SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio has effectively ended veteran homelessness, Mayor Ivy Taylor said Friday.
Taylor made the announcement in front of City Hall, 14 months after making her Mayors Challenge to End Veteran Homelessness pledge in January 2015.
City officials said they met the goal by March 31, as promised, but the paperwork wasn't approved by the federal government until Monday.
Taylor and other officials, including U.S Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, announced that San Antonio has housed or almost housed 1,335 San Antonio veterans since January 2015. It took an average of 46 days to find a home, officials said. The effort was helped by a $2.1 million contribution by USAA.
"We can proudly say that veteran homelessness fell 36 percent between 2010 and 2015," Castro said.
Some of the homeless, however, said they know a veteran still sleeping in the streets. Alex Callihea said he's been on the streets for about a year, and has a friend named Ruben who is homeless and served in the 82nd Airborne.
"She doesn't know she ain't on the street. How does she know?" Callihea said.
Taylor said the system will never be perfect. The government calls it an "effective" end to homelessness, which means that the city has the names of all the homeless veterans in San Antonio and has put them in a place or at least offered them one. They said the system allows them to quickly get a veteran off the street.
"Today is just the start. We know that today there could be someone that re-emerged onto the streets," Taylor said. "So it's a process in order for us to maintain functional zero."
Castro said the accomplishment is the framework and that it marks the beginning, not the end, of the work.
U.S. Homeless Veterans by State - Per Capita | HealthGrove
"This does not mean that there will literally never be a night where a veteran is on the street," Castro said.
Callihea was asked whether he agrees that the city has found all the homeless veterans.
"No. of course not. How could they?" Callihea said.
The city encourages veterans and their families who are struggling with homelessness to contact South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless at 210-220-2382 or via email at contactsarah@sarahomeless.org.