Haven for Hope, an organization in San Antonio that provides services to people experiencing homelessness, earned second place in a recent ranking of local nonprofits.
The nonprofit was featured in the San Antonio Express-News 2024 MySA Readers Choice Awards. The awards span over 170 categories in 13 different sections, from the best local barbershop to the best frozen yogurt. The publication releases a list of the categories and invites the public to nominate their favorite spots and businesses in San Antonio each year.
Haven for Hope took second place for best local nonprofit, both this year and in 2023. It placed second to the Assistance League San Antonio, an organization that provides a variety of services to those in the community, such as scholarship programs for those attending college, art projects for children undergoing chemotherapy, free personal care kits, and “shopping sprees” for kids grades K -5, among others.
Haven for Hope was founded in 2006 and designed as a “one-stop-shop” for various resources for the homeless. The organization provides emergency housing, counseling, job training, educational programming, and other services on a single campus that help people experiencing homelessness not only get off the street but stay off the street.
The nonprofit maintains its “transformational” campus where case managers work one-on-one with individuals to help them create a new life plan for themselves moving forward, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
In addition to the main campus, Haven for Hope also operates a low-barrier shelter called The Courtyard. The Courtyard runs as an emergency shelter that provides three meals daily and a place to sleep indoors. It is open to anyone, whereas the transformational campus is for those who wish to transform their lives.
Haven for Hope was previously credited with reducing downtown San Antonio’s unsheltered homeless population by 77%. The vast majority of the nonprofit’s clients (91%) are still in permanent housing after one year of graduating from the program. Over 983 clients were placed in permanent housing in FY 2023.
In December 2023, Haven for Hope reported having 70 families in the shelter. By partnering with landlords, it dropped that number to 40, according to The Dallas Express.
Meanwhile, 75% of Dallas voters say homelessness, panhandling, and vagrancy continue to be “major” problems throughout their city. Previous polling conducted by The Dallas Express has shown that most Dallas residents support trying the “one-stop-shop” model. Still, City officials have yet to pursue such a strategy.