Pride Center San Antonio has to move out by end of June

For many LGBTQ+ people in the Alamo City, Pride Center San Antonio is a lifeline, not just in times of crisis but also for resources such as peer groups and connections to organizations that offer affirming services. But after a severe funding shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the center is now working to make up the deficit while it moves to a new home during Pride Month. 

The Pride Center is in the process of moving from its current space at an annexed office building at Methodist Metropolitan Hospital in downtown after more than eight years, according to executive director Lex Loro. Because the building is being redeveloped, Loro said tenants around the center had already moved out, and the Pride Center was notified it must leave by the last day of June.

“We have been really lucky to have the support of Metropolitan Health Systems over the last eight years,” she said.

Through two large-scale community-based research projects, the Pride Center gathered data on LGBTQ+ health equity needs and used it to build a free mental health program. “We gathered community data, we saw a need, and we created a program,” Loro said.

Loro described the center to MySA as, “in many ways a public health serving institution, a community health-based organization, a mental health nonprofit. That’s the core of what we actually end up doing.”

While Loro said they’re grateful for the time they had the space at the Methodist building, there were limits that kept the location from feeling like a place the community could call its own. 

“We did always know that we needed to move at some point. We just didn’t anticipate needing to move very suddenly,” Loro said.

Luckily, a nearby organization stepped in to further its partnership with Pride Center San Antonio. The San Antonio AIDS Foundation offered its Carson House to the nonprofit after the program it housed lost its funding.

“They had that house actively in use as a transitional living home for folks living with HIV for quite a while,” Loro told MySA.

“It was this beautiful opportunity to bring community-focused programming back into a space that was meant to house community-focused programming,” she continued.

Loro said the new space has great potential to offer the community a place to host events that bring LGBTQ+ people together in a safe space. However, it’s unclear if this is the Pride Center’s forever home, even if they’re about to move in.

“We really want to try it to see if it ends up being a good fit,” Loro said.

The organization is trying to raise $100,000 to remain stable through the rest of the year as it transitions to Carson House. Loro said the center is also moving toward a more volunteer-led model, which will require more volunteers to support programming in the new space.

“We want San Antonio to have a Pride Center that fully meets all of our needs. That’s what the fundraiser is for. That’s why we say San Antonio deserves a Pride Center,” she said.