SAN ANTONIO – Rather than cleaning up the same homeless camps over and over, San Antonio is preparing to try and put a permanent end to some of them.
Director of Homeless Services and Strategy Mark Carmona said the city hopes to launch a pilot program to “decommission” some of its most entrenched homeless camps through a combination of extra engagement at the sites ahead of time followed by extra attention in the weeks following the cleanup.
The city participates in more than 1,300 camp cleanups, which it calls “abatements,” each year. But there are more than 30 sites the city regularly clears out as people return again and again.
“That didn’t make sense to me,” Carmona said. “What made sense to was try to figure out what’s going on with people in that encampment site and see if we can get that addressed as opposed to just continuing to do the reoccurring abatement over and over again.”
People at the camps already get a heads up about the cleanups a few days ahead, and outreach teams offer them services and resources. But a city spokesman said people found at camps targeted in the decommissioning pilot would be given individualized transition plans.
The big difference, Carmona said, is the amount of time the city will take to engage people at the camps.
“Four to six weeks is a lot different than five to 10 days to engage with somebody and let them know that we’re going to be cleaning out their encampment,” he said. “Having four to six weeks, going out every single day is a big difference. It gives us the time to really sit down and understand someone.”
Once the cleanup is done, Carmona said his department will work with San Antonio police to ensure the site stays closed, mostly by patrolling. When asked by KSAT, though, he said they don’t plan to resort to fencing off the area and trespassing arrests — at least not immediately.
“We work a lot with the SAFFE officers, and as we work with PD, they’re a partner with us in this work,” he said. “They do outreach work on their own, actually. So they’re going to want to identify and talk to people that are out there, find out what’s going on, coordinate with us so that we can connect with people. So that’s not going to be our immediate response.”
But the people they’re trying to get off the streets will also need someplace to go, and Carmona has already pointed out the need for more beds in the city.
At the end of the month, the city is expected to stop funding a low-barrier homeless shelter run by SAMMinistries out of a downtown hotel, which will result in a loss of 185 beds.
Carmona said SAMMinistries and the Salvation Army are expected to build out another 145 beds between them in 2027. In the interim, he has proposed plans to work with shelter providers to add another 40 beds.
There is also $9 million in housing bond funding available to support developing additional emergency shelter space, which would be awarded through a proposal process in the coming budget year.
When KSAT asked Carmona if he thought the city would have enough space to keep people out of the camps they’re trying to decommission, he said “that’s what we have to find out.”
They plan to focus on the recurring abatement sites and start with smaller camps of five to 10 people, he said. The list of sites has not been finalized yet.
As the pilot program is going, the city is expected to continue doing regular abatements, too.
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