SAN ANTONIO — The nonprofit Haven for Hope has been making headlines for its innovative response to homelessness in San Antonio, and one of its employees says that constantly trying new things has been the organization’s key to success.
Haven for Hope’s vice president of transformational operations is 35-year-old Alberto Rodriguez. He worked his way up the ladder at the nonprofit over the last nine years, working in several different positions.
Rodriguez now oversees roughly a third of the organization’s workforce — 174 employees.
“He has a big chunk of Haven [for Hope],” said the nonprofit’s director of communication, Terri Behling, speaking with the San Antonio Express-News. “He makes it look so easy. His team has a great respect for him. He’s easy to approach, easy to get along with.”
“He’s decisive but is such a great collaborator at the same time,” she continued. “We’re constantly evolving here at Haven [for Hope], because as our clients’ needs change, we’re evolving to meet those needs.”
Rodriguez spoke with The Dallas Express about his tenure at Haven for Hope back in July.
“I started in family case management. I was there for a year [and] did not have experience in the homeless services field,” he told The Dallas Express. He said he went on to become a family intake specialist before taking over as vice president of transformational operations.
Rodriguez said working with the organization’s clients can often be difficult.
“Clients have issues … traumas, mental health,” he said. “It takes a while to find that medication balance. It’s a difficult world for them.”
Rodriguez explained that Haven for Hope is constantly evolving and launching new initiatives.
“We’re always pivoting … We love pilots at Haven,” he said. “Let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, how can we make it better? … That’s how a lot of our projects have come to be permanent.”
Haven for Hope’s campus serves as a centralized “one-stop-shop” for homelessness services in San Antonio. Its operations have resulted in a significant decline in homelessness and vagrancy, even as the city’s population swelled over the last decade, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Rodriguez emphasized the organization’s willingness to experiment. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Haven for Hope recognized the importance of maintaining a shelter for its clients, even as cities and counties around Texas began considering restrictive pandemic protocols.
“If our intake department is closed because we can’t COVID test them, let’s open up a winder sleeping area,” Rodriguez said. “Someplace where they can sleep, where they’re socially distanced. … But if they want to enroll [in Haven for Hope] the next day, they can enroll the next day.”
“No day is the same,” he continued. “How can we improve on it? — It’s kind of our untold motto here at Haven.”
Another element unique to Haven for Hope is the breadth of services for homeless people and vagrants it offers on its campus through its partnership with the City of San Antonio.
Medical services, case management, counseling, and job training are all offered on the campus, along with transitional housing units. Such an approach to homelessness and vagrancy has polled favorably among Dallas voters.
Nevertheless, the City of Dallas has yet to pursue a homelessness response strategy similar to Haven for Hope’s, opting instead to maintain a diffuse offering of services around the city. Meanwhile, homelessness and vagrancy remain “major” problems throughout the city, according to Dallas residents.