The period after 1945 in Algeria was one of belated reform across the political and socio-economic spectrum. One such reform project concerned the integration of poverty relief for so-called Europeans and Muslims. This paper focuses on the administrative machinations the Mayor of Oran deployed to make this integrated charity a reality. In addition to private charities, two French state establishments engaged in poor relief: hospitals and bureau de bienfaisance (charity offices). These charity offices were divided along colonial categories: there were charity offices for Muslims and charity offices for Europeans. One particularity of the Muslim charity office was its funding structure. While the European charity office was funded through fundraising and state subsidies, the Muslim charity office was funded through habous or religious donations. Among the post-1945 reforms, a decree was issued that ordered the fusion of the two charity offices. This order went largely un-enforced, but when Mayors and administrators attempted to follow through on this fusion order, they ran into significant obstacles. While the European charity offices were ready comply with the fusion order, the Muslim charity offices balked at the idea that religious donations would be used to help the European poor. Furthermore, the funds allocated to the joint European-Muslim charity bureau would be split evenly between the two population groups, which the Muslim charity bureau decried as absurd given that there were more poor Algerian Muslims than Europeans. It seems that the Mayor of Oran took extreme measures to attempt to force the merger of the European and Muslim charity offices in his city. The Mayor made the odd decision to nominate a troublesome figure to the presidency of the Muslim charity office. This triggered a flurry of complaints about the new president's alleged corruption and incompetence. This paper’s analysis of local council meeting minutes and investigative reports from 1950s Oran reveals the stakes for this planned charity merger, not only for the Oranais poor but also for the employees of the Muslim charity office and its administrative board seeking to protect it from the merger. Through an analysis of local politics concerning poverty relief, this paper's investigation of the debates surrounding the late colonial charity office merger is revelatory for understanding the planned socio-economic reforms of post-1945 Algeria on the local level.