Mission statement: Fund and place affordable housing/shelter units in San Antonio, emphasizing low barriers and low cost.
Housing A Thousand aims to keep expenses low to shelter as many individuals experiencing homelessness as possible. Currently, the founder/CEO is unpaid and works a day job to support himself, minimizing operational expenses. By extending the unpaid volunteer model as long as possible, we can maximize the funds going directly to house unsheltered individuals. Through multiple projects, we believe we can bring homelessness to functional zero in San Antonio, TX by creating a thousand housing/shelter units.
Many programs which seek to end homelessness focus on trying to resolve the "root causes" of homelessness. While this seems sensible, this approach often focuses on people’s personal issues and not on sheltering them. In extreme cases, this can mean denying people any form of shelter because they fail to meet “program standards” focused on their personal issues.
There are many “root causes” of homelessness, and not every "root cause" leads to people becoming unsheltered. This list below is often associated with individuals experiencing homelessness, but there are clear examples of people who, despite having one or more “root causes” of homelessness, remain sheltered:
Housing A Thousand treats homelessness differently. When shelter costs more, homelessness goes up. When shelter costs less, homelessness goes down. Therefore, Housing A Thousand focuses on driving down the cost of shelter. By maintaining focus on this goal, we will succeed in housing a thousand unsheltered individuals, driving homelessness back into history where it belongs.