Haven for Hope, San Antonio’s largest homeless shelter and resource hub, found a disturbing trend last year among the population needing services: its clients were getting younger.

“I came out here to elevate and progress,” said Nia Buitrago, 21, who moved to San Antonio from California two weeks ago and has been staying in the young adult dorm inside Haven’s Courtyard. She takes the bus from Haven to work as an in-home caregiver for seniors. One day, she plans on being her own boss.

“I just needed a boost,” Buitrago, who has experienced homelessness multiple times, told the San Antonio Report about her time at Haven.

On Friday, she attended an event recognizing the first anniversary of Haven’s Young Adult Program. The program provides designated sleeping areas and specialized case management — including apartment hunting and resume help — for people experiencing homelessness between the ages of 18 and 24.

Since the program launched in August 2023, it has served 197 young adults. Of those, 38 have found housing, including Buitrago.

“I move into my apartment on Friday the 16th,” she said with a smile.

Haven was able to identify and respond to the increased need among young adults thanks to enhanced resident demographic analysis. In 2022, the nonprofit hired a director of data science and research.

The Young Adult Program reserves 24 beds for young adults in Haven’s low-barrier shelter known as the Courtyard, an indoor space that does not require sobriety or participation in case management for people to stay there overnight. Inside the Transformational Campus, which requires a negative drug and alcohol test and additional paperwork for entry, there are an additional 28 beds and a common area reserved for young adults.

Before the program was launched, about 10% of young adults were leaving the shelter for permanent housing, said Jessie Burdon, senior director of case management at Haven. That has increased to 26%.

“Nia’s story and similar ones to it … [are] really just a testament to our system of care within Bexar County for our young adults and the partnerships that we fostered,” Burdon said. Finding housing so quickly is “not something that could just happen in two weeks without the system of care that we’ve created here.”

Shelters can be an intimidating place for young adults, she said. This population has particular needs such as “the feeling of safety, of comfort. Many times our young adults come to us and their support systems have either broken apart or they’ve never had a stable one to begin with.

” … Young adults are so impressionable that if it’s a negative message, that’s going to be what sticks with them,” Burdon added. “What we try to do here is to give them that encouragement and that positive message and to let them know that they can do it and we’re here to help.”

Haven recently hosted a graduation ceremony for 11 young adults who obtained a GED or high school equivalency.

“It’s such a huge accomplishment … we wanted to make sure that we let them know we saw them,” Burdon said.

To set Buitrago and others up for success in their new homes, Haven provides a stipend for deposit and a “move-out kit,” which includes furniture and other home necessities.

“It took a few hundred dollars off of my list [of things] I needed,” said Buitrago, who did not want to sit on a waitlist for public housing or a housing voucher.

“Sometimes when you have too much help, you get comfortable,” she said. “I don’t want to be on Section 8. I want to let people have that [who] really need it. … I can get my 21-year-old self up and go work multiple jobs.”

The typical length of stay at Haven for young adults is 67 days, but that’s “up to them,” said David Huete, vice president of programs at Haven. “The goal is to keep them safe and off the streets.”