Nearly two months after Texas Southern University halted a long-standing state-funded payment to the Acres Home Chamber for Business and Economic Development, chamber leaders say they are still operating in limbo.
The chamber has relied on a $44,857 annual allocation from the State of Texas through TSU for more than two decades.
What happened?
In December 2025, TSU abruptly stopped funding in the backdrop of an audit ordered by the state into the university. The investigation was ordered by Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick when a state audit found evidence of poor bookkeeping and financial mismanagement at the university.
As of February, the funding has not been restored.
“We’re still alive. We got the doors open. We’re still working hard,” Warren Fitzgerald Muhammad, the chamber’s CEO and board chairman, told the Defender. “But it’s going to have some effect.”
Muhammad confirmed that the chamber has not secured an alternative source to replace the shortfall.
Without the funds, the chamber continues to lean on event rentals, memberships, and fundraising to keep operating.
Muhammad said the organization is still booking its event space and planning fundraisers, but acknowledged the loss will eventually affect staffing and programming.
“Eventually, it’s going to have some effect staff-wise and our ability to do the programs that we looked forward to doing,” he said.
Correspondence between the chamber and TSU
In response to the funding halt, Muhammad reached out directly to state leaders and TSU officials.
The chamber forwarded a string of correspondence with TSU administrators to the Defender, where Muhammad asked for assistance.
“We have been informed that the University [TSU] will not issue the check in the amount of $44857.00 to us as has been done annually in the past,” Muhammad wrote. “We look forward to any assistance available.”
In earlier exchanges with TSU, university officials questioned the statutory basis for the payment.
James White, TSU’s vice president of government affairs and civic engagement, wrote that he did not see the Acres Home Chamber explicitly named in the legislation and asked for line-item documentation from the state budget.
“I see your position, but I must read the plain reading of the legislation,” White wrote in a November email. “I do not even see the name Acres Homes Chamber of Commerce.”
Muhammad responded that the chamber had received the pass-through funding “for over a decade” and described it as essential to the organization’s operations.
Despite the documentation and appeals, Muhammad said he is waiting for a formal response restoring the funding.
What’s next for the chamber?
According to Sheba Roy, who was recently elevated to executive director at the chamber and now manages day-to-day operations, she has not heard anything further from either the state or the university.
To make up for the chamber’s funding shortfall, Roy is exploring new avenues, such as a membership drive.
She said at least six or seven new members have joined recently. Business memberships cost $250, and the chamber is promoting increased marketing visibility as an incentive.
“I’m looking at how to raise basically $3,000 a month,” she said,
Still, the math remains difficult.
When asked whether a replacement funding source has been identified, Roy said, “Not yet.”
For now, leaders say the focus is on keeping services going as long as possible.
“We’re not dead on arrival yet,” Muhammad said. “We’re fighters. We’re not giving up.”
The Houston Defender has again reached out to TSU for comment on the chamber’s funding status.
