Tarrant County will shut down its Department of Human Services, the agency that offers rental and utility assistance to people in need — giving the funding to outside organizations instead.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to close the department. Supporters of the closure said the department is inefficient and the money could be better used elsewhere. Opponents argued Human Services should have been given a chance to fix any problems before outsourcing the work to a nonprofit that hasn’t been picked yet.
Partnering with an outside organization would get more money to people who need it, Republican Commissioner Manny Ramirez said.
"I’m not vain enough to think that we in government can solve all the problems,” he said. “Sometimes, we need to say, we’re not operating efficiently enough. Perhaps we should shift gears and try to go there.”
In fiscal year 2024, the Department of Human Services cost $2.5 million to run and spent about $1 million in county funding for direct aid, according to county data.
The $1 million in spending does not include donations from utility companies, who provide aid money for their customers who need help paying their bills, budget director Helen Giese said.
The county budget office also determined that Human Services left millions of dollars in aid unspent over several years.
The closure will eliminate 25 jobs. Not all of them are currently filled, as several people retired in response to the news the department would close, according to Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons.
Simmons was the only vote to keep the department open.
“The reality is, this elimination is not efficiency,” she said. “True efficiency would be to improve operations to serve more people at a lower cost, not abandon a mission entirely.”
Under the new plan, the county would provide $2 million to an outside organization to do the same work, Giese said. The county will convene an advisory board, appointed by commissioners, to pick the organization, which is scheduled to be approved October 7.
Some current employees would stay on until January to help clients transition to the new system, according to the county’s timeline.
In June, employees were told they were getting laid off, before commissioners voted on the closure. The county later said that was a mistake, according to internal communications obtained by KERA News.
Democratic County Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr. voted alongside his Republican colleagues to eliminate the department. He expressed concern about how many people the department turned away each year.
In fiscal year 2025 — as of July 28 — more than 6,700 people had applied for rental assistance, Giese said. Only 292 got help. Utility assistance numbers had similar discrepancies.
"It says to me that we need to update and overhaul our eligibility requirements,” Miles said. “And I would hope that if this does pass, that would be a focus of that [advisory] group — that we’d look at those eligibility requirements so that we can get more dollars out of the door and into the hands of the people who need it the most.”
Several community members urged commissioners to keep the department open.
Deborah Kratky with Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County told commissioners $2 million would overwhelm, not help, most local nonprofits.
“I can tell you some of the things I’ve learned. One of them is, there’s only a handful of nonprofits in Tarrant County that could handle a grant for $2 million dollars,” she said.
There’s also very little time to find an organization that can take on the department’s work, Kratky said. One former Human Services employee told KERA News she's worried there's not a single nonprofit that can replace the department, since many focus on specific populations, not the county as a whole.
Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare voted to close the department while urging county staff to help the workers getting laid off.
“If we do this the right way, everybody that wants a job, and wants Tarrant County’s help, should be able to find one in a relatively short timeframe,” he said.
On Tuesday, Simmons read resolutions acknowledging several longtime Human Services employees who have retired or are about to retire.
Sharon Downs, the department’s assistant director and one of the retirees, told commissioners she hoped the county would keep making rental, utility, food and hygiene assistance accessible in Tarrant County.
"We have previous staff, we have current staff, who have always been devoted to providing the services and the needs of our community,” she said. “Futuristically, I would still like to see that occur for residents.”
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