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What is being spent?
There is no comprehensive assessment of the communitys investment in basic needs services. Table 1 shows a sample of public investments totaling more than $7 million during the 1998-99 fiscal year (includes both the amount of direct assistance and the delivery system). Despite this seemingly large investment, providers continue to turn needy people away when available aid is exhausted. These funds purchase a range of services that address immediate basic needs including food, clothing, and emergency housing assistance. This figure does not reflect the millions of dollars worth of donated food and clothing that isare distributed to the public through the basic needs delivery system a wide range of public and private basic needs providers. The following table does not include a number of very large investments in ongoing subsistence supports that are closely related to emergency basic needs. The most significant of these are listed following this table below.
Table I: Basic Needs (Emergency Assistance) Investments
by Selected Major Public Investors, 1998-99
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Community Action Network Funding Agencies
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Annual Expenditures
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Percent
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Travis County Direct Services
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$3,290,224
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44%
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City of Austin Direct Services
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$1,443,439
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19%
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Austin and Travis County Joint Social Service Contracts:
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$1,277,585
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17%
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United Way/ Capital Area
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$1,149,729
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16%
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Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center*
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$247,000
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3%
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TOTAL
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$7,407,977
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Additional investors include State and federal agencies, as well as local non-profit, faith based, and public/private partnerships. These include, but are not limited to:
- Texas Department of Human Services (TDHS) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) spent $7,330,803 in Travis County for FY 98. $35,715,001 was spent on Food Stamps in Travis County for FY 98.
- Austin Independent School District (AISD) For the 1998-1999 school year, AISD spent approximately $12,621,831 on the free or reduced priced lunch program during the school year. This is an estimated figure based on the amount that the State reimbursed AISD. They also spent $437,882 on the summer lunch program, for a total of $13,059,713. While AISD is a Community Action Network partner, these resources provide ongoing, rather than emergency support and, as such, are not included in the above table.
- Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB) has an annual budget of $1.2 million. $119,600 of that total amount comes from the Austin/ Travis County Joint Contract. Approximately 40% of the total comes from handling fees charged to the agencies that receive the food distribution centers, and the remainder comes from TDHS (via the Federal USDA Department) and private donations. Although their total annual budget is just over $1 million, CAFB distributes at least $10,000,000 in donated food each year.
- Capital Metro Special Transit Services spent $6,059,000 in 1998 (a small portion of these funds were spent in Williamson County, but the vast majority is spent in Travis County). Capital Metro also spent approximately $42,000 in 1998 for half-priced transportation passes, and gave away approximately $206,000 in free transportation passes (distributed through the United Way).
- Women Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) distributes food worth an estimated $9.3 million to families in need. More information about WIC is included in the Early Childhood needs assessment.
- Faith based organizations - at present, 36 faith-based organizations have been identified that provide food assistance, 23 that provide housing assistance, and 24 that provide utility assistance. These numbers include only those providers listed with United Way, First Call for Help and food pantries supplied by the Capital Area Food Bank as of June 1999. While we cannot, at this time, identify the amount of aid they provide, they do represent a major part of this system. A more complete listing is being compiled by First Call for Help.
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