In May of 2020, all Houston Arts Alliance grantees of that year were informed that their grants, based on projected income, were to be reduced by almost half because of the downturn in economic activity. Artists, some of whom had finished their projects and many of whom had planned their business year around this grant, were caught in financial difficulty. Arts Accountability Houston was formed in late August as a response to the systemic problem of disaster-prone public funding for the majority of public artistic projects as well as small to mid-sized arts organisations in Houston.