SAN ANTONIO – The heat this week is dangerous, and it could even be deadly.
These high temperatures are just one concern in an overarching conversation about downtown safety. Random shootings and aggressive fights downtown have been a problem all summer and local organizations say the statistics are against unsheltered people.
“What are those top concerns right now?” KSAT reporter Avery Everett asked Alberto Rodriguez, the vice president of transformational operations at Haven for Hope.
“There’s a lot of crime that may not necessarily be targeting our unsheltered population, but just by them being out in the places where these crimes are happening, we are seeing that there are falling victims to these crimes as well,” Rodriguez said.
Keith Woods, a client at Haven, said he lived out of his car for a few weeks this year. He said his biggest concern was safety.
“It was horrible,” Woods said. “I had to choose, basically, between getting my car out of impound or paying the rent,”
Gay Lynn Schwenk, the chief operating officer at SAMMinistries, said people without shelter in San Antonio must regularly navigate factors out of their control.
“The folks that we serve are victims of crime much more often than they are the victimizers,” Schwenk said.
That’s why organizations like Haven and SAMMinistries are focused on outreach.
“If they’re experiencing an emotional, physical or safety concern, they should be able to ask for that help,” Rodriguez said.
