEYSS program ranked low, the board members believed that supporting youth in science and technology is important, and that it is beneficial to San Marcos families to provide low-cost education activities to youth in the summer. Central Texas Food Bank received a small amount of funding through CDBG.
HSAB MEMBERS
• Alyssa Ramirez, Chair
• Yansi Arevalo, Vice Chair
• Raymond Best
• Madelyn Smith
• Ethan Gravis
• Cherif Gacis
• (Linda Harper-Williams also participated but resigned due to family responsibilities)
• (Noah Herring only attended two meetings and is no longer on the board)
Council Committee, Board/Commission Action:
The Human Services Advisory Board, appointed by City Council, met almost weekly from March - June to review 40 grant applications, receive a presentation on each program, and create a recommendation to City Council for funding allocations to human service agencies.
Alternatives:
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Recommendation:
Staff recommends approval of the Human Services Advisory Board recommendations as presented.