SAN ANTONIO — Haven for Hope is looking to the public for help in keeping enough water on hand for all the people they help.
"This is where we store our water, we're going through a lot of water right now." Haven For Hope’s director of communications Terri Behling said while walking through the donation warehouse.
The donation warehouse is where they keep all the supplies and items their residents need.
"They can get much needed supplies like shirts, pants, shorts, shoes.” Behling said. “When they leave Haven and go into a housing situation, we like to equip them with some of their basic needs so those are met, and they don't have to worry about it."
Right now, the biggest need is for water.
"We are going through probably double the amount of water that we would typically go through," Behling said.
Deziree Dominguez is Haven for Hope's Warehouse Manager. She says they have been struggling to keep up with the demand for months.
"We'd have to shop from store to store, and we'd go in a box truck and scrounge per store just to get what you're seeing now," said Dominguez.
Campus Coordinator Trinette Washington says COVID precautions had Haven shutting down their water fountains and relying even more on bottles. The fountains are back on. But she says between all their services, they still use up to 10 pallets of water a week.
"Before the week's out, we don't have water," Washington said, gesturing to the 5 pallets of water in the warehouse.
Haven is looking to the public to help. Behling says the more they have to go out and buy water, the more it could impact their other services.
"We're starting to see our numbers for those needing services be back at our levels that we had pre-pandemic," she said.
Because more people are coming in, they are also running short on mats for them to sleep on.
"We have more families coming in and we are pretty much out of mats and we're asking the public to help by purchasing some of these mats."
Haven For Hope accepts in-person donations, but they are also pointing people to their Amazon wish lists to make donating easier.