As San Antonio’s homeless response network continues to grow, SAMMinistries officials are turning their attention to what they say is one of the city’s most vulnerable and fastest growing groups — young adults navigating life without stable housing.
At Charlie’s Place, the newest home for the drop-in Young Adult Stability and Support (YASS) Center, staff works with clients between the ages of 18 and 24, helping them rebuild stability through case management, showers, laundry and access to mental health care.
Originally launched in 2022, the program has relocated twice before finding a permanent home this year in a renovated space below SAMMinistries’ administrative offices at 1919 NW Loop 410. The new site offers consistency and a stronger foundation for young adults who staff say are often underserved by traditional shelters that focus on short-term housing rather than life-skills development.
The center’s new name honors Charlie Naylor, the late son of local philanthropist Susan Naylor, who helped fund the renovation. SAMMinistries CEO Nikisha Baker said Naylor wanted the space to carry her son’s name after losing him to an overdose.
“She wanted to create an environment where young adults who may be struggling with mental health, with substance use, with housing instability would have a safe, judgment-free zone,” she said.
Clients at Charlie’s Place participate in a bracelet-making workshop under the supervision of a case manager on Oct. 20, 2025. Credit: Diego Medel / San Antonio Report
The program itself grew out of SAMMinistries’ broader effort to address rising youth homelessness. Three years ago, local data began to show that the number of young adults experiencing housing instability was increasing faster than any other demographic, prompting the organization to launch the YASS center as an early-intervention model.
“To a certain degree, this is upstream homeless services work. We’re wanting to stop youth and young adults from falling into that cycle,“ Baker said. “Youth and young adults are especially vulnerable to gang violence, to trafficking, to substance use and this population specifically is the future of our community, so we want to make a difference with them today.”
Baker added that many clients have aged out of foster care or been involved with the child welfare system, leaving them without the basic life skills needed to live independently — a core focus of the work at Charlie’s Place.
“If 50 percent of the kids that we’re seeing age out of the foster care system, showing them the things like, how do you do your laundry? How do you use a dishwasher? How do you live independently? That’s a significant piece of the work,” she said. “We don’t seem to have a shortage of youth and young adults who are willing to engage, who want the resource. It is being there and able to provide the resource and that’s part of why we’re so adamant about creating this system.”
Inside Charlie’s Place, clients charge their phones, play board games and sip coffee while case managers assist them in securing housing, employment and the documents needed to access both.
A kitchen stocked with air fryers and burners provides two daily meals and snacks. Down the hall, sleeping pods, washers, dryers, showers, and a quiet room offer a rare sense of comfort for people living day to day. A clothing and hygiene closet is stocked with basics — socks, shampoo, deodorant and menstrual products.
The community closet where clients can receive an allotted amount of clothing, shoes and hygiene essentials each month while they wait for permanent housing at Charlie’s Place on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025. Credit: Diego Medel / San Antonio Report
“As soon as nine hits, they can come in and relax,” said Program Manager Brittney Palacios, who oversees the daily operation. “Anytime they come to us with anything they need, the case managers will figure it out. We’ll help them.”
Palacios said clients can also access mental health counseling through a licensed professional who visits weekly. The staff of five case managers, led by Francisco Flores, guides clients through identification recovery to the housing-referral process.
“We help with ID recovery, birth certificates, Social Security cards — whatever paperwork they need,” Flores said. ”Once they get selected by a program and get housed, they can have their rent paid for one year, even up to two years and that’s our main goal.”
Since the program’s launch, Baker said Charlie’s Place has served more than 600 youth and young adults, with about 40% placed into permanent housing. About 20% of their clients earned their high school diploma. Another 20% secured employment.
“That’s the pathway to being stable for the long term. And so we’ve seen tremendous success,” Baker said. ”We had a long way to go, but we have seen a lot of positive things happen out of our YASS center.”
That success, she added, means even more with this younger demographic who can reshape their lives before homelessness becomes chronic. A mission SAMMinistries plans to double down on with plans to open 48 to 60 transitional housing beds by the end of the year; a place where youth will be able to stay for up to two years while working on the issues that led them to become homeless.
“Whether that’s poverty, generational poverty, lack of education, unemployment, underemployment — you pick the cause,” Baker said. “We are all in on transitional housing for youth and young adults and building that out for our community, to continue to seek the upstream opportunities to address homelessness.”
Those numbers and new beds will serve people like Savanna Meeks, 23, who has turned to the center on and off for several years while working to regain her footing.
Meeks first came to the program after hearing about it from friends. At the time, she said she was struggling with addiction, far from her home state of Montana. She’s experienced homelessness since she was 19.
“When I first got introduced to this, I didn’t know what to expect. What do they do? What do they help?” she said.
“Frank and them have been such a big help. I was actually able to get out of the situation that I was in and ever since then, like, I’ve been doing a whole lot better. I’ve actually had a lot more hope.”
Lead case manager Francisco Flores guides clients through a bracelet-making workshop at Charlie’s Place on Monday. Credit: Diego Medel / San Antonio Report
Meeks has become a near-daily presence at the YASS center. Most mornings she arrives when the doors open and stays until close, using the center as a safe space to focus on her next steps.
“They have very big, warm smiles,” she said. “They treat you like you’re their own kids. They make sure you’re okay, they make sure you don’t need anything. They just have warmth in their hearts.”
Meeks now has pending interviews for jobs at restaurants and is in the process of finding an apartment, where she hopes she will finally find stability for herself and her three kids. For her, the hardest part of being homeless has been learning who to trust.
“Not being originally from Texas and trusting the wrong people has been hard,” she said. “But once you find the right people, it’s like you’re finally back on track — and I found them here.”
Meeks said she has plans to enroll in college once she secures stable housing.
“To me, this is like a safe haven. It feels like home — a home that I didn’t think would exist for me,” she said. “They have faith in us. We’re really trying and working our butts off to finally be safe. For all the young adults out there experiencing homelessness, have faith and just come to YASS.”