SAN ANTONIO – The number of homeless people battling mental illness and addiction is on the rise, according to numbers released by the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH).
The new statistics compared the Point-in-Time counts from 2020 to 2022. Katie Vela, executive director of SARAH, said the results reflect what many agencies have seen when surveying the homeless community. The report shows chronic homelessness in San Antonio was up 77% this year when compared to 2020.
“Those who are still on the street are extremely vulnerable. They have medical issues, mental health, substance use, and it just takes more interventions to support them in the long term,” Vela said. “It’s just really complex. Many of them need disability income and wouldn’t be able to work. And so we’ve got to have a way to take care of them, or they’re just going to return to the street.”
In May, San Antonio voters passed a $1.2 billion bond that will include money for permanent housing. The Towne Twin Village, a tiny home housing complex with 200 homes, is being built. They are expected to be available to new tenants by the end of the year.
Vela said this is just the beginning of an effort that takes a plan, time, and money.
“To really move the needle with unsheltered homelessness, we need these supportive housing units,” she said. “We estimate we need about 1,000, which is a lot. But at the same time, it’s not that much if we really focus our efforts on that. And I think that’s where you’ll start to see a decline in unsheltered homelessness.”
To read the breakdown of the Point-in-Time count, click here.
