Tarrant County awards this nonprofit $2.3M contract to replace human services
Tarrant County commissioners on Tuesday approved a $2.3 million contract with a Fort Worth-based nonprofit to handle the temporary financial assistance program.
In August, county commissioners eliminated the Human Services Department with the intention of contracting an outside agency to provide the services at a lower cost. On Tuesday, the commissioners voted unanimously to select Center For Transforming Lives as the partner to provide those services.
Taxpayers will be saving more than $2 million with the switch, but more aid will be going out with the change.
Center For Transforming Lives helps about 2,900 individuals annually and provides roughly $466,000 in rental assistance each year, according to the nonprofit. Rand Otten, acting director of Human Services, said in one month the county’s department helped about 30 to 40 individuals pay rent in emergencies and about 100 people who needed help paying for utilities.
According to the county staff report, Center for Transforming Lives proposes to assist approximately 2,200 households from Nov. 1 through Sept. 30, 2026.
Otten said there have not been any gaps in services during the transitional period. Human Services clients will be sent a letter notifying them of the switch.
The nonprofit organization provides early childhood education, housing services, economic mobility and clinical counseling programs. However, Center For Transforming Lives will only be providing Tarrant County clients with utility and rental assistance, county budget director Helen Giese said.
Giese said the county previously was phasing out the hygiene product voucher program that Human Services had provided. Now, qualified clients will receive an Amazon gift card to buy hygiene products.
The $2.3 million contract with Center For Transforming Lives will begin on Nov. 1. Administrative costs will total $300,000, with the remaining $2 million going toward services.
When Tarrant County was in charge of the emergency financial aid, Giese said the administrative fee was much higher and the budget wasn’t being maximized to help residents in need. With a $4.5 million budget, Human Services was only giving out about $1.5 million to the community, Giese said.
Giese said the county will have “quite a bit” of oversight for the services provided by Center for Transforming Lives.
“I don’t have any concerns,” Giese said, “because they are already doing more than what we were doing with [the clients] so I’m hoping that we’ll be able to show that to the court within the first three months.”