Texas city’s Haven for Hope shelters most of its homeless population on one campus, drawing California interest

San Antonio’s Haven for Hope offers a place to sleep to anyone in need, and some California leaders are studying whether its scale could be replicated. Walking past the tent camps that line streets in many California neighborhoods, residents often ask why a single place cannot be built for all those people to go. One Texas city has done that, and some California leaders are taking notice.

Haven for Hope is a 22-acre shelter in San Antonio with room for 1,600 people. The facility serves 85% of the city’s total homeless population and virtually guarantees that anyone who wants to sleep indoors can do so, while providing a range of on-site social services. Supporters in California say the model could be recreated there to ease the suffering of people who have no option but to sleep on the street, and to lessen the burden that large homeless camps place on surrounding communities.

Sacramento County Supervisor Rich Desmond, who visited the campus in 2021 and tried to incorporate parts of the model into programs in his district, said: “Haven for Hope has not solved homelessness in San Antonio. But they have certainly done a much better job, I think, than most places in California.” A Placer County group has pushed for a San Antonio-inspired project outside Rocklin, and a grassroots Sacramento group is seeking support and funding for a similar concept.

Some homelessness experts across the country are critical of the San Antonio approach. The source reports that the model would mark a shift away from some widely accepted California best practices. Haven for Hope’s most robust program requires participants to be sober, which runs counter to the prevailing California view that people should be offered housing before addressing addiction and other issues. The shelter’s conditions are also crowded, with 80 bunk beds in one room or a few hundred mats placed inches apart on the floor. Officials and nonprofits in California are increasingly using hotels and tiny homes that hold fewer people but give residents a private space with a locking door.

The shelter’s origins and history also shape how some view it. It was originally bankrolled by Bill Greehey, founding CEO of Valero Energy Corporation and a financial supporter of former President Donald Trump. Its first CEO, Robert Marbut Jr., later headed Trump’s U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. Under Marbut, clients began on mats in an open-air courtyard and could earn beds, better food and more services by showing good behavior. Marbut left more than a decade ago, and the current leadership says the program has changed “night and day,” including the end of open-air sleeping. Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center, said of the site’s earlier approach: “Taking this kind of judgemental, punitive, paternalistic approach doesn’t actually make sense or work for a lot of people.”

The case also raises a basic policy question: whether officials should prioritize emergency shelters that move people out of encampments quickly, or long-term housing that takes years and significant money to build. Haven for Hope has pulled many people off the streets, but it has done less well at connecting them to permanent housing. Of the more than 7,000 people it served last year, just 15% moved into permanent housing.

Beyond its size, the shelter’s all-inclusive design draws attention. The campus includes medical, dental and eye-care clinics, a hair salon, a free clothing store, childcare, counseling, and offices where staff help clients obtain a new ID, find housing, get a job or secure disability benefits. Clients can handle these tasks in one place rather than traveling across town to various departments, which the source notes would be difficult for someone without a car, a matter of welcoming strangers in need (Matthew 25:35). For people who need more help, a facility across the street offers mental health crisis, detox and addiction recovery beds.

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