FY23 Community Project Funding Requests
Community Field at Jack Yates High School
The George Perry Floyd Jr Athletic Community Field at Jack Yates High School is in poor condition and underutilized. This funding request is to resurface and upgrade the Yates High School football field for recreational and competitive purposes to serve people of all ages and abilities. A renovated football field would further reflect the modernization of this campus, serve as a hub for community engagement, and, more importantly, contribute to our mission to elevate the educational experience for students. Moreover, surrounding elementary and middle schools will also use the field for youth football leagues, sports tournaments, science fairs, summer festivals, community celebrations and after-school events. Additionally, the track surrounding the field will be used for community residents for fitness walking, running/jogging, and other kinds of fitness and social activities that appeal to both young and old alike. These activities can be done in a safe environment, enjoyed regardless of level of skills, and have minimal economic barriers to entry.
Amount: $1,100,000
Certification Letter: HERE
Northeast Community Flood Prevention
The City of Houston requests funding for flood prevention projects to:
- Upsize storm sewer based on drainage study, which includes hydraulic & hydrologic analysis of the system to determine storm sewer system improvements needed to alleviate flooding/severe ponding;
- Clearing and grubbing of ditch and re-establishing proper grade;
- Hydraulic & Hydrologic analysis to recommend upsizing the existing storm system to determine proposed improvements within the neighborhood;
- Replace culverts (i.e. undersized, collapsed) not set to proper flow line;
- Re-establish proper grade (de-silt) of the ditch.
Amount: $6,606,800.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Park and Community Redevelopment
Support will allow the Heritage Society of Sam Houston Park to move forward with time sensitive repairs and preventative treatment. Requested funding would enable The Heritage Society to repair original wood structures, wood flooring, wood base, wood doors, and wood & plaster walls throughout the park. Houston Parks Board seeks funding to renovate and restore Houston's historic and culturally significant MacGregor Park. The 55-acre park is located along Brays Bayou in the Third Ward community area, near the campus of the University of Houston. This plan will be transformative by constructing new facilities and renovating the two historically significant buildings around a central core that celebrates its cultural heritage by creating a "town square" that provides community socialization and entrepreneurial opportunities. Furthermore, the Houston Parks and Recreation Department will replace the outdated pool at Tidwell Park and create a new aquatic facility meeting current Department standards for community pools with zero entry and swim lanes. The existing Tidwell Park pool has outlived its useful life and does not meet current Department standards. Requested funds from Kashmere Gardens will reflect a Social Services Hub that will be a site for future development on the major corridor of Liberty Road and Kashmere Street. Finally, The Greater East Houston Community Redevelopment Corporation is seeking funds to paint two prominent bridges and create murals. Art installations will be illuminated with solar-powered lighting and serve as a beacon of community pride and function for wayfinding.
Amount: $14,050,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Riverside Planning for Restoration, Renovation and Additions
Harris County seeks to increase access to health care services for a diverse and underserved area. The country requests funding for projects, including a Comprehensive Feasibility Study, Programming, and Design for the renovation of three historical buildings and the addition of the complex components, including a new office building with limited clinical space for Harris County Public Health, and a new parking garage with limited occupiable space on the ground level.
Amount: $10,000,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
The Buffalo Bayou Partnership Silo Park Adaptive Re-Use and Japhet Creek Projects
The Silo Park Adaptive Re-Use project will serve as an anchor point between Downtown Houston and the Second Ward, providing a key linkage point to Tony Marron Park. The project will be one of the Partnership’s catalytic investments in this area and will leverage ongoing and adjacent efforts to construct trail connections and improve related streambank stabilization along the Bayou itself. The historic concrete silos will serve as an area attraction and provide an opportunity for unique photos, public art exhibits, play, education and will otherwise leverage a historic community asset. The request will also fund construction phase activities associated with the restoration of the natural spring fed Japhet Creek to provide trails, pedestrian bridges, boardwalks, wildflower meadows, and wetland remediation improvements. A small pedestrian bridge will connect the east and west sides of the five-acre green space adjacent to the creek with boardwalk trails the length of the park.
Amount: $6,400,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
HISD-Rice Planetary Project
This funding request will strengthen Houston’s pipeline of students who are engaged in planetary sciences that leverages NASA, JSC, Lunar Planetary Institute, Museum of Natural Science and Rice University partnerships with Houston ISD. This funding will provide early experiences in planetary science opportunities to students that would not otherwise exist. The benefits of the proposed program would be increased diversity in STEM programs, early exposure to college culture, new STEM career interest, as well as improved academic performance. While schools typically have STEM programming primarily focused on engineering and robotics, exposure to planetary sciences and access to entities such as NASA will further prepare students for future careers relative to their community.
Amount: $1,983,322.00
Certification Letter: HERE
City of Houston Fleet Management Department mechanic training program and Launch Point CDC, Inc. Training Programs
The City of Houston Fleet Management Department mechanic training program will provide unskilled employees with the necessary knowledge and skills to qualify for advanced mechanic positions within the department. The department has seen an increase in retired skilled mechanics lately, which is negatively impacting the City’s ability to maintain fleet vehicles that are essential to delivering city services like police cars, fire trucks, and public works equipment.
Launch Point CDC, Inc. is requesting funds to train and certify twenty (20) or more students in a nationally recognized National Center for Construction Education and Research Core Construction program and assist them in becoming employed in the home recovery workforce and construction industry, within one year. This will provide residents, mainly elders, in the Northeast Houston and surrounding neighborhoods with much needed home repair services. There is an overwhelming number of homes needing repair; also, fulfilling a valuable need at a time when there is a severe shortage of construction workers. Previous storms have flooded homes, damaged roofs, and weaken structures resulting in extensive mold, moisture damage, and weakening structures, causing most of these homes to become unhealthy and unsafe to live.
Amount: $3,250,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
The Houston Food Bank and the SAFE Diversity Project
Funds requested by the Houston Food Bank will be used to build an additional food distribution site in the area. This addition will expand current operations and accommodate future growth, provide critical wrap-around services, and increase capacity to distribute food more equitably and efficiently, including home delivery and curbside pickup. The new facility will be the main distribution center for most of the Houston Food Bank’s home-delivered meals and all its mobile delivery distributions. The SAFE Diversity Project will support secondary education through instructional services, social and emotional learning activities, and college and career development, among other services. The following will be implemented to support black, indigenous, the youth of color, and their families in low to moderate-income families: Expand Technology Resources for Student Academic and Career Success; Increase and Advance Mental Health & Wellness Training; and Educate and Impact Environmental & Climate Issues within the community.
Amount: $4,075,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Joseph House Community Outreach Center and Endeavors Project
Joseph House Community Outreach Center is committed to serving the Veterans and Veterans Organization in the City of Houston Texas and Harris County. They are poised to assist veterans and their families in need of emergency service because of life changing situations. Joseph House is committed to serving as many veterans and military families as functionally possible. Requested funds will be used to address food insecurities, small household appliances, and veteran’s organizations and events to support Houston’s growing veteran population.
Endeavors is a national provider of case management including healthcare, disaster survivors, homeless youth, homeless veterans, and migrant youth. Endeavors requests funding to fulfill the manufacturing of a 53-foot Mobile Vital Services Center by CT Defense over a nine-week timeline. The Mobile Vital Services Center will help Endeavors better assist communities with healthcare delivery and case management services. Case management for these populations requires Endeavors Case Managers and Mental Health professionals to meet clients in their homes or in the community if the client is homeless. A mobile center could help Endeavors pivot on clients’ needs as they change and provide a variety of services from disaster relief to housing to processing services for veterans the unit would help Endeavors effectively meet client’s needs. A Mobile Vital Services Center would also help case managers ensure consistent contact with clients and allow more services to be provided in a timely and cost-effective manner.
Amount: $978,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission and The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) partnered to construct a new 264-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital called the John S. Dunn Behavioral Sciences Center at UTHealth Houston (DBSC). The DBSC is next door to the current 274-bed UTHealth Harris County Psychiatric Center (HCPC). When the DBSC is fully operational, the combined 538-bed campus will be the largest academic mental health complex in the nation. Primarily serving indigent patients, UTHealth Houston McGovern Medical School’s Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will fully staff and hire all employees for the new building just like the neighboring HCPC. The Department partners with many hospital and health systems in region including Memorial Hermann, Harris Health, Veterans Affairs, Harris Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and most of the health providers in the Texas Medical Center.
Amount: $8,000,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Baylor College of Medicine
System of Care for Homeless Individuals with Co-occurring Substance Abuse: In partnership with the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine and Harris Health System, this request aims to enhance existing programs and resources at the Houston Recovery Center located in the 18th Congressional District and create a system of care for veterans and non-veterans alike who are homeless with co-occurring substance use. First, Baylor College of Medicine will initiate a linkage between the high flow Ben Taub Hospital ER and the Houston Recovery Center and veterans resources (as applicable). Additionally, funding will help implement medication assistance treatment at the Houston Recovery Center and provide comprehensive case management by substance use counselors and case managers will be implemented for improved compliance and clinical outcomes.
Amount: 1,750,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Houston Department of Health
See to Succeed is a public-private partnership initiative created to resolve unmet vision needs of children in the greater Houston and surrounding areas. This program provides vision exams and quality corrective eyewear at no cost to children ages 6-18 who have failed their initial vision screening at school. See to Succeed eliminates barriers to care for students who otherwise may not have access to vision services by working with the district and directly with schools to get students consented and bussed to our program in a field-trip style. Since its inception in 2011, See to Succeed has provided over 92,000 eye exams and over 84,000 pairs of glasses.
Amount: $1,000,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Best Buddies in Texas Inclusion Project for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
The Best Buddies in Texas Inclusion Project for Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities would benefit the residents of Texas’s 18th Congressional District by creating opportunities for meaningful social interactions and relationships for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, who often experience isolation and loneliness. Funding will be used to establish and deliver community-based inclusion services at 10 elementary, middle, and high schools that will serve at least 200 students who will take part in a minimum of 50 inclusive activities and leadership training opportunities in the 18th Congressional District.
Amount: $100,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE
Transportation Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Projects for OST/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority, the Greater Southeast Management District, and the Midtown Management District
The Greater Southeast Management District requests funding to complete its second phase of bicycle-pedestrian-transit improvements in the area adjacent to Brays Bayou and MacGregor Park. It will improve over four (4) miles of corridor within Houston’s historic Third Ward to facilitate improved bicycle and pedestrian connectivity to and from existing regional connectivity improvements such as the Columbia Tap Trail, MacGregor Park, and Palm Center.
The OST/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority requests funding for roadway rehabilitation, drainage improvements, sidewalk improvements, and bicycle facilities. The Authority seeks to complete the FTA eligible improvements (sidewalks, bicycle facilities, accessibility improvements). The Greater Third Ward Neighborhood Project by the OST/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority entails the complete reconstruction of the roadway and back-of-curb for 11 roads and the reconstruction of the back-of-curb of 5 additional roads in the northern Third Ward within the City of Houston.
The Midtown Management District requests funding for Intersection Safety Improvements, which comprises of the installation of intersection/crosswalk improvements, medians, access management improvements, multimodal signalization improvements, sidewalks, bicycle improvements, ADA ramps, universal accessibility improvements, pedestrian lighting, functional landscaping, and will enable associated utility/hardscape modifications to improve safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users within the boundaries of TX-18 and the Midtown Management District. Improvements are proposed generally for the areas south of IH-45, east of Main Street, West of US-69, and north of Hermann Park.
Amount: $5,600,000.00
Certification Letter: HERE