Close to Home collaborates, studies, and listens in order to guide planning efforts by addressing homelessness in our area. And through the Diversion Program, they are able to address housing crises at the moment they occur.
Tell us about Close to Home
Close to Home, founded in 2015, serves as the lead agency for San Antonio and Bexar County’s homeless response system, the Alliance to House Everyone. We align funding, strengthen services, and drive community coordinated policy change, while grounding every decision in data and lived experience, to ensure everyone in our community has a place to call home.
How does the Diversion Program help the community?
The Diversion Program plays a critical role in preventing individuals and families from entering homelessness by addressing housing crises at the moment they occur and helping people remain safely housed or quickly secure alternative housing. By intervening early, the program reduces the number of households that enter the homeless response system, allowing shelters and emergency resources to remain available for those with the most acute needs. Diversion is also a highly cost-effective strategy: it is significantly less expensive to provide a one-time boost of financial assistance, which uses trauma-informed evaluation, than it is to serve a household once they have become homeless and require emergency shelter, case management, and longer-term interventions. In this way, the Diversion Program strengthens the overall homeless response system while preserving stability and resources for the broader community.
What is coming up for Close to Home that you want to tell Impact San Antonio?
Close to Home, as the lead agency of our Continuum of Care (CoC), has been diligently navigating and guiding the community’s response to rapid changes within the federal infrastructure in our community regarding housing insecurity and homelessness. As the area’s trusted Collaborative Applicant of the CoC, we have been aligning our local Homeless Response System through emergency responses of inclement weather and are excited to share more details about our agency’s work in 2026 and 2027.
How do you feel about Impact San Antonio and what they do for our community?
Impact San Antonio does critical work by providing help and maximizing outcomes for nonprofits in San Antonio and Bexar County. Their work weaves the beautiful tapestry of our beloved community into a vibrant, thriving, and well-balanced ecosystem.
