San Antonio is pulling its financial support from the downtown Holiday Inn that has been serving as a low-barrier homeless shelter, and the clock is ticking for the operator to figure out what happens next before the lease expires this fall. The shelter is currently using about 150 to 175 rooms and had roughly 106 people staying there this week, according to the operator. With both city and county budgets feeling tight, the future of the site now rests on emergency grants, help from Bexar County or some other short-term deal.
City officials plan to let the city's share of the lease run out on Oct. 31 and have not committed to continuing funding after that, as reported by KSAT. Nikisha Baker, president and CEO of San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries, told KSAT the nonprofit wants local government to stay at the table because “we don’t want to see it go away.”
According to city budget documents, the city shifted $4.8 million from its general fund this year to keep covering the lease after federal pandemic relief money dried up, while SAMMinistries has taken on the operating costs. Those same documents report the shelter served 526 people in its first two budget years and that more than half of clients left for housing or treatment, a rate city staff point to as a sign the model has worked for many residents.
SAMMinistries is chasing $7.5 million in non-competitive capital funding from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to buy, build or rehab a permanent location. The application is due in early July, and the nonprofit expects to hear back sometime in August or September, according to KSAT. Even if that request is approved, Baker estimates it would take nine to twelve months for a new site to open, which could leave a long gap for the people currently staying at the hotel.
How The Hotel Became A Shelter
The 313-room Holiday Inn at 318 W. César E. Chávez Blvd. began operating as a low-barrier shelter after City Council signed off in 2023 on agreements that committed up to $8.8 million for the lease and up to $7.1 million to SAMMinistries to run the facility, according to reporting by San Antonio Report. The property has also been pulled into a legal fight, with the San Antonio Express-News reporting that minority co-owners have sued, saying they were cut out of a lease transfer that affects the hotel.
Officials, County And Next Steps
City housing staff say they will lean on the broader homeless-response network to temporarily absorb people now staying at the Holiday Inn while elected officials hammer out their budgets. Councilwoman Sukh Kaur has warned that shutting down one of San Antonio's few low-barrier shelters would be a mistake, while Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai has said the county will "consider everything" as it weighs the shelter against other priorities.
What Comes Next For Residents
All eyes now turn to September, when the City Council and Commissioners Court are expected to vote on their budgets, and to what SAMMinistries can line up before then. The nonprofit says it will look at scattering residents among smaller temporary locations if the Holiday Inn beds are not preserved. Shelter leaders have said running roughly 175 units without city or state support is "not reasonable," so the near future will determine whether the program shrinks, moves or survives on short-term emergency funding.
For the moment, the Holiday Inn remains open under SAMMinistries' management, but both the agency and its residents are stuck in limbo until grant decisions and budget votes come in. Advocates, council members and county leaders are tracking that July application deadline and the September budget calendar to see whether downtown hangs on to a large low-barrier shelter option or watches it disappear when the lease ends.
