Holistic Assistance Response Teams (HART) is a new Harris County program created to dispatch 911 directly and other calls to interdisciplinary unarmed, first responder teams, trained in behavioral health and on‐scene medical assistance. The HART program aims to improve community health and safety by quickly providing the appropriate response to residents experiencing homelessness, behavioral health issues, or non-emergency health or social welfare concerns, and to reduce unnecessary law enforcement or hospital-based interventions for non-emergent 911 calls.

The HART Program launched on March 21, 2022, and now has two teams that provide full geographic coverage in the Cypress Station area. HART teams operate 7 days per week with shift coverage from 7 am to 10 pm. In the first few months, HART diverted 486 calls from law enforcement and connected over 300 vulnerable residents in the community to appropriate services.