Commissioner Calvert Unveils $350M Housing Proposal Amid Rising Homelessness
Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert is calling for immediate, large-scale action to address San Antonio’s worsening housing crisis.
During a press conference joined by District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo, members of The Alliance to House Everyone (including Haven for Hope, SAMMinistries, Corazon Ministries, and Close to Home), and Towne Twin Village President Mark Wittig, Calvert introduced a sweeping proposal aimed at reshaping San Antonio’s approach to homelessness.
“I felt it was time to sound the alarm and elevate the conversation to the community—to ask: Is this the type of crisis we want to tackle after it’s too late?” Calvert stated on Thursday.
His plan: a seven-year strategy to create 3,000 Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) units—with additional transitional options to assist another 3,000 individuals experiencing homelessness.
San Antonio Still Behind on Proven Housing Solutions
San Antonio remains the last major city in Texas without a comprehensive permanent supportive housing network. PSH—housing with wraparound services like mental health care, job training, and case management—is considered the gold standard for addressing chronic homelessness. Cities like Austin and Houston have already invested heavily in PSH infrastructure.
Calvert’s plan would catch Bexar County up, proposing $350 million in the next housing bond to fund:
- Permanent Supportive Housing
- Affordable and workforce housing
- Transitional shelters (including pallet shelters and clean tent villages)
- Emergency shelter units
- Owner-occupied home repairs and aging-in-place upgrades
- Affordable senior housing
- Rapid rehousing programs
A Crisis Too Big to Ignore
Calvert emphasized the urgency: “For those of us who are from San Antonio, we have seen more people unhoused than ever—mothers, veterans, working families, and elders are living without shelter, safety, or stability.”
The 2024 Point-in-Time count recorded 3,372 people experiencing homelessness—but Haven for Hope served over 9,800 people last year. Projections estimate that up to 6,000 more could become homeless by 2030 if housing capacity isn’t increased now.
And the cost of doing nothing? Massive.
- Over $100 million in uncompensated care at University Health
- $70–$90/day in jail costs for minor infractions tied to homelessness
- $20+ million/year spent by the City of San Antonio on law enforcement and EMS responses to homelessness
“These are real people, not just numbers,” Calvert said. “Is this the type of crisis we want to tackle after it’s too late?”
Federal Cuts and Local Inflation Are Adding Fuel to the Fire
The Commissioner’s warning comes as the federal government considers severe cuts to key housing programs, including:
- Permanent supportive housing grants
- Community Development Block Grants (CDBG)
- Local rental assistance programs
At the same time, local conditions are becoming untenable for working families. From 2020 to 2024, the average cost of a one- to two-bedroom apartment in San Antonio rose by roughly 15%, while overall consumer prices surged 16%. Wages have failed to keep up. Nearly 27% of renters in the metro area are now severely cost-burdened, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
“Families that were barely holding on are now slipping through the cracks—cracks that soon may not have federal rental assistance to prevent people from living on our streets,” Calvert said.
A Land Bank and Trauma-Informed Design
As part of the solution, Calvert also proposed the creation of a County land bank to identify and repurpose underutilized public land for affordable housing development. The goal is to design master-planned, trauma-informed communities that offer not just housing, but long-term stability.
These would include:
- On-site mental health and addiction treatment
- Workforce development and job training programs
- Neighborhood-scale supportive housing in 250-unit clusters for integration and sustainability
“Real Solutions Are Not Cheap. But Inaction Costs More.”
Permanent supportive housing units cost $150,000 to $200,000 each. Transitional shelter options, such as pallet homes, range from $7,500 to $25,000 per unit. But Calvert argues the math favors investing upfront in housing, rather than cycling people through jails, hospitals, and street sweeps.
“We’ve been doing the inhumane sweeps for years, and they are not working,” Calvert said. “Investing in housing—particularly PSH, which reduces jail bookings, ER visits, and 911 calls—is both fiscally prudent and morally essential.”
As Bexar County faces what could become an overwhelming surge in homelessness, the question now is whether leaders and voters will back this multi-million-dollar plan—or continue to fall further behind as the crisis grows.
