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San Antonio Metro Health’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program could see a 36% budget cut in fiscal year 2027 because of federal cuts under the Trump Administration, as well as reductions in the city’s budget.
Overall, the city’s Metropolitan Health District is facing a 10% budget reduction, or $8 million. The department will have to eliminate 80 positions if the shortfall isn’t made up by September 2026, according to Metro Health director Claude Jacob, who presented to the city council’s Community Health Meeting on Tuesday.
“We know that this funding stream is on borrowed time,” Jacob said.
President of Villa Coronado Neighborhood Association Olga Martinez and Erin Gallegos plant a lemon tree in the Villa Coronado Park community orchard in 2023. Credit: Brenda Bazán / San Antonio Report
Since 2013, the Healthy Neighborhoods program has built community gardens, promoted healthy eating, physical exercise and health education in 12 neighborhoods with the poorest health outcomes in the city. The program operates the Double-Up Food Bucks and Healthy Corner Stores initiative, which offer fresh fruits and vegetables at over 50 corner stores and incentives to purchase fresh food.
Healthy Neighborhoods also opened Villa Coronado, a community resource center, food pantry and gathering space on the South Side in 2023.
Healthy Neighborhoods is funded through the city’s general fund, Medicaid 1115 waiver program, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, grants through the U.S. Department of Agriculture and COVID-19 federal relief dollars.
The $2.1 million program could see 36% of its budget slashed in fiscal year 2027, which would lead to a 30% reduction in staff. This would render half of the 12 neighborhoods unable to be served and hundreds of health classes axed.
“What’s not listed here is the institutional knowledge that will be lost,” said Morjoriee White, assistant director of the department’s Community Health and Safety Division. “Many of these individuals have over a decade doing this work in the communities.”
San Antonio’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program is expecting steep cuts in fiscal year 2027. The department presented to San Antonio City Council’s Community Health committee on Dec. 2, 2025. Credit: San Antonio Metropolitan Health District
Asked which portions of the Healthy Neighborhoods program would be prioritized amid cuts, Jacob said that Metro Health officials were still mapping that out.
In October, Jacob warned that Metro Health’s Diabetes Prevention and Control Program will lose 72% of its funding amid the cuts.
“Everyone is really feeling the strain in the national disinvestment of public health,” White said. “We know what happens when there’s a disinvestment in public health, the burden often shifts to the individual as well as health care systems.”
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