There simply aren't enough beds for all those who will be displaced, and until there are, advocates for the unhoused say the sweeps are a pointless exercise in cruelty. San Antonio needs more housing and needs it now, but the type of housing also matters when it comes to ending homelessness.
San Antonio's shelter system is overflowing. There's a wait list of 3,100 households seeking shelter and permanent supportive housing, or PSH, the term used to describe rental-assisted units for people trying to break the cycle of homelessness.
Haven for Hope, the city's largest shelter, is at capacity and has been for almost two years. In part, that's because the number of families utilizing the shelter system is up 28% since the expiration of the federal Eviction Moratorium and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
"We are definitely the most over-extended we have ever been," said Katie Wilson, executive director of Close to Home — formerly South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless — which oversees the shelter waitlist.
In January, Close to Home counted more than 3,155 people experiencing homelessness in San Antonio on a single night. Of those, 874 were living on the street and 566 were counted in the Haven for Hope courtyard.
Haven for Hope serves 85% of San Antonio's homeless population. People who struggle with addiction may sleep on mats on the floor of the facility's courtyard, but they must be sober to enter the rest of the campus, which includes rooms with beds.
As an alternative approach, the Housing First model is designed to divert the homeless population away from temporary shelters in favor of permanent supportive housing. Its emphasis is on housing people as quickly as possible. That entails removing barriers to entry that block many from accessing the shelter system, including the "cold-turkey" sobriety requirement.
"If you're living on the street, it is very difficult to demonstrate sobriety within such a vulnerable framework," said Nikisha Baker, president and CEO of SAMMinistries, which operates several Housing First programs.
Once housed, residents of Housing First programs have access to treatment for other needs including addiction and mental illness.
The Housing First approach can save $15,772 annually in emergency services utilized per housed person, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH). It can also cost up to $23,000 less annually per individual than a shelter program.
Such PSH programs also demonstrate a 96-98% success rate of residents remaining housing-stable after one year, according to NEAH data.
NIMBY barriers
So what's stopping San Antonio from constructing more Housing First permanent supportive housing?
Funding limitations are an obvious impediment, but there are other roadblocks, among them NIMBY-ism, or the "not in my backyard" phenomenon.
NIMBY-ism creates a Catch-22 in addressing homelessness, according to advocates. Many residents want to clean up "eyesore" encampments, but at the same time, they don't want housing for the formerly unsheltered in their neighborhoods either.
Many who object to such housing worry it will be unsightly, lead to loitering or an increase in crime. That's simply not the case, advocates argue.
"Usually, if there's a PSH facility in your neighborhood, you would have no idea, because it just looks like any other apartment complex," said Annie Erickson, senior director of veteran and community-based services for Endeavors, a Texas-wide organization with three permanent supportive housing programs in San Antonio.
To that end, the City of San Antonio is working to roll out a campaign to educate community members that fears about PSH developments are largely unfounded.
Towne Twin Village, one such permanent supportive housing community, serves chronically homeless adults 50 and older. Once completed in late 2024, the 17.4-acre complex at the former site of the East Side's Towne Twin Drive-In will have 204 fully furnished units, including a mix of tiny homes, efficiency apartments and RVs.
Towne Twin residents, who have started moving in as units became available, pay reduced rent capped at 40% of their income.
San Antonio currently has 600 PSH units citywide that are non-population-specific. However, the city has identified a need for 1,000 additional units over the next five years.
Luckily, more PSH programs are on the way. An additional 386 units are expected to become available in the next couple of years. SAMMinistries' 200-unit permanent supportive housing facility is slated to break ground next fall.
However, those units won't exist when the next encampment sweeps occur, advocates warn.
"It's no secret that encampment abatements alone will not address homelessness," said Close to Home's Wilson. "They are largely a response to the community."
Housing first
In cities such as Portland, Oregon, street homelessness is part of the city's broader affordable housing crisis. Encampments have also become ubiquitous in downtown Austin, where the cost of living is considerably higher than San Antonio's.
In contrast, Houston has reduced homelessness by 60% since 2011 and 17% in the past year alone.
"A pillar of the Houston approach is housing first," Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof observed last month in a New York Times opinion piece praising the city's success in dealing with chronic homelessness.
San Antonio is investing more in addressing the issue than ever before. San Antonio's 2024 budget earmarks $42 million for affordable housing, which is intended to provide what's termed a "front-door" solution to homelessness.
Ideally, such preventative measures work in tandem with solutions like PSH, which help people once they become homeless.
Federal funding is also increasing. This year, Close To Home landed $17 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development — the nonprofit's largest-ever federal grant. Some of those funds are reserved for PSH. The largest increase will go to rapid rehousing to serve those fleeing domestic violence, which San Antonio leaders have called a citywide epidemic.
Though there's cause for hope, some worry it's not coming fast enough as the city prepares to dismantle encampments.
"The problem is that we are playing catch up," Endeavors' Erickson said.
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