District 8 City Councilman and mayoral candidate Manny Pelaez is facing fire over a social media post accusing his district’s unhoused population of being drug addicts.
The latest controversy for Pelaez set in after he posted an Instagram video Saturday where he boasted about banners he recently ordered hung in his district that state, “It’s okay to say no to panhandling; please give to local charities.”
“You hand that money out the window, you’re almost guaranteed that eventually that money ends up in the pocket of a drug dealer,” Pelaez declared in the clip.
The councilman’s dragging of his North Side district’s unhoused population didn’t sit well with homeless advocates and others who commented on the post. Some fired back that Pelaez’s banners do nothing more than alienate an already vulnerable population.
“It’s so nice seeing people tank their campaigns by proving they hate poor people,” Instagram user juiiice_ commented.
Meanwhile, local artist Cassidy Fritts wrote that Pelaez should educate himself better on the underlying causes of homelessness, which include more than substance abuse.
“I sincerely hope that if your role was ever reversed and you were in the position of these unhoused folks, that others would be willing to ignore these banners and help you,” Fritts commented on Pelaez’s video.
Pelaez’s office told the Current via text message the the three anti-panhandling banners now rotating across the district have been well received. The banners were paid for with “savings from previous fiscal years,” his staff added.
The office didn’t directly respond to online criticism about Peleaz’s Instagram video, however.
“These banners are an extension of a pilot program we started to help deter aggressive panhandling in the district and in response to community concerns,” Pelaez said in a statement shared by his office.
The banners are currently located at the intersections of Vance Jackson and Huebner roads, Wurzbach and Fredericksburg roads, and Chase Hill Boulevardd and Loop 1604.
Instead of direct donations to individuals, Pelaez recommended giving money to local nonprofits including Haven for Hope, Goodwill, the Salvation Army and the San Antonio Battered Women’s Shelter.
Pelaez’s mother, Marta Pelaez, serves as president and CEO of San Antonio Family Violence Prevention, which runs shelters for abused women.
Pelaez’s minute-long video didn’t provide any solutions to San Antonio’s housing crisis, which critics argue has been exacerbated by development-related displacement of low-income downtown residents.
It’s also not the first time the councilman’s remarks about unhoused people have attracted negative attention.
Pelaez grabbed headlines in May when he used money from District 8’s Neighborhood Access Mobility Program to pay for street signs discouraging residents from giving spare change to panhandlers.
“The problem is becoming more and more acute in my side of town,” Pelaez told the San Antonio Report at the time.
Controversy also swirled after a March 2023 town hall meeting where Pelaez suggested that San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus use department resources to arrest panhandlers in the councilman’s largely affluent district.
“A lot of folks in this room tell me ‘Councilman, I call in the panhandlers to SAPD all the time, and then I drive off, and I know they never responded, and they’re not arrested,'” Pelaez remarked at the time.
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This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2025.
