SAN ANTONIO — Nearly 400 volunteers hit the streets of San Antonio on Tuesday for the city’s annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count. Outreach workers spent the evening gathering critical data on how many people are experiencing homelessness and why.
Close to Home, a nonprofit working to address housing insecurity in the community, coordinated the PIT count.
“It’s a great opportunity to build relationships, but we also use this data to identify gaps and better plan for our homeless response system,” said Katie Wilson, the executive director of Close to Home.
Brittney Ackerson is the director of Corazon Ministries. She says many of the people who volunteered this year were once included in San Antonio’s homeless count.
“We’ve been homeless,” said Ackerson. “Substance use, mental health; we can relate our trauma to their trauma and connect that way. That has really helped with finding encampments and where they are hanging out.”
Building trust is central to addressing the homeless crisis, Ackerson says.
“Because if they feel judged or unloved, they are not going to seek out resources,” she said.
A record 322 people experiencing homelessness lost their lives last year. That’s nearly double the number of deaths in 2022. Officials attribute some of the increase to better tracking and stronger relationships.
“I stalk the morgue, hospitals, funerals homes,” said Ackerson. “Having a family member coming and looking for someone that’s on the streets who has passed away and they don’t know... we are trying to get ahead of that.”
San Antonio has seen a steady increase in homelessness. 3,155 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in 2023, a 5.3% increase from 2022.
“Even though it’s a one-night snapshot, it helps us see the changing demographics,” said Wilson. “For example, we are expecting to see more families experiencing homelessness. When there was a moratorium on evictions and lots of emergency assistance during the pandemic, we had our lowest count of families to date. We are now expecting the highest number because at shelters like Haven for Hope, they are in a constant state of overflow with families sleeping in classrooms and their church. So, it’s become a really desperate situation, and it really has to do with people being over extended and not being able to pay their rent.”
Outreach workers anticipate the completion of several new affordable housing projects will alleviate some of the strain. Results from the 2024 PIT count are expected to be released in a few months.