The New SA Homeless Plan

San Antonio's Homeless Population

In 2020, San Antonio/Bexar County reported over 2,900 homeless people.

In 2024, the number increased to almost 3,400, making SA the second highest in Texas.

In a KSAT TV news report in 2025, progressive "Homeless Experts" focused on the need for affordable housing and economic stability.

Crime and Antisocial Behavior

While progressives view homelessness in Marxist terms of economics, the true causes of chronic homelessness are more about personal behavior. Mental illness and substance abuse are prevalent among these people.

Many argue that this population has also grown in recent years because the Bexar County district attorney stopped prosecuting certain offenses. In 2019, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales, whose campaign was funded by George Soros, announced that his office would no longer prosecute cases involving possession of less than one ounce of marijuana or less than one-quarter gram of cocaine, methamphetamine, crack cocaine, or heroin.

Many homeless people who use drugs can be seen staggering in public around Cattleman Square.

Also, the Bexar County Harm Reduction Initiative, a needle exchange program started in 2019, has caused an increase of drug users in the streets. The program justifies the homeless using drugs in public sometimes, to "save lives and stop the spread of disease." This program has also contributed to the number of homeless drug users in the area.

The Poverty Industry and the Homeless

Helping the poor has become an industry that I call the "Poverty Industry" — all the public and private agencies, organizations, programs, and projects designed to help the poor. But is the Poverty Industry truly helping the poor and the homeless, or is it a self-serving business that just rewards poverty and anti-social behavior?

In San Antonio, the city's Department of Human Services provided a total of $11,533,343 for homeless programs in Fiscal Year 2025. That includes $2,793,831 from federal and state grants, and over $8 million from the city's general fund. Additionally, a voter-approved Affordable Housing Bond added $25 million for supportive housing.

That is a total of $44.2 million for fiscal year 2025, for outreach, shelters, housing, and encampment cleanups and direct homeless prevention services — an increase of $6.35 million more than 2024. Thus, San Antonio is spending more money on a larger homeless population. Taxpayers must ask themselves if the city's homeless approach is cost effective.

Who Are the Homeless and How Do They Help Them?

The liberals and leftists who dominate the Poverty Industry view the homeless problem in economic terms, rather than the individual's personal behavior.

In January 2025, a HUD single night count claims that about 24% of adults experiencing homelessness met HUD's definition for serious mental illness and 18% met the definition for substance use disorder. This figure is highly suspicious because HUD's mission is housing, and any higher numbers of mentally ill or substance abusers would undercut the amount of money allocated to the agency — for housing people.

At the city level, the City's homeless plan lists "underlying structural challenges" that contribute to homelessness, as opposed to personal behavior. The plan mentions an issue dear to the hearts of liberals and leftists — the minimum wage. Minimum wage in San Antonio is $7.25 per hour, but how many homeless can hold a job and be responsible and employed?

The plan also mentions rents and mortgage prices as a factor that increases affordability. But again, these factors assume homelessness is about economics, not anti-social behavior. The city's plan also reports a shortage of 16,400 affordable housing units for the lowest-income residents. Once again, its proposed solution is economic, based on the assumption that higher incomes and lower housing costs are needed.

However, it is evident to anyone who sees the homeless problem in person that most of them do not suffer from economic issues. They suffer from substance abuse, mental illness, and various other forms of anti-social behavior. Homeless strategies and programs keep addressing economic issues instead of behavioral problems, and this is why homelessness continues to grow, as a problem and as an industry.

San Antonio Housing Trust's Plan for the Homeless in Cattleman Square

In August of 2026, the San Antonio Housing Trust Fund, a nonprofit created to build and preserve affordable housing and support neighborhood revitalization, announced plans to revitalize Cattleman Square adjacent to Haven for Hope. However, the area is crowded with homeless people living on the streets, so they have developed a plan to remove or relocate them. Once again, they will rearrange the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic.

Haven for Hope was created in 2010 as a "one-stop" center for homeless services and it is the largest homeless shelter and resource hub in Texas. It provides services for the homeless to transition into permanent housing, and it offers various support services, including case management, medical care, and access to housing assistance. It was a noble idea and plan, but 16 years later it created a homeless ghetto in the downtown area.

The Housing Trust Fund's revitalization plan of Cattleman Square is a gentrification project named "Project DC," and it will create affordable housing, businesses and use VIA to connect workers. However, there are an estimated 160 homeless people currently sleeping in and around the area. These homeless people could be classified as the worst of the worst because they are people who resist or reject treatment and who refuse to live in a disciplined, controlled environment. These folks cannot be responsible for themselves.

The SA Housing Trust Fund says it will use a "Homeless Response Action Plan" to address the problem, but it is reinventing the same strategy that Haven for Hope uses. Their plan will involve about forty nonprofits and other organizations to help the homeless with housing, medical care, and legal assistance. The first two years of the plan could cost more than $12 million of taxpayers' funds. They will move the homeless to another location in the city.

The Chronic Homeless: Mentally Ill and Substance Abusers

However, the plan does not seem to address the mentally ill and chronic substance abusers who are the majority of the homeless.

The mentally ill homeless need long-term hospitalization. Placing them in apartments without supervision and medical help does not help. They take their medications until they are released back into the streets and then stop and return to their anti-social behavior.

The same can be said about the chronic substance abusers who are also in a cycle of arrest, treatment, release, and return to substance abuse.

Conclusion

It is time to address the homeless problem with "tough love." The American Dream does work for anyone who is responsible and willing to work. However, it does not work because most homeless people are not responsible because they are mentally ill or substance abusers.

Rather than relocating the chronic homeless from place to place, they should be placed in long-term mental hospitals or jails. They need to be supervised constantly. It is very noble to talk about freedom for these homeless people but look at the people on the street and understand they don't need that kind of freedom.

There should be a three-strike-you're-out rule for these homeless people. After three detentions by local law enforcement, a person continues to return to the streets. These people should be placed in long-term care — a mental hospital or a jail. But we should remember that liberals and leftists want to close jails and abolish the police. Who will address the anti-social criminal behavior of some of these people?

The Poverty Industry programs must be held accountable for the taxpayer money they receive and spend. They must show success in moving homeless people from the streets to long-term help or jails. We cannot continue relocating the homeless from place to place, hurting neighborhoods and affecting public safety in the process.

The homeless problem is not about economics and housing. It is about personal behavior and responsibility, and it needs to be addressed that way.