HTX-HRM: Impact 9/30/2025

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has reduced the number of jail inmates housed outside of the county since June, a Sept. 18 quarterly jail data report shows. However, outsourcing inmates at other facilities was still a top expense in the fiscal year 2025-26 county general fund budget, approved Sept. 24.

What’s changed: HCSO oversees four different facilities in downtown Houston, with two jail facilities outsourced in Louisiana and Mississippi. As of Sept. 9, the Harris County jail was outsourcing about 16%—or 1,388 inmates—of 8,793 total inmates to facilities outside the county or state.

Cost to the county: Outsourcing inmates to jails outside of Harris County’s overcrowded jails is the single most expensive budgeted item taxpayers pay for. The county set aside $48 million in its FY 2025-26 budget for inmate outsourcing, about an 8% drop from the $52 million budgeted in FY 2024-25.
 

In a Sept. 25 news release, Brian Niccol, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, announced the closure of hundreds of Starbucks locations across the country, including seven in the Houston area.

What’s happening?: In the release, Niccol stated Starbucks is closing locations that failed to succeed financially or create an environment “up to company standards.” 

More details​​​​​​: Niccol said Starbucks locations in North America are expected to decline by 1%, and the company will end the fiscal year with nearly 18,300 storefronts.

The news release also stated that approximately 900 current non-retail positions will be eliminated as a part of the company’s plan to “carefully manage costs and stay focused on the key areas that drive long-term growth.”

Check out several new restaurants that have recently opened across the Houston metro, as recently reported by Community Impact.

Smash City Burgers: The new halal smash burger and hot dog eatery concept recently opened in the Galleria area, serving a variety of halal comfort food items, including milkshakes and loaded fries.
Smash City first opened as a food truck location in Baton Rouge, as previously reported by Community Impact.

• Opened Sept. 13
• 6377 Westheimer Road, Houston

Krua Thai & Sushi: What was once occupied by the popular Thai Gourmet restaurant is now a new establishment called Krua Thai & Sushi.
Krua specializes in Thai cuisine, featuring noodle dishes and curries such as kaeng rawang, also known as green curry, and panang curry, also known as red curry. Customers can also order pineapple fried rice as well as kao soi, a curry noodle soup with chicken.

• Opened Aug. 28
• 6324 Richmond Ave., Houston

Base Power, an energy company founded in 2023 and headquartered in Austin, officially launched in Houston on Sept. 24, according to a news release. 

Community Impact previously reported that the energy company originally opened in the Cy-Fair, Spring, Cinco Ranch and Mission Bend communities following its launch in Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth.

What you need to know: Co-owned by Zach Dell, Base Power is the only Texas energy provider that comes with a home backup power, according to the news release. The energy company offers an all-in-one energy plan that includes an entire home backup battery. When the grid goes down, the battery automatically powers the home, according to the release. 

Quote of note: “Houston has long been the energy capital of Texas, yet it has also endured some of the nation’s most painful lessons about unreliable power,” dell Said.