Homeless spike strains S.A. shelter
Haven for Hope sees crowds continuing into fall and winter
SAN ANTONIO — A record number of homeless families, children and single women have filled Haven for Hope this summer, leaving hundreds sleeping on mats on the floor at the downtown campus.
Kim Jefferies, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, said it has more than 1,600 people staying at the 12-year-old facility, which was built to shelter 1,450.
“The most concerning thing for us is the influx of families,” Jefferies said. “It’s really the influx of single women and families we’re seeing right now, above and beyond the normal cadence that happens throughout the year.”
Since she became the chief executive in November, she says the number of children at Haven has more than doubled, from fewer than 150 to 305. About 120 children sleep on floors with their families, and nearly 200 single women stay overnight in the campus resources center, separated for their safety.
While the situation keeps them safe from the streets, it does not provide the quality of living Haven strives for, Jefferies said. Its 102 family dorms are full, and Haven has 60 families sleeping on floors of its chapel, classrooms and other common areas.
Under its overflow plan, the facility can hold up to 1,800 people.
“You can imagine trying to have children sleeping in a room with lots of other children on the floor, and families. It’s not an ideal space for that,” Jefferies said. “And then they’re disrupted during the day because they don’t have a room to come back to … a place to store their belongings.”
Jefferies revealed the situation last week as Bexar County commissioners approved $3.9 million in housing funds for various projects. It included $50,000 to support the local Homeless Management Information System, a federally required database that tracks individuals through 50 shelters and nonprofits that provide assistance.
Haven is the system’s lead agency.
“We’re dealing with a capacity issue,” Jefferies told commissioners. “It’s important to know that we’re experiencing some unprecedented numbers.”
County Judge Nelson Wolff said homelessness is “one of the most difficult issues we’re facing,” with more people sleeping in tents or on sidewalks by vacant storefronts downtown. That’s despite millions of dollars the county has allocated for housing, rental assistance and other aid.
Jefferies said she expects the overflow at Haven to continue at least through the fall and winter. The facility will keep accepting families, providing access on the campus to meals, showers and essential services to help them attain financial stability.
“We’re the only shelter in this community that’s committed to never turning a family away,” she said.
One woman who recently stayed at the campus for nearly four months said she and other single women had difficulty sleeping on the floor of the resource center, where she said about 100 women shared two sinks and four bathroom stalls.
“Many of the women cry themselves to sleep each evening. The sound is heartbreaking,” said the woman, who is no longer at the shelter and did not want her name published.
Jefferies attributed the spike to inflation and the expiration of eviction moratoriums earlier in the year. She’s hopeful the city and county will consider allocations in their budgets for rental, utility and mortgage assistance, to help keep families in their homes. She wants to see more federal aid for shelters such as Haven “that may need to increase their capacity to meet the demand — not of just today, but the future.”
Another possible solution that’s come up in weekly “homeless huddle calls” with the city, county and other nonprofits, could come from the faithbased community, Jefferies said. Churches with underutilized facilities “could be a part of a solution when there’s a temporary influx like this, especially of children and families.”
While there’s not a “significantly great estimate” of the number of Bexar County residents who are homeless, some have placed that number at about 8,000 — a figure that Jefferies says “makes sense.” In addition to unsheltered homeless people, Haven serves about 7,000 who stay for about four months in an average year.
Jefferies, a lifelong San Antonian, said she’s been “shocked and heartbroken many times” by the magnitude of homelessness and is trying to keep it a top priority.
“The services that Haven and our homeless response system provide to this community are beyond what anybody really knows,” she said.