Updated July 2026

Local bus service in Austin and Travis County is free for anyone experiencing homelessness with a reloadable fare card from Capital Metro. These plastic cards provide no-cost rides to people who’ve engaged in some way with our community’s Homelessness Response System (HRS).

Learn more about the program and find a fact sheet on CapMetro’s website.

The only requirement to receive a pass is that the rider have an active profile in the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), the database service providers in our community use to track people’s needs and coordinate support. Most people who interact with a homeless service provider will have one of these profiles. An HMIS profile is created, for example, when someone completes a housing assessment, stays at a shelter, or gets aid from a street outreach team. (People who are currently housed are also eligible for the fare cards as long as they’re still supported by a provider connected to the HRS, such as through rental assistance or ongoing case management.)

Cards are loaded with a year’s worth of fares, at no expense to providers or riders. Providers can continuously renew passes for a year at a time as long as the rider’s HMIS profile is still active.

The reloadable fare cards replace paper passes with magnetic strips that were common among Austin’s unhoused population. Starting in June 2026, CapMetro no longer distributes or accepts these passes.

There are four walk-in locations where providers issue bus passes. Those locations are:

• American GI Forum | 2700 S I-35 FR, Suite 100 | Mon – Fri, 9 AM – 1 PM
• Sunrise Navigation Center | 4430 Menchaca Rd | Mon – Fri, 9 AM – 1 PM
• The Charlie Center | 12675 Research Blvd | Wed & Thurs, 10 AM – 1 PM
• Trinity Center | 304 E 7th St | Tues – Fri, 9:30 AM – 1 PM

Additional providers are trained to issue passes to people participating in their programs. If you’re already working with an organization that’s not on the list above, it’s worth asking if they can help secure a reloadable fare card. Current fare card providers can email DiscountFarePrograms@capmetro.org with questions.

Background

In response to advocacy from unhoused people and organizations supporting them, like Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center and the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA), CapMetro’s Board of Directors approved the program, and staff built this innovative solution in collaboration with folks who pushed for it.

The service provides permanent access to a critical lifeline for unhoused people. Over the course of a two-month pilot program, 500 riders logged nearly 13,800 trips on their fare cards. At the conclusion of the pilot, a large majority of focus group participants reported using their card every day, and all reported using theirs to meet daily needs.

“‘This is the key to my existence really,’” Barry Jones said of paper bus passes at a rally last year, as reported by Community Impact. “‘I get a very small amount of money, and it doesn’t go far, but I buy the bus pass first because I got to have it.’”