Jasmine Elizabeth Frank, 24, thought her automotive was the one factor that was retaining her life collectively. She had pushed it almost 18 hours from Indiana to Houston, carrying her whole life in a few suitcases. All she wished to do was claw her means again to the beginning line.
Houston felt just like the recent begin she wanted. For some time, the automotive was her house.
That’s, till somebody put a gun to her head and stole it, leaving her homeless.
Frank is certainly one of hundreds experiencing homelessness in Houston.
In line with regional counts carried out by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, 3,325 folks have been homeless as of the evening of Jan. 27, 2025, in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.
The outcomes confirmed a rise of 45 folks from the 2024 rely, which the group stated mirrored “relative stability within the area’s total homeless inhabitants.”
Houston’s native homeless response system, The Approach Dwelling, is a community of over 100 companions, together with nonprofits and native governments, working to make homelessness uncommon.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire had pledged to finish homelessness within the metropolis. Final February, Houston launched the Initiative to Finish Road Homelessness Fund, in search of a $70 million funding. As of Could, the town had but to amass $40 million to achieve its purpose.
“Homelessness is a nationwide downside that we’re addressing regionally. We’re making progress, and the challenges could be worse with out our program,” stated Whitmire. “Our purpose is obvious: Nobody ought to should sleep exterior, and we stay targeted on reaching that purpose.”
Earlier than Houston
Born in North Carolina, Frank grew up and accomplished highschool in Arizona.
She moved to Houston in 2024.
However the job market didn’t match her expectations. Frank discovered work, however not at a wage that would maintain her lease and payments.
Financial savings dwindled quickly and led to an eviction, which marked what she describes as a “trickle impact” into homelessness.
She reached out to household for assist and finally left Houston for a time, staying along with her brother in Indiana, the place she managed to purchase a automotive.
Frank returned to Houston and picked up DoorDash work, saving what she may.
Then one evening in Houston, every little thing modified.
When her automotive was stolen at gunpoint, Frank discovered herself in a metropolis she had chosen, however with nowhere to go.
“That was it. I used to be really on the streets of Houston,” she stated.
In a resort room Frank checked into, she realized it was the second she must begin combating.
Covenant Home
Frank first sought assist from Star of Hope, a homeless shelter, after which Covenant Home.
Covenant Home, positioned close to Downtown Houston, serves younger folks ages 18 to 24, together with dad and mom with youngsters as much as age 5. Practically 70% of its guests and residents are African American, per workers.
It not too long ago opened a $55 million facility in Houston designed to prioritize youth.
The group’s mission is to offer quick shelter and wraparound helps in order that younger folks can construct secure futures.
Younger folks stroll into the Youth Engagement Middle and use the house to fill out job functions or relaxation.
“That is the primary level of entry when a teenager involves us,” Covenant Home’s Chief Program Officer Delesha Jones stated to the Defender. “It’s a day by day drop-in heart, in addition to a spot that serves in a single day stays. For the day by day drop-in heart, it’s actually necessary that a teenager has someplace to return for a sanctuary. With the day-to-day chaos on the market, this house serves as simply…come right here, you’re welcome, get a meal, get a bathe, simply be snug and never fear about your security.”
There aren’t any stipulations, besides to indicate up and get the assist one wants.
The dignity of that promise, notably in a metropolis the place homelessness can really feel invisible, meant the world to Frank.
“Truthfully, I don’t really feel like I’m in a homeless shelter,” she stated. “I really feel like I’m in a school dorm. I’ve all my notebooks out, I’ve my pc on my desk. The setting is on my aspect.”
Donors’ names adorn the partitions on the heart.
ADA-compliant services, lockers for walk-ins, laundry items, showers, and quiet relaxation areas dot the power.
As soon as a youth decides to return in, they’re instantly paired with a case supervisor.
Jones stated every case supervisor works with not more than 15 younger folks to make sure customized assist, from acquiring important paperwork to pursuing training and employment, and finally, housing.
After the Youth Engagement Middle, younger folks can transition into Secure Haven emergency shelter, after which into Rites of Passage.
Within the Rites of Passage part, youth dwell in dorm-like residences, study to navigate shared housing, prepare dinner for themselves, handle meals budgets, and construct routines that stretch restricted incomes.
“In the event you did all three or 4 steps, Youth Engagement Middle, Secure Haven, Rites of Passage, after which the condo residing, you possibly can be with us for as much as a yr or, yr and a half,” defined Felicia Broussard, Chief Philanthropy Officer on the shelter.”
Covenant Home embeds well being companies, each bodily and psychological, into residents’ day by day lives.
Winnie Ombese, director of scientific companies, described a no-cost clinic that provides main care, together with physicals, STD testing, referrals for dental or imaginative and prescient care, alongside behavioral well being assist.
Partnerships with Baylor assist guarantee remedy. Ombese additionally famous that workers assist youth enroll in public well being packages so care can proceed past Covenant Home.
Quickly after, the youth are assisted with workforce improvement, typically with fragmented employment histories and restricted training.
Chief Workforce Officer, Dr. David Sandberg, defined that the purpose is to not discover any minimal wage job, however a profession that may maintain secure housing.
“Most of the youth at present work in quick meals eating places and it’s not a residing wage,” Sandberg says. “We’re attempting to set them up for fulfillment in order that they’ll have a job that makes a wage that permits them to lease an condo and pay the utility payments and all of the issues that now we have to do.”
Frank’s story is echoed by others like Ajay Stephenson, who fled a violent family in Michigan to hunt a brand new life in Houston. He confronted the cruel actuality of survival with out a security internet, sleeping on the airport, in parks, and finally turning to intercourse work to outlive.
“That was making me cash,” Stephenson stated. “Although it was beneath me, I needed to do it as a result of I didn’t know what else to do.”
Whereas on the streets, Stephenson recalled being stabbed within the wrist and crushed by shoppers who refused to pay.
The shelter’s community of helpers
Covenant Home is sustained by a community of donors and volunteers.
Clint Lister, a long-time volunteer, coordinates fundraisers like “Sleep Out,” an occasion encouraging group members to spend an evening open air to boost each cash and consciousness of youth homelessness.
“We don’t have sufficient counseling companies to handle the psychological well being disaster that’s happening inside our youth,” Lister defined. “They’ve a lot publicity and so many various issues that they’re coping with each single day. We’re fast to provide companies tax breaks however we’re not doing sufficient to feed our training system or basic useful resource programs for our youngsters to have the ability to go someplace safely.”
Jasmine Frank’s subsequent chapter
For Frank, the arduous nights have gotten reminiscences relatively than cycles.
Her path to independence is now being supported by case managers, friends, well being companies, workforce teaching, and poetry nights.
“I’m prepared now. Leaving right here, it might simply be a change in surroundings. That’s all of the distinction that may be,” she stated.
For Covenant Home, the primary problem forward is to maintain the funds coming.
The group runs on federal and state funding, alongside personal investments from foundations and people, stated Chrystal Rivers, Director of Main Presents.
Proper now, it’s searching for virtually $10 million this yr to proceed to offer companies.
“Houston has demonstrated that when there’s a want, folks will band collectively to make an influence. There’s a coronary heart for others on this metropolis, and there’s plenty of work to be performed, although.”
– Felicia Broussard, Chief Philanthropy Officer at Covenant Home
“Houston has demonstrated that when there’s a want, folks will band collectively to make an influence,” Broussard added. “There’s a coronary heart for others on this metropolis, and there’s plenty of work to be performed, although.”
Metropolis coverage and the politics of house
As homelessness persists, metropolis coverage has each developed and sparked debate.
In 2025, the Houston Metropolis Council expanded a civility ordinance in sure downtown and East Downtown neighborhoods to ban sitting, mendacity down, or putting private belongings on sidewalks in any respect hours.
Violations that can lead to fines.
Metropolis council members who supported the ordinance framed it as a part of efforts to attach folks with companies and scale back seen encampments.Those that opposed it stated that such measures danger criminalizing homelessness as an alternative of addressing root causes like housing shortage and behavioral well being wants.
