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San Antonio continues to see an increase in the number of people who are unhoused. Almost half of unhoused individuals are experiencing homelessness for the first time in their lives.
The latest Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, conducted each year by Close to Home, found that the number of unhoused individuals rose 7.5% from 3,372 in 2024 to 3,625 in 2025.
The PIT Count is a one-night snapshot of homelessness in Bexar County. It is conducted during the last 10 days of January when the largest number of unhoused individuals are inside shelters because of cold weather. That is the time during which the surveyors believe they can get the most accurate count possible.
Terri Behling, the communications director at Haven for Hope, said the organization is preparing to address the rising needs of the unhoused across Bexar County but it faces a financial shortfall of $10 million next year because it has lost COVID-19 era federal funding.
“As those are sunsetting," Behling explained, "we’re just going to find some new funding sources and seek additional city, state and federal funding,”
The local increase in homelessness comes as federal anti-homelessness policies are taking a harsh turn.
In July, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.”
It marked a significant shift in federal homelessness policy. It redirected resources and legal priorities toward enforcement and institutionalization rather than the widely used “housing first” approach.
Trump also ordered cities to adopt strict enforcement of bans on public camping or else the cities could lose federal funding.
Homeless advocates like Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center, said Trump’s order is both inhumane and likely unconstitutional.
“What he starts in DC he’s going to expand to the rest of the country, so this needs to be a warning to cities across the country to focus on getting people into housing and rejecting this idea that we can arrest or punish our way out of homelessness," Rabinowitz said.
He added that criminalizing homelessness may lead to an even larger unhoused population next year. He said what is needed is affordable housing, high wages, and access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse disorders.
