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The threat of homelessness is shockingly close for many in the San Antonio area this holiday season.
According to U.S. Census figures, 14% of Bexar County residents live in poverty to begin with. And one of out of three residents here earn just above the federal poverty level, but not enough to afford basic expenses in the county.
In short, for many local households, a sudden job loss, or missing just one paycheck could lead to homelessness.
The issue of homelessness is especially poignant during the holiday season since many of us have a safe, warm home where we can celebrate with family and friends.
While it's impossible to know exactly how many people are homeless in the Alamo City area, a one-night census count conducted this year by the nonprofit Close to Home, found more than 3,600 experiencing homelessness.
David Rowe, the homeless outreach manager for the city's homeless services and strategy department, said there are many causes of homelessness, including poverty, mental health and substance abuse issues, and other traumas.
However, the main cause is something else.
"Homelessness is a housing affordability issue," he said. "Housing prices, rents are increasing. Wages are not keeping up with that. The cost of living is going up, and this is why people sort of fall into homelessness."
Rowe said if more is not done to increase affordable local housing, those numbers will likely continue to go up.
The city's department tasked with addressing homelessness is coming at it on a number of fronts, including working with community partners, big and small, like Haven for Hope, SAMMinistries, San Antonio police, Centro San Antonio downtown, housing organizations, and churches.
Pastor Joe Barber, at the 104-year-old St. Luke's Missionary Baptist Church on West Poplar, is glad to see city departments working with churches to connect the homeless to services.
"The church over generations has been the place in our community to go to for services, for resources," he said. "It allows us to be able to provide these resources in the church because the first place people are going to is the church. Rather than having them to try and find some place, they can go to a place that has been there for years."
Barber said he often sees more people approach the church during the holidays to seek help.
Besides churches and the other organizations previously mentioned, the homeless can also connect with help through neighborhood associations and businesses.
And there is a lot of help available, especially when it comes to a place to spend the night. The combined number of homeless shelter beds in San Antonio amounts to around 2,800, according to city officials.
But many homeless people do not feel comfortable in mass shelters and prefer living on the streets.
"Especially folks who have experienced trauma in the past," Rowe said of those who shy away from larger shelters. "Being in a setting, where it's a congregate shelter, you're talking hundreds of people in a small space. Most of those people are dealing with their own stuff, so there is a lot of chaos going on in some of those spaces. For somebody that's been through a lot of stuff and experienced a lot of traumatic events in their life, that can be a really, really tough, tough situation for them to go into."
He said the city also converted a former 185-room Holiday Inn on Cesar Chavez Blvd., near I-35 downtown, to provide more individual space.
Rowe said the city's homeless outreach staff works on the streets to build trust among the homeless to encourage them to seek out the local services available to them. The city's homeless outreach has one staffer in all ten city council districts, and two who work downtown, where the homeless counts tend to be higher.
Local homeless or their advocates can also reach out to the city for help by calling 3-1-1 or the homeless hotline at 210-207-1799.
The city can connect the homeless to a variety of services, including mental health and substance abuse treatment, legal assistance, family re-unification, medical treatment, employment, ID and Social Security card recovery, food, showers, housing, and case management.
