{"id":1017758,"date":"2026-08-22T20:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017758\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T20:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T20:53:15","slug":"data-shows-health-issues-increase-among-san-antonios-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017758\/","title":{"rendered":"Data shows health issues increase among San Antonio&#8217;s homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A greater share of San Antonio\u2019s homeless population is reporting mental health issues, chronic disease and disabling conditions compared to three years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since 2023, the number of homeless individuals in Bexar County reporting a mental health condition has increased by 29%, chronic illness by 22% and one or more disabling conditions by 7%, according to data presented by Close to Home, Bexar County\u2019s federally-designated agency responsible for coordinating regional efforts to reduce homelessness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Close to Home President and CEO Katie Wilson, San Antonio has made progress on reducing chronic homelessness, specifically those with disabilities who have been homeless for more than a year. But \u201cwe struggle to help people access treatment beds (and) identify step down options after treatment,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The organization held its annual state of homelessness meeting Wednesday, where local leaders gathered to talk about successes and areas that need improvement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBeyond having a safe place to stay, the most crucial services are those that help people actually access and stay connected to care,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat includes behavioral health and substance use treatment, primary and specialty healthcare, medication management, transportation to appointments, benefits enrollment, and help navigating what can be a very complicated healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2025, 13,740 people sought homelessness assistance across Bexar County. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBy comparison, our emergency shelter served 7,186 people over the course of the year,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cAnd while those measures are not a one-to-one comparison, together, they still demonstrate the significant volume of need our system is being asked to respond to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">San Antonio lost <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/psychiatric-beds-to-disappear-this-week-as-laurel-ridge-reduces-capacity\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds of psychiatric health beds<\/a> earlier this year with the closure of Laurel Ridge Treatment Center, an issue that Wilson expects will bring more challenges to the behavioral health system in San Antonio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The data is based on limited year-by-year snapshots of the homeless population in San Antonio, but could point to a sicker homeless population in San Antonio more burdened by mental and physical health challenges than in previous years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rhonda Mundhenk, President and CEO of Haven for Hope, San Antonio\u2019s largest homeless shelter and services organization, said that if it is a true increase, there are two possibilities: the existing homeless population in San Antonio is getting sicker, or people who are newly homeless are entering the system sicker to begin with \u2014 or likely some combination of each.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"586\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Brenda-Bazan-Haven-for-Hope-young-adult-program-anniversary-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5377663\"  \/>Haven for Hope opened in 2010 and has provides services for the homeless population. Credit: Brenda Baz\u00e1n \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mundhenk explained that mental and physical health conditions both contribute to and are exacerbated by homelessness. Severe and persistent mental health conditions \u2014 untreated schizophrenia for example \u2014 can cause people to end up homeless. At the same time, living on the street often compounds or leads to new mental health issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf I am homeless, I may well be depressed about my circumstances,\u201d Mundhenk said. \u201cI may well be anxious about my safety on the streets. I may progress to a state of hypervigilance. I may have experiences on the streets that [lead to] a diagnosis like PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the physical health side, health systems simply aren\u2019t built for people without addresses, Mundhenk explained. And the more care needed for a chronic or disabling condition, the less likely someone living on San Antonio\u2019s streets is to get proper care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mundhenk said that Haven for Hope is \u201cdoubling down\u201d on addressing the intersection of health and homelessness by bringing new services to its campus in the next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson, too, pointed to mental and physical healthcare access as a priority for addressing the city\u2019s homelessness issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen someone remains outside, it does not necessarily mean they have refused help,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes the right resource simply isn\u2019t available when they need it. That\u2019s why capacity has to be about more than adding beds, although that\u2019s part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A greater share of San Antonio\u2019s homeless population is reporting mental health issues, chronic disease and disabling conditions&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1017759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,11399,70774,22213,210,1142,7265,214574,517,123443,138316,7202,7203,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7819],"class_list":["post-1017758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-chronic-disease","tag-close-to-home","tag-haven-for-hope","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-homelessness","tag-katie-wilson","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-beds","tag-rhonda-mundhenk","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wc-500-750"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117141150789777342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}