Opinion: Many in the downtown community say there has been an inadequate response from city staff, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council.
, funded by UT Health San Antonio, and we are taking a lot of people off the street. We have a needle exchange program, but right now fentanyl-laced heroin has reached epidemic levels. I’ve done four funerals for homeless people who have overdosed in the last year.
Meanwhile, many in the downtown community say there has been an inadequate response from city staff, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and City Council, despite the City of San Antonio’s Department of Human Services’ 2020Cite-and-release programs adopted by Bexar County in 2019 and the City of San Antonio in 2021 reduce the county jail population, free up police to address serious felonies, and allow minor offenses like marijuana possession to be dealt with via citation.
For 12 years now, San Antonio’s Haven for Hope has attracted national recognition as a leader in comprehensive treatment for homeless people and services provided by 180 partner agencies, but many individuals suffering from severe mental health issues, drug addiction, or chronic alcoholism are unwilling to leave the streets and enter the Haven’s treatment programs.
One complaint dating back to the start of the pandemic is the tradition of local authorities using the downtown Greyhound bus station as a drop-off site for people released from the county jail, while tens of thousands of migrants detained along the border have been placed on buses by the Border Patrol and transported to the Greyhound station, which lacks processing facilities or spaces.
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