<\/p>\n
Julio Dunlap a resident at Haven for Hope walks his dog Ollie on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
While John\u00a0Whitmire campaigned to become Houston\u2019s mayor, he often expressed admiration for San Antonio\u2019s approach to homelessness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy model is the Haven for Hope in San Antonio,\u201d he told a room filled with homelessness advocates<\/a> in the lead-up to the 2023 election. He urged people to Google it. \u201cI\u2019ve been there twice.\u201d He\u2019d already looked for sites where Houston could build a similar shelter.<\/p>\n The resource center at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Maerilyn Riggs, a volunteer at the resource center at Haven for Hope, stocks shelves on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News The resource center at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News A barbershop is seen at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News A resident\u2019s cat is seen at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus offers space for 20 dogs and 10 cats.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Julio Dunlap a resident at Haven for Hope walks his dog Ollie on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Wendy Khalil a resident at Haven for Hope walks her dog Bear on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Wendy Khalil a resident at Haven for Hope walks her dog Bear on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Resident halls at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News The Mary Rose Brown Chapel of Hope at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Haven for Hope\u2019s South Campus on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Craig Sudduth, center, trains Shawn Perry in the kitchen at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News \u201cIf we give you a meal that makes you forget, is our ultimate goal.\u201d Chef Lorris Gibson said in the campus Faith Kitchen at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Alberto Rodriguez, VP of Operations, at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News A playground at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News Lana Hernandez, Program Director at Street 2 Feet, talks with Terri Behling at the Transformational Center at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News A full map at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n Three years later, Houston opened its new shelter at 419 Emancipation<\/a>. It\u2019s inspired by San Antonio\u2019s megashelter, though it\u2019s far from a replica.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Whitmire isn\u2019t alone. Officials from around the country have traveled to San Antonio to study Haven for Hope, hoping to borrow pieces of a model that is gaining sway nationally<\/a>.<\/p>\n HOUSTON SHELTER: Houston\u2019s embattled new homeless shelter opens quietly, one drop off at a time<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out how to build a smaller version of San Antonio here in Wichita,\u201d said a Kansas county commissioner after a visit<\/a>; in 2024, they transformed the site of a former elementary school into a shelter with more than 100 beds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Las Vegas took a shortcut and hired Haven for Hope\u2019s chief executive to build a shelter there. That 26-acre facility is projected to open in 2028<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cHaven for Hope in San Antonio works,\u201d said Gov. Greg Abbott in a post on X<\/a>, formerly known as Twitter. President Donald Trump tapped the shelter\u2019s founding president to head the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness in 2019 and then to serve as his senior advisor on the issue.<\/p>\n Since the shelter\u2019s opening in 2010, San Antonio hasn\u2019t seen the drop in homelessness, as measured by a count of people living in shelters, tents and other places not meant for habitation, that Houston\u2019s strategy of moving people into homes has created<\/a>. But it has seen drops in unsheltered homelessness\u00a0\u2014 the number of people visible on the streets and in parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n And therein lies a significant part of its appeal. After becoming mayor, Whitmire announced his goal to end street homelessness specifically.<\/p>\n \u201cHousing first works,\u201d said Alberto Rodriguez, vice president of operations at Haven for Hope, when asked why people from around the country are flying to San Antonio to visit their shelter. \u201cBut most communities aren\u2019t seeing enough housing stock available to be able to get everyone into housing if they say yes today, right? There is that wait. So what happens in that in-between?\u201d<\/p>\n When most of the country, under the George W. Bush administration\u2019s direction in the early 2000s, began focusing on housing as the solution to homelessness, San Antonio moved in the opposite direction, opening a $101-million shelter and pouring roughly $29 million annually into its operation. It served nearly 7,000 clients in the 2025 fiscal year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That alternate path, Rodriguez explained, was what people were coming to see.\u00a0<\/p>\n Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n A 22-acre campus near the city\u2019s center<\/p>\n As Terri Behling, director of communications and government relations for Haven for Hope, gives public officials campus tours, she\u2019ll hear them start brainstorming.<\/p>\n What about that 10 acres outside the city limits? The vacant land they didn\u2019t know what to do with? Could they build their own version of the San Antonio shelter?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She\u2019ll then gently ask questions that underscore just how special San Antonio\u2019s setup is: How will people who have lost their homes travel to the shelter? And once there, how would they get to jobs and reintegrate into society?\u00a0<\/p>\n Haven for Hope occupies a whopping 22 acres just outside of downtown\u00a0\u2014 the same footprint as the prized Pearl District, which has been called \u201cthe crown jewel of downtown San Antonio revitalization,\u201d<\/a> or the new Texans training facility, which includes four NFL-sized fields (three outdoors and one indoors<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n SEARCH OUR MAP: As downtown homelessness declines, these Houston suburbs are seeing the biggest gains<\/a><\/p>\n The shelter is so big that it needs multiple parking lots, like a college campus. About 1,350 people sleep there on any given night. If you park at the Volunteer Center lot, you\u2019ll walk past the Sarah E. Davidson Clinic, which serves both the general public and shelter residents, and the mailroom on the way to the North Campus entrance.<\/p>\n To enter, first you must pass through security, which is like that at City Hall or a small airport\u00a0\u2014 except at this security line, there\u2019s a breathalyzer (the campus is sober), you have to tap a badge (criminal histories are pre-screened, and sex offenders and violent convictions are not allowed) and you are not allowed to bring in food (all meals on campus are provided, and staff concluded that bringing food into rooms could attract pests).\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Upon exiting the security building, you enter an open-air campus so large that it is dotted with posts bearing signs pointing toward various destinations. The kennel, where you might board your cat or dog, is to the north; transformational services, where you might talk to staff or one of 75 other service providers on campus about finding work or therapy or classes, to the west; the chapel just beyond it; the dining hall further south of that. There are lawns and trees and outdoor seating.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Butterfly Garden at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n Music plays in the public spaces (Disney\u2019s \u201cLet it go\u201d played on a recent Saturday morning, but it rotates between genres); now and then, it is paused to play the sound of a doorbell, a tradition announcing that a client has just received housing. There are two playgrounds, an entire YMCA, a garden alive with the sound of a fountain and butterflies flittering between native plants. There\u2019s a Child Learning Center, where kids \u2014 who are otherwise required to be with a parent at all times \u2014 can participate in a bevy of programs hosted by local groups: a basketball clinic by United We Hoop, theater classes from the Magic Theatre, interactive STEM activities by the Doseum. During the school year, almost 20 yellow buses pull into campus every year to shuttle students throughout the city so they can continue attending the schools they attended before losing housing. In the summer, they shuttle the kids to summer camps. Dorm-like rooms come furnished with twin-sized beds, lockers and desks.\u00a0<\/p>\n A citywide task force\u00a0to build the shelter was spearheaded in the \u201900s by Bill Greehey, the founding chief executive and chairman of the petroleum refinery giant Valero. Greehey also led a fundraising effort, and $61 million in private money joined the $40 million in public funds to acquire land and construct the campus on a stretch west of Downtown, where an ice cream warehouse once stood next to a shuttered dog food mill and a Bexar County Jail. Greehey insisted that all client housing should be newly built from the ground up, but some of the warehouses were retrofitted for staff buildings. For example, the break room for intake used to be an ice cream freezer, Rodriguez said, and the transformation center was also once a warehouse. There, a skylight installed along a strip of ceiling sheds light on the main room filled with cubicles officing various nonprofits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re so grateful to be housed here,\u201d said Lana Hernandez, chief executive of a three-person nonprofit, Street2Feet, focused on wellness (among other things, it helps people train for 5ks). Before setting up shop at Haven for Hope, the nonprofit had been operating out of a van.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another warehouse facing the visitor\u2019s center has been turned into a Goodwill-like \u201cshop\u201d where clients can browse racks of clothes, shoes and other donations for items they need. On a recent Friday, a woman walked up to the door with two girls and a baby in tow. They were about to pick out a new blanket, she told the little ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maerilyn Riggs, a volunteer at the resource center at Haven for Hope, stocks shelves on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n Inside,\u00a0Maerilyn Riggs greeted clients, her blonde hair pulled back and her face serene. Much of Haven for Hope is run by clients, since one of their goals is often finding work, and doing jobs at the shelter for a stipend is often seen as an interim step. Riggs had just unpacked shoes that had been gifted new in the box. \u201cThe donors are amazing,\u201d she marveled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHouston has Star of Hope,\u201d she said upon encountering a reporter from the Houston Chronicle. While Houston did not direct much government funding to shelters before this year, Star of Hope is a sober, privately funded Christian shelter that serves about 950 people a night. \u201cTexas is lucky to have these places.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n News spreads about worthwhile places to go, which is why San Antonio has instituted a residency requirement for its North Campus\u00a0\u2014 people must have lived in Bexar County for at least 12 of the previous 24 months to become clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n Riggs was near the end of her Haven for Hope journey, renting a room for \u201ca couple hundred a month, which is dirt cheap,\u201d she said. The low rent was allowing her to save for a car. Her room is part of the Pay It Forward program, which provides on-campus housing and support for up to a year for people graduating from the Integrated Treatment Program.<\/p>\n For those of you who have been wondering what options are available for those who don\u2019t qualify for North Campus, the Integrated Treatment Program offers part of the answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n Directional signs at Haven for Hope on Friday, June 12, 2026, in San Antonio. The 22-acre campus serves around 1,700 individuals and families experiencing homelessness as a centralized resource hub.<\/p>\n Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n A residential recovery program and a low-barrier shelter<\/p>\n Outside North Campus, on the other side of Haven for Hope Way from the visitor\u2019s lot, stands a nondescript beige building with the words \u201cRestoration Center\u201d written in letters smaller than the address. There, the Integrated Treatment Program is run by the county\u2019s Center for Health Care Services, which specializes in working with people on their mental health and substance abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n People who can\u2019t start on North Campus because of addiction or unstable mental health instead enter through the Integrated Treatment Program, a residential program referred to by clients as ITP.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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