HTX-BMW: Impact 8/26/2025

Around 1,000 Houston employees accepted the city’s voluntary early retirement incentive, as part of Mayor John Whitmire’s efforts to cut down the city’s $330 million budget shortfall, earlier this year.

However, some former city employees said they haven’t received their payments yet, despite being told their checks would arrive 30 to 60 days after May 1, according to the mayor’s executive order.

What’s happening: Council member Edward Pollard told Community Impact a few days before the Aug. 20 City Council meeting that he received calls from a former city employee who accepted the retirement incentive, but hasn’t received her pension after the promised 30 to 60 days.

Whitmire said part of the issue was that the Houston Municipal Employees Pension System has “a lack of staffing and a lack of urgency by the board.”

However, Whitmire said 500 retirement payments are expected to roll out this week, with 300 payments sent out last week and 200 to be sent out this week, from Aug. 25 to 31.

Avenue 360 Health & Wellness currently operates seven clinics across the Greater Houston area, and the company’s website states the nonprofit is federally qualified to provide primary care, behavioral health and dental services to medically underserved areas.

About the program: Aligning with the company’s mission to provide patient-centered and community-based care to underrepresented areas, the new mobile clinic will improve health outcomes and address health inequities across Fort Bend and Harris County, according to an Aug. 22 news release from the Avenue 360 Health & Wellness. 

The organization was previously known as Houston Area Community Services and treated people living with AIDS before partnering with Bering Omega, an organization providing hospice care, to form Avenue 360 Health & Wellness. 

The Houston-Galveston Area Council is inviting residents to help shape the future of clean air and climate action through a new survey and a series of public meetings beginning Aug. 27, according to an Aug. 22 news release.

The Regional Clean Air, Healthy Communities Survey will collect input on strategies to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions across transportation, energy, industry, waste and land use, per the release. Community feedback will guide the Regional Clean Air Action Plan, a roadmap for improving air quality and public health through 2050.

What you need to know: According to the release, the plan is funded by a $1 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant.
Residents can take the survey online through Oct. 31, and a series of public meetings will be held across the region.

• Fort Bend County: 5:30-7 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 27 at Missouri City Branch Library, 1530 Texas Parkway, Missouri City
• 13-County Focus (Hybrid): 11 a.m.-noon, Tuesday, Sept. 16 at H-GAC, 3555 Timmons Lane, Houston, or join online

A new affordable housing campus in Harris County serving unhoused youth and young adults exiting the state foster care system has opened near downtown Houston, nearly five years after Harris County commissioners first approved the $41 million project’s construction.

The details: The HAY—Houston Alumni & Youth—Center Foundation, operates a program in partnership with the Harris County Resources for Children and Adults Department that provides resources and services for youth and young adults. One part of the project included the 41,000-square-foot, 50-unit residential facility with a community space, kitchen, small gym, and private study rooms, according to the organization’s website. The second part of the campus includes a 17,000-square-foot commercial building that will provide wraparound services and life skills training rooms for youth and young adults transitioning out of the state’s foster care system.

The impact: Every year, at least 40 foster youth in the Harris County region are at risk of becoming homeless by their 18th birthday, according to the news release.