Travis County Commissioners Court To Unveil 'Community Impact Report'

TRAVIS COUNTY, TX — Travis County recently completed a Community Impact Report detailing the most pressing community needs as they relate to the social service contracts during fiscal year 2016, officials said Monday.

The report was prepared by the Research & Planning Division within the Travis County Health and Human Services department at Travis County.

"This report offers highlights of community conditions most pertinent to the services purchased within each issue area and details investment, programmatic and performance information on over $18.8 million of the Department’s social service contracts in FY 2016," county officials said in a prepared statement. During the Travis County Commissioners Court meeting scheduled on Tuesday (April 11), staff members are scheduled to present an overview of the investments in each of the nine issue areas covered and one pilot project.

Among the report's key findings:

• Travis County population has grown by 27% since 2006; population in areas outside the City of Austin increased by 37%.

• 13% of County residents (153,579 people) lived in poverty in 2015.

• Nearly 160,000 households experienced a housing cost burden in 2015.

• 14% of County residents (168,371 people) lacked health insurance in 2015.

• 8.7% of the Travis County population (102,577 people) were age 65 and older in 2015; this population is projected to increase to 10.4% by 2020.

• 35% of clients served by these investments were under the age of 18.

• 25% of clients served had incomes below 50% of the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines (FPIG) and 20% had incomes between 50% and 100% of FPIG.

• A majority of clients served resided in eastern areas of the County.

“Travis County strives to remain both responsive to community needs and accountable for public dollars,” Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said in a prepared statement. “The Community Impact Report, released annually by our Health and Human Services Department, demonstrates our commitment to both. It illustrates the social conditions we try to address and how our investments help respond to them.”

The report will be presented to the Commissioner’s Court during the morning of the April 11th voting session. To view the report ahead of time, click here.

The commissioners court meetings take place each Tuesday beginning at 9 a.m. in the Travis County Administration Building Commissioners Courtroom located in the first floor of 700 Lavaca St. As a group, the commissioners and county judge are the chief policy-making and administrative branch of county government.

Among its myriad functions, the court sets the tax rate, determines fees for many county services, and determines how the collected revenues will be distributed among different county departments to provide services to the community.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the meetings, or can choose to watch a live broadcast of the proceedings on TCTV-17 or to view video files of archived meetings on the Travis County Commissioners Court website.

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