The Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio is permanently closing its Southside clubhouse and pausing operations at its Eastside location for the rest of the school year amid financial challenges.
The nonprofit provides a variety of resources for kids 6 to 18 years old, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, including afterschool care, youth development programs, food, health and wellness resources.
A Sept. 16 email from Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio CEO Debbie Powell noted that kids impacted by the Rayburn closure on the South Side will be able to transition to Harlandale ISD for afterschool care. But the nonprofit is still trying to identify organizations on the East Side that could absorb the kids who have nowhere to go.
Powell, who was appointed CEO in July, could not be reached for comment.
The Eastside Clubhouse will halt operations on Sept. 30, and the Rayburn facility will close on the 25th.
The nonprofit’s Calderon clubhouse on the West Side remains temporarily closed, according to the Boys and Girls Clubs website. That leaves just one clubhouse currently operating, the Mays Family Clubhouse in Southtown, according to the nonprofit’s join-a-club webpage — compared to the six it operated across the city in 2020.
The nonprofit also operates several on-site facilities in schools, although those have also significantly decreased since 2020, going from 37 to 12 sites.
Tony Trevino served on the San Antonio nonprofit’s board from 2012 to 2022. He said he’s not familiar with the current financial situation, but noted that like other nonprofits, the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio has faced a decrease in giving and struggled to recover after COVID-19 pandemic relief funds dried up.
“I think you’re seeing it nationwide,” Trevino said. “It’s not unique to San Antonio. There’s only so many dollars to go around, and everybody’s trying to figure out how to spend those dollars.”
Financial woes
The local nonprofit’s total revenue and contributions have fallen over the last several years, according to IRS Form 990 filings. The organization’s net income dipped to negative $1 million in 2025 and in 2022 showed over $2 million in losses.
At a city budget meeting on Wednesday, Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) asked other council members for their support in providing the organization with three months of emergency funding from a tax increment reinvestment zone (TIRZ).
“I just found out a couple days ago that the Boys and Girls Clubs intends to close on the 30th, disrupting services for a number of my residents,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
The boundaries of the Inner City TIRZ encompass District 2, where a new senior center and aquatics center also recently were approved to receive TIRZ dollars.
The councilman proposed contributing three months of operating funds for the Boys and Girls Clubs’ Eastside Clubhouse to get it into “a better financial position,” he said.
“In the event that they are not, we begin planning for an alternative where either the [city’s] Parks and Recreation Department operates a facility or we do a solicitation for another organization,” he said.
Councilmembers Misty Spears, Ric Galvan and Sukh Kaur expressed support for the measure, which would come before council if the TIRZ board approves it.
“Where are they going to turn?”
Skip Wilson has been involved with the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Antonio since 1979, mostly working at the Eastside Clubhouse as a boxing coach and mentor.
He said that especially on the East Side, the clubhouse has become an important part of the community — putting kids from disadvantaged backgrounds on paths to success.
“You have kids that don’t have any other place to go after school to be nourished … to learn, to have mentors,” Wilson said. “You have kids that they wouldn’t have any other experience with computers or anything if it were not for the Boys and Girls Clubs.”
“You take that away from Black and Brown communities, and that’s leaving a gaping hole,” he added. “What are these kids going to do? Where are they going to turn?”
Shari Biediger contributed to this story.
