When Kayla Miranda became homeless, she decided that her family wouldn’t split up despite the circumstance.
“My mom would drive the car around and have the windows down so the air would come in so we could fall asleep,” recalled her daughter, 19-year-old Nadia Miranda-Colgrove, who was 11 when she experienced homelessness.
The family was homeless from 2016 to 2017, after Kayla Miranda’s ex-husband was deported and her mother died, among other life issues that happened within a span of months.
Nadia Miranda-Colgrove remembers doing her science homework on the roof of the parked car, and in the morning, getting ready with her siblings at a gas station with an open bathroom.
“It wasn’t great. We didn’t get really good sleep because we didn’t have a safe place to be at,” she said. “I don’t even know if my mom got sleep. It was just it was terrible.
“I just wish we had somewhere to stay.”
But it would have been 1,000 times more traumatizing for the family to separate, Kayla Miranda said, before hugging her daughter Monday afternoon in the family’s living room.
For others facing difficult circumstances, the City of San Antonio is exploring options to create a “crisis nursery” — an overnight shelter for children at immediate risk of abuse or neglect — and is kicking off the process by identifying the overall need in the community and the city’s capacity to provide services.
District 4 Councilwoman Adriana Rocha Garcia and District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez filed a City Council consideration request last fall to create a first-of-its kind crisis nursery. Community stakeholders have advocated for a pilot program, she said, echoing the need.
Crisis nursery models were started in the 1970s by grassroots organizations that wanted to provide immediate intervention for children at risk.
The goal, beyond providing a safe shelter for children, is to create a safety net for San Antonio parents without fear of separation and provide services to help address the root of the crisis, according to the council consideration request.
How the program would be implemented, where, and how much it would cost are all questions that need to be addressed in future conversations, council members and city staff agreed, but service areas should be in areas with greater need, the request said.
Last week, Jessica Dovalina, assistant director for the city’s Department of Human Services, told the city’s community health committee that it would be helping parents at the crisis nursery, too, by helping improve overall long-term stability for the family through intervention, parenting support groups and housing services
Intake would include an initial crisis assessment, and other services would include residential care, emergency services and follow-up services with no waiting period and at no cost to families, according to Rocha Garcia’s council consideration request.
Programs that go beyond short-term intervention could be established at center-based facilities in San Antonio, private homes and emergency shelters, Dovalina said. Similar models across the U.S. are funded by foundation grants, private donations and state and federal resources.
The program would also seek to reduce the need for interventions from Child Protective Services.
From age 13, Jeannette Rico was in the foster system in San Antonio until she aged out. Her family didn’t have stable housing, among other issues, so she was taken away, she said.
She described being separated from her family as scary, and said that requiring parents to be in programs would benefit them, while their kids have somewhere safe to stay. But the best thing would be to keep families together, she added.
“CPS has a lot of things you have to do,” she said, outlining the difficulties and struggles navigating the system. Alternatives which support parents are needed, she added.
District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito said she anticipated the need will be great.
District 3 Councilwoman Phyllis Viagran said the city should consider how it would handle care for children with special needs and should discuss a program aimed at reforming abusive parents.
Dovalina clarified the city would not require a police report to get help, and that the shelter is intended to protect children before abuse occurs and for parents facing immediate crises.
An internal workgroup within the city’s human services department will present a proposal for funding allocation and a feasibility assessment that would include best practices, similar programs that could be expanded, a budget request for City Council to consider for the fiscal year 2025 budget and proposed next steps to the health committee in May.
