Increasing Homeless Families Urged to Be Decreased by Advocates in San Antonio, Texas

A 28% increase in the number of homeless families in San Antonio, Texas was discovered after the annual point-in-time count last January. Advocates have attributed the increase to declining federal government funding that kept the families housed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January, hundreds of staff and volunteers from nonprofit organizations were deployed to survey the homeless families in the city of San Antonio in Texas. Following the survey, a 28% increase in the number of homeless families was found in comparison to last year’s.

Furthermore, an article in San Antonio Report states that this year, 253 homeless families living in shelters were put into record as a result of the San Antonio annual point-in-time count. Reports say the point-in-time count is required by the U.S. federal government from communities. However, it is only a partial measurement of the overall trends in a local homeless population every year.

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Advocates of Homeless Families Mitigation

According to an article in Haven for Hope Archives, advocates of the mitigation of homeless families state that the increase in the number could be attributed to the declining funding from the federal government and the emergency policies that kept homeless families in shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic. An example of the policies for homeless families during the pandemic was the eviction moratorium.

Advocates suggest that to get a better knowledge of the needs of the homeless families, trends in demographics must be identified and more real-time data is required. To date, the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless (SARAH) leads the effort to track data for homeless families, while the Haven for Hope also has an in-house researcher and data scientist to improve the measuring capabilities in point-in-time counts.

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