June 29, 2022

Congressman Castro Secures $15.6 Million for San Antonio Community Projects in Fiscal Year 2023 Federal Appropriations Bills

SAN ANTONIO – Today, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) announced that he secured $15,640,539 in federal funding for community projects in San Antonio in Fiscal Year 2023 federal appropriations bills. If passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed into law, the funding will directly support programs and services for constituents in San Antonio that strengthen affordable housing, education, health care, domestic violence prevention, public transportation, small business growth, and diverse public contracting.

“As San Antonio rebuilds from the pandemic and looks ahead to a brighter future, federal community project funding can play a critical role in our growth,” said Congressman Castro. “Earlier this year, I was proud to bring more than $7.2 million in FY2022 community project funding back to San Antonio. During this year’s appropriations cycle, I want to bring even more federal funding back home. If funding for these new projects is signed into law, it will invest in progress across our city — from expanding high-quality health care at CentroMed to helping minority-owned businesses win more government contracts. Thank you to all the community groups that worked with my office to submit these important requests.”

The community projects requests submitted by Congressman Castro and included in Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bills include:

Education

St. Mary’s University
Construction and Equipment for the Innovation Center at St. Mary's University.
This funding will support the construction of a new Innovation Center and help St. Mary’s University equip seven laboratories related to advanced manufacturing including Robotics and Smart Manufacturing; Measurement and Instrumentation; Human Factors; Additive Manufacturing and Reverse Engineering; Data Science and Machine Learning; Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Supply Chain; and an Engineering Design Studio.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $5,561,000

University of Texas School of Public Health San Antonio
Renovation of the UT Health San Antonio and UTSA shared school for the University of Texas School of Public Health at San Antonio
This funding will support the renovation of an existing building for a new shared school between UT Health San Antonio and University of Texas San Antonio that will focus on expanding educational outreach and public health access to communities most in need.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,000,000

Housing

Our Casas Resident Council, Inc.
The High Impact Housing Project (HIPP)
This funding will support efforts to repair the homes of low-income homeowners on the Westside of San Antonio. The rehabilitated homes will be renovated to meet building codes and address safety issues among other concerns to provide better living conditions for the homeowners.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,057,257

City of San Antonio Westside Development Corporation DBA Prosper West
Casa Bella Project
This funding would support a proposal to acquire Westside homes that are chronically vacant, abandoned, or otherwise in a dilapidated condition, and rehabilitate them to modern standards of construction quality and sustainability while also improving their aesthetic contribution to the neighborhood. After a home has been rehabbed, Casa Bella will sell it to a household that earns 80% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI), thus presenting an opportunity for homeownership that would normally be out of reach for many on the Westside.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,000,000

Health Care & Community Well-Being

El Centro del Barrio dba CentroMed
FQHC Renovation: CentroMed South Park Medical Clinic
This funding will support renovation costs for the CentroMed South Park Medical Clinic, part of ongoing efforts to increase and enhance access to comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary care services and improve health-related outcomes for underserved, vulnerable populations.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,000,000

University of Texas Health Science Center at SA
Center for Innovative Drug Discovery in Hepatic Steatosis (CIDD-HS)
This funding will support a project to provide laboratory equipment and instrumentation for the CIDD-HS to discover novel treatments for hepatic steatosis. By focusing on new treatments for hepatic steatosis, the CIDD-HS will also help prevent liver failure and liver cancer that arise from hepatic steatosis.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,000,000

University of Texas San Antonio
Evaluation and Research Coordinating Center (ERCC) for the Multi-assistance Center (MAC) at Morgan’s Wonderland
This funding will help seed the ERCC, an evaluation and research center led by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), at the MAC at Morgan’s Wonderland. The ERCC will collaboratively establish a comprehensive research program to provide timely data and improve patient outcomes for people living with disabilities and their caregivers in the San Antonio area.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $492,370

Guardian House
Guardian House – Triple P Positive Parenting Program Expansion
This funding will support the the Triple P Positive Parenting Program, an evidence-based, scalable, and adaptable parenting and family support system. Currently, this program is provided at no cost to the San Antonio community by the City of San Antonio Metro Health and its community partners as part of Metro Health’s ongoing goal of preventing child abuse and breaking generational cycles of family violence.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $483,963

CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health Care Corporation Center for Miracles
Support Center for Miracles capacity to care for victims of child abuse and neglect.
This funding will support the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s Center for Miracles in their work to provide training and education to members of the South Texas community on identifying and handling possible child abuse cases. This funding will help train future counselors, social workers, medical staff and first responders to identify, assess, diagnose, and treat child abuse and neglect.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $472,699

Texas A&M University San Antonio
The Autism Mobile Assessment Bus and Learning Environment (AMABLE)
This funding will support AMABLE, a mobile unit serving Edgewood ISD and other partner schools in South San Antonio. The mobile unit will assess and develop recommendations for school-based autism services and educational supports; provide training for teachers and parents; and raise awareness of autism-related issues. The AMABLE motorcoach will be a mobile assessment clinic that provides autism assessment services, parent training, community support services, and Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) training to the community.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $300,000

Small Business & Wealth Creation

LiftFund Inc.
SA West Small Business Support Program
This funding will provide LiftFund with capital and administrative support to make grants directly to small businesses to revitalize their business building infrastructure and for LiftFund to identify structures to be purchased for curating small business on the Westside of San Antonio.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,000,000

University of Texas San Antonio
HUB Government Contracting Academy
This funding will support the HUB Government Contracting Academy, which offers business development, work history reviews and guidance, on-going and consistent advising, and access to capital education and collaboration as solutions for HUBs to successfully win and complete government contracts.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $576,000

Transportation

San Antonio International Airport
Electric Shuttle Bus (eBus) Program at the Airport
This funding will allow for the purchase of three electronic passenger buses (eBus), associated chargers, and design and installation of chargers at the San Antonio International Airport’s Consolidated Rental Car Facility (CONRAC).
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $1,500,000

Arts & Culture

Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
Guadalupe Latino Bookstore Education Outreach and Literacy Program
This funding will support the Guadalupe Latino Bookstore, a valuable new resource in the San Antonio community which provides space and new opportunities to offer expanded, expert-designed, culturally relevant, and locally situated bilingual programs to underscore literacy as a social practice, and to support the educational advancement of local children and other Texas constituents.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $102,250

Centro Cultural Aztlan, Inc.
Chicano Arts Curriculum for K-12 Students
This funding will support Centro Cultural Aztlan’s work with artists, educators, historians, and cultural experts to develop a series of lesson plans with audio-visual resources and age-appropriate arts activities to engage K-12 students in learning about Chicano art, culture, and history.
Funding approved by the House Appropriations Committee: $95,000