San Antonio’s proposed $3.7 billion fiscal year 2024 budget would invest $17.4 million to support homeless prevention programs, outreach workers, shelters, and more clean-up operations at encampments across the city.
That doesn’t include the more than $31 million in bond funding and other federal money recently allocated to house people experiencing chronic homelessness and would build on affordable housing projects and initiatives already in process.
“We’re in a little bit of a different position than we were this time last year,” City Manager Erik Walsh told reporters, now that two “game changer” permanent supportive housing projects — Towne Twin Village and Hudson Apartments — have started welcoming formerly unhoused individuals.
“I’m really pleased to see that we are making that investment in permanent supportive housing and acknowledging that there’s a spectrum of reasons why individuals are out on the street,” Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) said after city staff presented the proposed budget on Thursday.
The proposed budget includes nearly $16 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to renew one lease and lease an additional property to serve as low-barrier shelters for chronically homeless individuals for two years. The Days Inn in east downtown was converted into a shelter by the city and SAMMinistries in 2021, but the site for the new property has not yet been selected, Walsh said.
In a pre-budget survey commissioned by the city, San Antonians ranked “homeless outreach and encampments” as the top priority for the city’s 2024 budget.
Of the top 19 budget priorities identified in the questionnaire, 48% of respondents ranked homelessness and encampments in their top four, followed by affordable housing (37%), police services (35%) and streets (31%).
This was the first time the city used a statistically valid survey, conducted by market research and survey company ETC Institute, to ask residents to inform the budget process. Previous surveys were conducted online and in person by volunteers.
The 2023 homeless point-in-time count found 874 unsheltered individuals. Walsh estimated that these combined efforts will allow the city to get 400 unsheltered people off the streets and into shelters or more permanent housing arrangements next fiscal year.
The proposed budget includes $400,000 for emergency, one-time payments to keep an estimated 300 individuals from becoming homeless. That’s double the amount from last year.
This fiscal year, the city will perform about 500 cleanups, also called “abatements,” of homeless encampments, Walsh said.
These cleanups, which often occur multiple times at the same location, involve sending outreach workers to the camp ahead of time to notify the residents, coordinating with other agencies to offer housing or recovery services, and ultimately sending police and crews out to evacuate residents and remove any items left behind.
Next year, the proposed budget includes an additional $738,000 to perform 700 cleanups; adding two more outreach workers and capacity to the Solid Waste Management Department to assist with cleanups.
“We all know that cleaning up encampments is not solving the homeless issue for our neighborhoods or for our homeowners,” said Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7). “It’s marbles in a box, we’re literally shifting these encampments from one district to another.”
Gavito called for the city to hire even more outreach workers to assist people living in encampments before and during cleanups.
“We’re going to make a commitment that if you call the city [to report] an encampment, we’ll assess, do the outreach and clean up the encampment within two weeks,” Walsh said.
The city will start to publish a weekly schedule of cleanups, also known as abatements, to its website, Walsh said.
“We’re also going to expand our community and neighborhood engagement so that we are explaining what we’re doing, but also listening to what the neighborhoods are saying,” he added.
City Council will receive an overview of the entire proposed budget on Thursday, kicking off a five-week council and community input process ahead of the expected adoption of the budget on Sept. 14.
The 2024 budget also includes increased funding for Animal Care Services, additional police officers and fire department employees as well as street and sidewalk improvements. Residents may also pay higher trash fees next year for larger trash bins.
