Home › Guides › Houston 311 Service Requests

Houston 311 Service Requests

Residents · Updated July 2026

Houston 311 is the front door to almost every non-emergency city service. It is where residents report a pothole, a missed trash pickup, a broken streetlight, a water leak in the street, or a dead animal, and where you ask general questions about how the city works. Knowing how to file a clean report, and how to follow it, is the difference between a problem that gets fixed and one that sits.

What you can report to 311

The service covers a wide list of everyday issues. The common ones include street and drainage problems such as potholes, flooding, and clogged storm drains; solid waste issues such as a missed garbage or recycling pickup and heavy trash questions; water and sewer problems in the public right of way; traffic signals and street signs; streetlight outages; dead animal pickup; and neighborhood nuisance and code concerns. If you are not sure whether the city handles something, 311 can route you or tell you which office does.

How to file a report

You have three ways in, and all of them create the same tracked request.

• Phone. Dial 311 or 713-837-0311 and describe the issue to an agent. This is the best route when the situation is unusual or you want a person to confirm the category.
• App. The Houston 311 app lets you attach a photo and a pin location, which helps crews find the exact spot. Good for potholes, illegal dumping, and streetlight outages.
• Web. The online portal on the city site walks you through categories and lets you submit and track without a phone call.

Whichever route you pick, give a precise location. A cross street, a block number, or a dropped pin turns a vague report into one a crew can act on. Add a short, factual description and a photo when the tool allows it.

Track your request to close

After you submit, the system returns a service request number. Write it down. With that number you can check whether the case is open, assigned, or closed, and you can reopen a conversation if the work does not happen. Response times depend on the type of issue and the crew workload, so a streetlight and a major drainage repair will not move on the same clock. If a case is marked closed but the problem is still there, file again and reference the earlier number so the city can connect the two.

When to skip 311 and call someone else

311 is for non-emergencies. Call 911 for any crime in progress, fire, or medical emergency. For a suspected gas leak, leave the area first, then call your natural gas provider and 911. Power outages go to your electric utility, not the city. Water or sewer problems inside your own home are yours or a plumber's to handle, while a leak in the street or a main is a city matter that 311 will route.

For the current categories, hours, and the mobile app, use the official Houston 311 Help and Information page. It is the authoritative source and the place to file when you are ready.

Mistakes that slow a request down

A few habits keep reports from being resolved on the first pass. The biggest is a vague location. "Near the park" gives a crew nothing to work with, while a block number, a cross street, or a dropped pin sends them to the right spot. The second is choosing the wrong category, which routes the request to a department that cannot act on it; if you are unsure, describe the issue to a phone agent and let them file it correctly. The third is discarding the service request number, which is your only handle for checking status or reopening a case. The fourth is using 311 for something that belongs elsewhere, such as a downed power line for your electric utility or a life-safety emergency for 911. Reports that are specific, correctly categorized, and tracked are the ones that close.

Reporting on behalf of your street

Some problems affect a whole block, such as a broken streetlight run, repeated illegal dumping, or a drainage ditch that floods every storm. You do not need to be the property owner to report these. A clear description of the pattern, with the dates you have seen it happen, gives the city more to act on than a single one-off note. When several neighbors each file, reference the same location so the reports line up rather than reading as unrelated cases.

Frequently asked questions