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Bexar County recorded the highest number of unhoused individuals in the last decade in Close to Home’s most recent January Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, though the county’s per capita homelessness rate remained stable over that same period.
The January 2025 PIT Count recorded 3,372 people — 217 more than the 3,155 counted last year, which was the decade’s previous high mark.
San Antonio’s Department of Human Services Director Melody Woosley briefed the San Antonio City Council on the PIT Count and on the city’s overall homelessness services operations in Wednesday’s inaugural annual homelessness Report.
The per capita rate of homelessness in Bexar County has risen just 0.4% since 2014, compared to 10.7% nationally, 15.3% in Travis County, and a drop of 35% in the Harris County area.
While the overall homelessness rate has remained steady, the percentage of unsheltered homelessness has been nearly cut in half since 2020.
Councilmembers’ responses to the data were mixed.
District 10 Councilmember Marc Whyte said the city's officials need to completely rethink how they addressed homelessness: “I mean, we got to be clear, this, what we've been doing is not working. It's not.”
Whyte said he didn’t think residents wanted tens of millions of dollars — $48 million in direct and indirect funding in fiscal year 2024 — to go toward homelessness services that aren’t working when they have other priorities.
The largest piece of that expense is the $16.5 million spent on connecting unsheltered individuals to housing.
Whyte pointed to how federal COVID-19-era funding that has supported some of the city’s low barrier shelter beds — 185 of them at SAMM — will soon run out, leaving the city to either lose them or find another way to fund them.
Whyte suggested that if the city’s homelessness policies weren’t working, the money should be allocated elsewhere.
District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, also criticized the city’s direction, but said the problem needed more attention, not less.
“It makes sense that we’ll need to spend money on responding to the crisis of homelessness that exists while we're trying to prevent more people from becoming homeless,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “But as we continue to experience a deficit, I think what many of us are saying today is that we need the data and discussions necessary to guide our investment strategically, and if homelessness continues to be number one or number two [priority] for our constituents, then I think it's more important that we act like it.”
Several council members spoke about the data they felt would help them better serve unhoused residents, and the barriers between them and that data.
District 1 Councilmember Sukh Kaur said city or council staff should have access to Haven for Hope's Homelessness Management Information System (HMIS) so that they can use the data in the HMIS about specific unhoused individuals to help them find services.
“Somebody at the city ... should be able to run reports on this without having to go through Haven for Hope,” Kaur said. “I just think that's ridiculous — we should be able to look at the people in our city that are receiving services.”
The conversation turned heated when District 9 Councilmember and mayoral candidate John Courage said that, at least for some individuals, being homeless was their choice.
“It’s very easy. You don’t have to do anything. You just sleep out on the streets,” Courage said. “You go talk to the people who are out there. It’s easier for them to live the way they’re living than to get the help they need. It’s a matter of being willing to accept help, to help yourself.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he would call for a recess of the council session if other councilmembers continued to interrupt Courage.
Following the tense exchange, District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo said the council needs to keep in mind the proactive things they can do to prevent homelessness in the first place as they head into a new round of budget conversations in May.
“We must continue to infuse money into the Neighborhood and Housing Services Department to ensure that those who have a home get to remain in that home through the minor-major home rehab program, Operation Rebuild, as well as investing in rental utility assistance,” she said.
The upcoming municipal elections and resident budget surveys will be guides for how the city council will address homelessness and affordable housing in next year’s budget.
