Key Accomplishments Marching Towards the Future

Home Key Accomplishments Marching Towards the Future

Harris County:
Working Toward a Better Future

Judge Hidalgo’s top priority is to improve the lives of all residents in Harris County. Since Judge Hidalgo was elected in January 2019, the County Judge’s Office has taken bold, thoughtful action to make Harris County more disaster resilient, reform our criminal justice system and improve public safety, advance Harris County as a leader in the clean energy transition, improve access to early childhood care, destigmatize mental health, and more. Key accomplishments to date include:

Emergency Management: Disaster Resiliency and Flood Control
  • Advocated for voters to approve funding to address the nearly $1 billion infrastructure maintenance backlog within the Harris County Flood Control District. As the county’s budget for new flood control projects has grown exponentially, its maintenance budget stayed the same. The money approved by voters will improve the County’s flood resilience by repairing and maintaining critical infrastructure that we’re building, such as drainage channels, stormwater detention basins, and levees, so we can turn the page on flooding in Harris County.
  • Built critical relationships with FEMA and the federal government so Harris County could receive critical aid after disasters like Hurricane Beryl. More than 650,000 Harris County residents benefitted from more than $100 million in federal relief after 2024’s disasters thanks in part to Judge Hidalgo’s advocacy in Washington, D.C.
  • Helped create the Disaster Alliance to get disaster relief aid out into the community. Managed through local nonprofits, the Disaster Alliance will be able to quickly stand up recovery funds that can raise money to offer grants for emergency financial aid, home repairs and other resources to support families recovering from disasters in Harris County. After Hurricane Beryl, the Disaster Alliance helped raise $5.2 million from nonprofits, businesses and private donors for the community.
  • Constructed hundreds of new flood control projects using funding from the 2018 bond that helped improve Harris County’s resiliency by investing in initiatives like channel improvements, stormwater detention basins, floodplain land acquisition and local drainage enhancements. One example, Brays Bayou – a large-scale flood infrastructure and mitigation project has removed nearly 15,000 homes and structures from the 100-year floodplain,
  • Improving fairness by removing politics and financial influence from decision making on flood control projects. The County Judge’s office implemented a “worst first” model to inform which flood control bond projects to prioritize. While all bond projects will be completed, the County has begun using the Social Vulnerability Index developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow the county to prioritize areas that are particularly prone to disasters and economic loss.
  • Passed the most stringent flood detention requirements possible so that new development doesn’t flood people downstream. Additionally, the County has streamlined the enforcement of floodplain regulations by allowing the County Attorney’s office to pursue violators of floodplain regulations without Court approval. All 34 cities in Harris County are now required to adopt stricter rules before they can receive funding from the flood bond.
  • Improved information access during disasters by revamping ReadyHarris.org, the County’s flagship tool to inform residents on what to do before, during, and after disasters. The new site now includes user-friendly information on how residents can prepare for events and real-time alerts and information - like a live air monitoring map when needed -on what is happening to protect residents.
  • Improved our disaster response by building up our Disaster Response Coordination Team with the addition of an Operations Section Chief, a Senior Advisor for Public Safety and Emergency Management, a second industry liaison, and a social media specialist. These additions allow for better coordination with industry and County departments as well as improved communication with the public during incidents.
  • Provided critical relief during COVID-19:
    • Helped families avoid eviction and pay their rents by creating the COVID-19 Housing Legal Services Initiative to provide legal assistance for families at risk of eviction due to financial hardships brought on by COVID-19.
      • Expanded the fund in March 2023 with $4 million for legal aid that will fund support for approximately 5,010 eligible cases total with approximately 90% receiving full representation and the remaining receiving brief services.
      • Established the Houston-Harris County Emergency Rental Assistance Program with the City of Houston to provide our hardest-hit residents with small grants to pay rent.
    • Helped victims of domestic violence during COVID by creating $2.17 million COVID-19 Domestic Violence Assistance fund in 2020 to support survivors of domestic violence and help in providing an array of services including childcare, food, transportation, and housing during the pandemic.
    • Supported families struggling with childcare during the pandemic by creating the $4.7 million COVID-19 Childcare Assistance Program, which provided some relief to parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program provided funding for virtual learning, after school care, early childhood learning, and early childhood care.
    • Reduced homelessness even during the pandemic by allocating $5.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Emergency Housing Vouchers to expand support services including move-in support, mental health and substance abuse services, and domestic violence-related services to assist people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness obtain and keep permanent housing.
    • Helped more eligible families receive the Child Tax Credit with the Child Tax Credit engagement program, created in partnership with BakerRipley, to conduct vital outreach to communities in need to ensure they file their taxes to claim the 2020 - 2021 elevated American Rescue Plan Child Tax Credit benefit.
Public Safety and Criminal Justice
  • Continued to improve conditions at the Harris County Jail, bringing the facility into compliance with state standards for the first time in years.
    • Worked to reduce staffing shortages by approving $6.3M for a 12% increase in detention officers’ salaries and creating the Detention Officer Retention Incentive Program.
    • Increased transparency in the facility by implementing body-worn cameras for detention officers.
    • Worked to reduce the jail population by restoring individuals’ competency to stand trial through the Jail Based Competency Restoration Program (JBCR). To date, the JBCR has restored hundreds of people to competency and was recognized by the National Association of Counties (NACo) in 2023 for its innovation.
    • Improved the facility by investing $15M to make critical repairs and maintenance upgrades.
  • Turned Harris County into a national leader in juvenile justice, moving away from a compliance- and punitive-driven justice system toward one instead focused on rehabilitation and reducing the number of youth who enter the system at all.
    • Harris County’s youth diversion rates have more than doubled in only four years, meaning that more youth are entering rehabilitative diversion programs instead of the criminal justice system.
  • Improved law enforcement capacity to respond to the most serious and violent crimes by:
    • Supporting warrant teams focused on arresting Harris County’s most dangerous and violent offenders, such as the Violent Persons (VIPER) Task Force, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, and the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force. Together, the three warrant teams cleared over 4,000 warrants in 2024 alone.
    • Establishing the TeleDeputy Unit, which allows residents to file non-emergency reports with a deputy over the phone, thereby freeing up on-response law enforcement for higher-priority calls. As of January 2025, the TeleDeputy Unit has handled approximately 41,600 calls for service and has generated over 16,300 incident reports.
  • Abated almost 800 unsafe properties through the Neighborhood Nuisance Abatement Program, which is designed to eliminate unsafe structures and vacant lots that can contribute to crime and lower property values. Commissioners Court invested $3 million in ARPA funding into this program.
  • Helped make neighborhoods safer through the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Program (CPTED) to clean up the streets in neighborhoods where decay and abandonment are driving violent crime. Harris County invested $19.4 million in ARPA Funding to start CPTED projects across 11 neighborhoods with high concentrations of gun violence and infrastructure needs. Nationwide, similar programs have shown promising results in reducing crime rates, including gun violence and youth homicide.
  • Improved law enforcement responses by creating the Holistic Assistance Response Team (HART), a team of trained behavioral and mental health professionals that respond to nonviolent police calls involving non-violent crimes, therefore freeing up law enforcement to focus their efforts on responding to violent crime. As of December 2024, HART has responded to more than 14,000 calls from the community, with 62% of calls being resolved on scene.
  • Supported over 6,000 survivors of domestic violence through significant investments in ARPA funding. As of October 2024, Commissioners Court approved $1.5 million in General Fund to the Domestic Violence Assistance Fund (DVAF). This will allow the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (HCDVCC) to continue operating the DVAF and provide flexible assistance to survivors of domestic violence. Harris County also allocated $6.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to create the Early Childhood Resiliency Fund, which increases access to early intervention for children and families experiencing or exposed to domestic violence.
  • Worked to reduce crime by investing in community violence interruption through the Relentless Interrupters Serving Everyone (RISE) Program, which connects people at risk of committing violent crimes with services like mental health counseling, substance use treatment, employment, and support to exit gangs, while working with community leaders to identify ongoing conflicts and using mediation techniques to resolve them peacefully. This program has performed 13,114 engagements to foster meaningful relationships with high-risk residents since March 2022, saving an estimated $52M in crimes prevented.
  • Reduced the misdemeanor court backlog by 71.3% and the felony court backlog by 68.3% as of December 2024 by:
    • Adding numerous associate judges and visiting judges to assist the 29 Criminal District Courts and 16 County Criminal Courts at Law to process more cases simultaneously.
    • Increasing jury participation and diversity by expanding jury operations at NRG, increasing juror pay, establishing debit cards for juror payments, implementing reminders for appearance dates, and providing jurors with free parking and refreshments.
    • Investing a major and historic $15 million in technology for law enforcement to make body cam systems more efficient -- consequently making video evidence available more quickly and speeding up processing of court cases.
    • Approving a total of $69 million in ARPA funds for various court backlog initiatives, such as improvements in technology and evidence processing, expanding the Jail-Based Competency Restoration Program, and sustaining positions across various law enforcement, criminal justice, and correctional agencies including the Courts, Sheriff’s Office, District Clerk’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, Pretrial Services, and the Institute of Forensic Sciences, among others.
  • Increased funding for the Public Defender's Office. Following multiple historic investments by Commissioners Court in recent years, the office, which was first established in 2015, now represents around half of the County’s indigent criminal defendant population, significantly enhancing fair representation within our judicial system and moving us toward the best practice of a robust public defender’s office that represents the majority of indigent criminal defendants.
  • Adopted a Managed Assigned Counsel Program for indigent defense. First established in 2020, this new indigent defense delivery model in our County Criminal Courts at Law oversees and enhances the independence, quality, and accountability of attorney appointments for indigent misdemeanor arrestees.
  • Created a Sexual Assault Response Team to improve reporting and recovery for survivors. Sexual Assault Response Teams (SARTs) were developed to advise County governments on how to prioritize survivors’ needs and improve community response to sexual assault. The Harris County SART published their first Biennial report in January 2024, which revealed shortcomings and provided recommendations on improving community response to assist survivors. The SART will continue to work to improve collaboration and system responses to sexual assault that are victim-centered and trauma-informed.
  • Helped support immigrant survivors of crime by publishing data on U visa certifications received and completed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office on a first-of-its-kind County dashboard in English and Spanish. Harris County also continued to invest in the Survivor Services fund, created during Judge Hidalgo’s time in office, that provides essential legal and social assistance to immigrant survivors of crime, enabling them to report crimes and collaborate with law enforcement.
Clean Energy Transition and Sustainability
  • Securing federal funds for clean energy and green jobs in Texas, continuing Harris County’s leadership in the clean energy transition by helping secure $240 million in EPA “Solar for All” funding for the state of Texas. These funds will help Harris County continue its leadership in the clean energy transition by expanding solar energy access and promoting energy efficiency, especially in low-income communities. Solar for All investments are projected to save participating residents up to 20% on their electricity bills.
  • Developed a long-term plan for sustainability through the Climate Justice Action Plan. By working with the Harris County Office of Sustainability and holding listening sessions throughout the community, Harris County created the Climate Justice Action Plan that will focus on five key pillars going forward: ecology, infrastructure, economy, community, and culture.
  • Passed the most significant enhancement of county environmental protections in over 30 years by investing $11 million to build a state-of-the-art air monitoring network, increasing the size of the pollution control department by over 50%, and adding resources for HazMat First Responders.
  • Worked to tackle the underlying causes of climate change by creating the standalone Harris County Office of Sustainability. The Office of Sustainability works to combat the underlying causes and disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities by making community-driven improvements to air, water, and soil quality, committing to the use of clean energy, improving flood resilience with natural infrastructure practices, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and providing every resident access to quality green space.
  • Worked to improve response times to chemical fire incidents by launching the RAAM, a state-of-the-art van equipped with air quality-monitoring devices to detect pollutants in the air on blue-sky days, immediately identify harmful chemicals during emergency situations, and generate thermal images to locate chemical leaks and identify additional locations for low-cost fixed air monitors.
  • Held concrete batch plants accountable by increasing inspections. Harris County Pollution Control Services (PCS) now inspects concrete batch plants within City limits, completing significantly more inspections than in the past, which better equips the County to hold plants accountable and identify instances of noncompliance.
  • Launched a new interactive map of chemical hazard locations, the Community Right-to-Know Map of Registered Facilities. The map is a database of facilities that make or store hazardous chemicals within Harris County so that residents can identify and locate potential risks in their neighborhoods.
Early Childhood Initiatives
  • Invested the largest known amount of American Rescue Plan Funding in the nation into early childhood initiatives. The historic $84 million Brighter Futures for Harris County Kids Initiative is the largest allocation of funding for children in Harris County history and the largest known investment of ARPA dollars by any county or city in the nation for early childhood education, childcare, and maternal health.
  • Delivered critical tax cuts for early childcare providers. Judge Hidalgo’s office led the charge in working with other partners including the state and the City of Houston to pass Proposition 2, a major tax exemption for qualifying childcare providers. These property tax exemptions are expected to save the average provider $2,800 per year on their county property taxes. These savings will help childcare facilities keep their doors open so they can continue providing critical services to Harris County families.
  • Helped create thousands more high-quality early childcare slots in Harris County and retain/build the childcare workforce:
    • Created more than 800 high-quality early childcare slots in Harris County with the Early REACH program, which helps fund quality improvement initiatives for high-quality childcare facilities in areas of the county with the highest need.
    • Improve access to high-quality early childcare and retain more than 600 jobs by creating the SHINE Child Care Facilities Fund, which funds projects at high-quality early childcare facilities for the planning, renovation or repair, and/or expansion of childcare facilities.
  • Helped build up the childcare workforce with the Harris County Accessible Child Care Training & Supports (ACCTS) program, which will provide high quality career development and training to approximately 1200 existing and future childcare workers.
  • Provide much-needed resources to families of children with disabilities through the Inspire Fund. Harris County invested $5 million to provide resources to low-income Harris County families who have young children with disabilities so they can purchase assistive technology, learning materials and other supportive resources for their kids. 

Mental Health & Investing in Healthier Communities
  • Expanded behavioral health services across Harris County by investing $20 million toward preventing and treating substance abuse disorder, expand access to mental health services and support the behavioral health workforce.
  • Invested in substance abuse disorder resources, including $2 million to the Council on Recovery to provide medication-assisted treatment along with other services like naloxone training, connection to recovery housing and more, to help individuals battling a substance use disorder.
  • Supported students’ mental health in schools through the Communities in Schools program with a $600K investment, which has put a staff member specifically dedicated to students’ mental health on 163 partner campuses in six school districts, and helped connect students and families with needed community resources.
  • Worked to eliminate food deserts with the Harris County Healthy Food Financing Initiative to ensure access to nutritious food for all Harris County residents.
  • Improved access to healthcare and social services for the most vulnerable communities by launching the ACCESS Harris County Program, which ensures that County safety net departments are working together to coordinate care and eliminate any gaps in services for our most vulnerable residents participating in County programs.
  • Worked to reduce overcrowding at animal shelters by investing $1.1M for increased animal control staff and services as part of the $4.4M Mobile Health Expansion initiative. This funding allows Harris County Public Health to increase the number of community health outreach events (Wellness on Wheels) and provide community members with health screenings, dental services, pet spay/neuter services, etc.
  • Mitigated lead hazards by investing $20 million in the Lead Abatement and Prevention Program that will cover lead hazard abatement, blood level testing, and related efforts with the goal of 800 units abated and 20,000 tests conducted over four years. Harris County Public Health currently tests 1,500 children annually for elevated blood-lead levels and tests and renovates about 60 homes and child-occupied structures, such as daycares, annually.
  • Supported youth transitioning out of foster care by invested $35 million in the HAY Center, which will provide housing and wraparound services for foster youth between the ages of 18 and 24.
  • Protected access to reproductive services by investing $6 million in access to reproductive services such as contraceptive services, family planning education, preconception health screenings, and STI testing, prevention, and education.
  • Worked to lower Harris County’s staggering maternal mortality rate with the $7.7 million Maternal and Child Health Program, an evidence-based home visitation program that aims to improve and expand access to health care for Harris County mothers and children. In particular, it will address the alarming rates of maternal mortality among African American women in Harris County, who are three times more likely to die than the national average and 10 times more likely to die compared to women overall in industrialized countries.

Good Governance
  • Set Harris County government’s ‘North Star’ by passing the first-ever countywide strategic plan. In a long overdue step in bringing Harris County government into the 21st century, Commissioners Court approved the County’s first strategic plan in October 2024. This strategic plan will be the ‘North Star’ that will guide Commissioners Court’s work for years to come.
  • Achieved the biggest government ethics reform in 50 years by bringing our procurement process in line with basic standards. After learning that Harris County was not following basic standards when it came to our procurement process, Judge Hidalgo called for more objectivity and transparency in the procurement process. As a result, the Flood Control District and Engineering Department are now required to have written procedures for selecting a winning vendor, maintain documentation of the process, and require conflict of interest forms for department employees involved in awarding contracts.
  • Made voting easier by expanding access to the ballot box. The County now allows residents to vote at any polling location on Election Day, not just their home precinct, and has expanded early voting hours and locations, including increased access for students with early voting polls opened at the University of Houston and Texas Southern University.
    • For the historic 2020 election held in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Harris County made a $17 million investment to triple the number of Early Vote locations and provide mail-in ballots. As a result, Harris County saw almost 70% turnout -- the highest in 30 years.
  • Made County services more accessible by directing Harris County to create a 3-1-1 system that residents can call to receive more information about any county services.
  • Transformed the budget process to better serve Harris County residents by:
    • Reforming the budget process to focus on performance-based budgeting and to evaluate programs based on best-practices informed outcomes.
    • Ending the County’s long-standing policy of "rollover" budgeting for most general fund departments, which allowed departments to hold on to unspent budgeted funds indefinitely. Now unspent funds from the prior fiscal year are diverted to areas where they are most needed, like public safety, allowing for greater transparency in where and why the County’s money is budgeted.
  • Improved Harris County government processes by creating the new County Administrator position, a management tool to ensure that planning and implementation are responsive to the goals and objectives of Commissioners Court, carried out effectively over time, and measured to determine whether intended outcomes are achieved.

Economic Opportunity
  • Continued Harris County’s historic progress to reduce homelessness, Since Judge Hidalgo took office in 2019, Harris County, in collaboration with the City of Houston, has reduced homelessness by 18 percent, even during the pandemic, turning Harris County and Houston into a national model for reducing homelessness. Harris County has invested $95 million in housing-first initiatives to reduce homelessness including funding for more permanent and rapid re-housing, a diversion program to mitigate the root causes of homelessness, and support services including substance abuse support and employment services.
  • Started building the workforce of the future with the Apprenticeship Advantage program, which helps train residents in high-paying, fast-growing jobs of the future like IT, construction, public transportation, technology, and live entertainment industries. Apprenticeship Advantage has become one of Harris County’s most impactful ARPA-funded programs, with nearly 900 residents completing the program. This program has even earned recognition from the White House.
  • Continued to provide robust legal resources to immigrant families through the Immigrant & Naturalization Services fund and Resource Hotline, which provides legal representation and services to immigrant families unable to afford a lawyer, strengthen Naturalization efforts, and ensure they are better equipped to navigate U.S. law.
  • Increased property tax exemptions for seniors and those with disabilities, expanding financial relief for more residents with limited or fixed incomes.
  • Stood up for workers rights by creating the Essential Workers Board to advise Harris County on worker protections and interests, the first of its kind in the nation. The board gives a voice to essential workers in shaping County policy and will focus on protecting communities, workers and businesses during public health emergencies; supporting worker-led, equitable, and cooperative solutions to improving worker’s protections on the job; and promoting safe and healthy workplaces across Harris County.

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