Central Health and Travis County Commit Historic Funding to Mental Health Crisis Care
September 15, 2026
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — The Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday unanimously approved Central Health’s fiscal year 2027 tax rate and nearly $650 million budget, which includes $127.5 million in Central Health investments in mental health, crisis, and recovery care.
Central Health’s budget includes $54 million in new mental health investments specifically, complementing Travis County’s investments to connect people in crisis with care instead of jail or emergency departments when appropriate.
Together, Central Health and Travis County are directing their funding at the same problem from different points of view in the system. Central Health is expanding mental health crisis care and clinical capacity while helping connect people to the right care earlier. The County’s diversion and deflection programs help keep people in crisis from entering – or returning to the criminal justice system. Together, these investments are designed to replace a cycle of crisis, emergency departments, and jail with a more coordinated path to treatment and recovery.
“Public health and public safety are deeply connected, and we have a responsibility to invest in both,” said Travis County Judge Andy Brown. “For too long, people experiencing mental health and substance use challenges have cycled through our emergency rooms, jails, and the streets without access to lifesaving care. These investments build on the work Travis County has done over the past four years with our partners to begin diversion and deflection pilots, build a crisis care center, improve data sharing, and other initiatives to develop a connected system of care, support law enforcement and first responders, and break the cycle of crisis without relying on incarceration as a substitute for treatment.”
“This budget makes a historic investment in mental health care for the people Central Health serves,” said Central Health President and CEO Dr. Pat Lee. “We’re committing substantial resources to help people get care sooner and find lasting support beyond a crisis. But delivering on that promise will require shared investment and sustained partnership with Travis County, the City of Austin, and our community partners. Central Health is ready to do its part, and we look forward to working with our partners to build and sustain the care our community urgently needs.”
What Central Health’s Investment Pays For
Travis County currently has no dedicated psychiatric emergency department. The largest share of Central Health’s new funding is aimed directly at closing this gap and providing more mental health crisis care.
The $54 million in new FY 2027 mental health investments includes:
- $33.1 million for the construction and operations of inpatient psychiatric emergency capacity, including 22 inpatient beds and 10 psychiatric emergency department bays
- $16 million to support a mental health crisis center, including $13 million for planning, startup and initial operations and $3 million for Sobering Center operations
- $1.5 million for two new complex primary care teams: one serving people in the Travis County Jail, and another serving people transitioning out of the justice system
- $1 million for an additional crisis care team of two psychiatrists, two care managers, and a counselor
- $1 million for long-acting injectable medications
- $1 million to expand medication-assisted treatment
- $400,000 for additional psychiatric emergency services provided by Integral Care
Those investments sit within Central Health’s broader $127.5 million commitment to crisis and recovery care, which also includes $73.5 million in services Central Health already supports—outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care, addiction treatment, street medicine and mobile care, medical respite, skilled nursing, transitions-of-care teams, and enrollment assistance for people experiencing homelessness.
The new investments draw primarily on three sources: $22.1 million in new maintenance and operations revenue generated by the 6% increase over the no-new-revenue rate, $18.5 million from an eminent domain settlement related to parking at Central Health’s Hancock campus—part of the IH-35 construction—and $13 million from Central Health’s contingency reserve.
A Partnership Already in Action
Much of Central Health’s existing mental health funding flows through Integral Care, Travis County’s local mental health authority. That investment has nearly quadrupled in five years—from $8.5 million in FY 2023 to $31.3 million in FY 2027. This funding supports inpatient care, outpatient behavioral health services, psychiatric emergency services, medication-assisted treatment, and embedded psychiatric intake.
What Travis County is Investing
Travis County’s fiscal year 2027 budget continues and expands the County’s investments in keeping people out of jail and connected to care. These investments build on the county’s deflection and diversion efforts over the past five years to help build the mental health continuum of care and include:
- $15 million reserve continued for deflection and diversion programs to connect residents with appropriate services and alternatives to incarceration
- $3,746,167 to continue the Therapeutic Diversion Program pilot for two years
- $2 million ongoing for Supportive Housing Initiative Pipeline (SHIP) services to disrupt the cycle of jail and homelessness
- $1.5 million to continue the Assertive Community Treatment Team
- $1 million for the Travis County Transformation Project to support restorative justice practices for youth
- $871,626 for Assisted Outpatient Treatment program to provide intensive community-based mental health services to individuals with a history of not engaging in voluntary treatment
- $824,948 for jail-based intake and care navigation to assist people leaving the facility to ongoing behavioral health treatment and community services
- $500,000 for the Harvest Trauma Recovery Center to support comprehensive behavioral health services to survivors of recent violent crimes
- $250,000 continued for the Hospital Violence Intervention Program to support victims of violence by focusing efforts on prevention and intervention
These investments meet Central Health at the point where they matter most: the County’s programs work to reach people before or instead of a jail booking, and Central Health’s funding builds the care those programs connect them to.
The Cost of the Current System
The investments respond to a costly and longstanding gap. About 950 people in Travis County experiencing mental illness and other complex needs cycle repeatedly among emergency rooms, the jail, and the street. That cycle costs an estimated $144,000 per person each year—roughly $137 million in total—according to the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. The human cost for those individuals and their families is far greater.
Those 950 people are the most visible part of a much larger gap. Reaching them, and preventing others from reaching that point, requires services that work before, during and after a crisis: psychiatric care and addiction treatment, somewhere to go when a crisis happens, housing support, and teams that stay connected with patients as they move through the system.
Investments Aim to Break the Cycle Between the Street, ER and Jail
Both sets of investments support No Wrong Door, the community-led program launched this year by the City of Austin with Travis County, Central Health, and 15 other partners. The initiative recognizes mental health, addiction, homelessness, physical health, and justice involvement as connected challenges requiring coordinated solutions—so that wherever a person enters the system, they are connected to the right care.
“For too long, gaps in our behavioral health system have meant that people with the most complex needs cycle between the street, emergency departments, jail, and other public systems without ever receiving the sustained care necessary to stabilize. That is costly for taxpayers, strains our public safety and health care systems, and—most importantly—fails the people we are trying to serve. These investments give us an opportunity to change that,” said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. “I want to thank Central Health for its leadership and for working with us. I also thank Travis County for its shared commitment as partners. I look forward to what’s ahead. Make no mistake, this is what we can achieve when we work together.”
What it Means for Taxpayers
Central Health’s adopted tax rate is 6% above the no-new-revenue rate. For the median Travis County homestead, valued at $372,638, the estimated increase in the Central Health portion of the property tax bill is about $36 for the year. Of Travis County’s 253,171 homesteads, 138,133—more than half—will see an increase of, on average, $22 or less.
A tax rate of 6% above the no-new-revenue rate does not mean an individual homeowner’s Central Health tax bill will increase by 6%. The impact varies based on a property’s taxable value and exemptions.
Check your property taxes and how you would be impacted: https://travis.taxratestexas.com/taxTransparency/propertySearch