Jasmine, 24, thought her car was the one thing that was keeping her life together. She had driven it nearly 18 hours from Indiana to Houston, carrying her entire life in a couple of suitcases. All she wanted to do was claw her way back to the starting line.
Houston felt like the fresh start she needed. For a while, the car was her home.
That is, until someone put a gun to her head and stole it, leaving her homeless.
She is one of thousands experiencing homelessness in Houston.
According to regional counts conducted by the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County, 3,325 people were homeless as of the night of Jan. 27, 2025, in Harris, Fort Bend, and Montgomery counties.
The results showed an increase of 45 people from the 2024 count, which the organization said reflected “relative stability in the region’s overall homeless population.”
Houston’s local homeless response system, The Way Home, is a network of over 100 partners, including nonprofits and local governments, working to make homelessness rare.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire had pledged to end homelessness in the city. Last February, Houston launched the Initiative to End Street Homelessness Fund, seeking a $70 million investment. As of May, the city had yet to amass $40 million to reach its goal.
“Homelessness is a national problem that we are addressing locally. We are making progress, and the challenges would be worse without our program,” said Whitmire. “Our goal is clear: No one should have to sleep outside, and we remain focused on achieving that goal.”
Before Houston
Born in North Carolina, Jasmine grew up and completed high school in Arizona.
She moved to Houston in 2024.
But the job market did not match her expectations. She found work, but not at a wage that could sustain her rent and bills.
Savings dwindled rapidly and led to an eviction, which marked what she describes as a “trickle effect” into homelessness.
She reached out to family for help and eventually left Houston for a time, staying with her brother in Indiana, where she managed to buy a car.
She returned to Houston and picked up DoorDash work, saving what she could.
Then one night in Houston, everything changed.
When her car was stolen at gunpoint, Jasmine found herself in a city she had chosen, but with nowhere to go.
“That was it. I was actually on the streets of Houston,” she said.
In a hotel room she checked into, she realized it was the moment she would have to start fighting.
Covenant House
She first sought help from Star of Hope, a homeless shelter, and then Covenant House.
Covenant House, located near Downtown Houston, serves young people ages 18 to 24, including parents with children up to age 5. Nearly 70% of its visitors and residents are African American, per staff.
It recently opened a $55 million facility in Houston designed to prioritize youth.
The organization’s mission is to provide immediate shelter and wraparound supports so that young people can build stable futures.
Young people walk into the Youth Engagement Center and use the space to fill out job applications or rest.
“This is the first point of entry when a young person comes to us,” Covenant House’s Chief Program Officer Delesha Jones said to the Defender. “It’s a daily drop-in center, as well as a place that serves overnight stays. For the daily drop-in center, it’s really important that a young person has somewhere to come for a sanctuary. With the day-to-day chaos out there, this space serves as just…come here, you’re welcome, get a meal, get a shower, just be comfortable and not worry about your safety.”
There are no prerequisites, except to show up and get the support one needs.
The dignity of that promise, particularly in a city where homelessness can feel invisible, meant the world to Jasmine.
“Honestly, I don’t feel like I’m in a homeless shelter,” she said. “I feel like I’m in a college dorm. I have all my notebooks out, I have my computer on my desk. The environment is on my side.”
Donors’ names adorn the walls at the center.
ADA-compliant facilities, lockers for walk-ins, laundry units, showers, and quiet rest areas dot the facility.
Once a youth decides to come in, they are immediately paired with a case manager.
Jones said each case manager works with no more than 15 young people to ensure personalized support, from obtaining vital documents to pursuing education and employment, and ultimately, housing.
After the Youth Engagement Center, young people can transition into Safe Haven emergency shelter, and then into Rites of Passage.
In the Rites of Passage phase, youth live in dorm-like apartments, learn to navigate shared housing, cook for themselves, manage food budgets, and build routines that stretch limited incomes.
“If you did all three or four steps, Youth Engagement Center, Safe Haven, Rites of Passage, and then the apartment living, you could be with us for up to a year or, year and a half,” explained Felicia Broussard, Chief Philanthropy Officer at the shelter.”
Covenant House embeds health services, both physical and mental, into residents’ daily lives.
Winnie Ombese, director of clinical services, described a no-cost clinic that offers primary care, including physicals, STD testing, referrals for dental or vision care, alongside behavioral health support.
Partnerships with Baylor help ensure therapy. Ombese also noted that staff help youth enroll in public health programs so care can continue beyond Covenant House.
Soon after, the youth are assisted with workforce development, often with fragmented employment histories and limited education.
Chief Workforce Officer, Dr. David Sandberg, explained that the goal is not to find any minimum wage job, but a career that can sustain stable housing.
“Many of the youth currently work in fast food restaurants and it’s not a living wage,” Sandberg says. “We’re trying to set them up for success so that they can have a job that makes a wage that enables them to rent an apartment and pay the utility bills and all the things that we have to do.”
Jasmine’s story is echoed by others like Ajay, who fled a violent household in Michigan to seek a new life in Houston. He faced the harsh reality of survival without a safety net, sleeping at the airport, in parks, and eventually turning to sex work to survive.
“That was making me money,” Stephenson said. “Even though it was beneath me, I had to do it because I didn’t know what else to do.”
While on the streets, Stephenson recalled being stabbed in the wrist and beaten by clients who refused to pay, highlighting the dangers of being unhoused.
The shelter’s network of helpers
Covenant House is sustained by a network of donors and volunteers.
Clint Lister, a long-time volunteer, coordinates fundraisers like “Sleep Out,” an event encouraging community members to spend a night outdoors to raise both money and awareness of youth homelessness.
“We don’t have enough counseling services to address the mental health crisis that’s going on within our youth,” Lister explained. “They have so much exposure and so many different things that they’re dealing with every single day. We’re quick to give corporations tax breaks but we’re not doing enough to feed our education system or general resource systems for our kids to be able to go somewhere safely.”
Jasmine’s next chapter
For Jasmine, the hard nights are becoming memories rather than cycles.
Her path to independence is now being supported by case managers, peers, health services, workforce coaching, and poetry nights.
“I’m ready now. Leaving here, it would just be a change in scenery. That’s all the difference that would be,” she said.
For Covenant House, the main challenge ahead is to keep the funds coming.
The organization runs on federal and state funding, alongside private investments from foundations and individuals, said Chrystal Rivers, Director of Major Gifts.
Right now, it is looking for almost $10 million this year to continue to provide services.
“Houston has demonstrated that when there is a need, people will band together to make an impact. There’s a heart for others in this city, and there’s lots of work to be done, though.”
– Felicia Broussard, Chief Philanthropy Officer at Covenant House
“Houston has demonstrated that when there is a need, people will band together to make an impact,” Broussard added. “There’s a heart for others in this city, and there’s lots of work to be done, though.”
City policy and the politics of space
As homelessness persists, city policy has both evolved and sparked debate.
In 2025, the Houston City Council expanded a civility ordinance in certain downtown and East Downtown neighborhoods to ban sitting, lying down, or placing personal belongings on sidewalks at all hours.
Violations that can result in fines.
City council members who supported the ordinance framed it as part of efforts to connect people with services and reduce visible encampments.Those who opposed it said that such measures risk criminalizing homelessness instead of addressing root causes like housing scarcity and behavioral health needs.
