Frequently Asked Questions

Poverty is a persistent problem in San Antonio. Rent, food, gas, and home prices are on the rise, making it increasingly difficult for San Antonio residents experiencing economic challenges to stay afloat while also chasing after opportunities that will help their families, children, and communities thrive.

We’re often told that poverty results from lousy individual choices or people not wanting to work. The reality is that some families do not have affordable and reliable childcare or transportation to work, which is fundamental for any job. People who do have work are working hard–often at multiple jobs–but many jobs simply do not pay enough to lift families with low incomes out of poverty.

To understand why poverty is so prevalent and persistent in our city, we must understand the history and policies of our city that create barriers to prosperity. We must also question and unpack the false narratives around poverty to tell the real story of how it manifests. Differing access to housing, education, food, healthcare, transportation, and employment influences the lives of our neighbors. Poverty is often bigger than individual behavior – it is the result of a set of obstacles outside of any one person’s control.

In San Antonio, where you live matters and profoundly impacts your health, opportunities for quality education, employment, and overall quality of life. Families in communities with lower incomes should have access to the same resources and opportunities as families in affluent communities, but we know this is not the case.

Economic division in San Antonio can be traced back to historical policies and practices based on people’s race and background, resulting in a concentration of poverty and far less access to standard resources–from paved streets to healthcare centers to schools, libraries, and parks–in certain neighborhoods. While some of these practices, like redlining, may no longer be in place, they created a profound ripple effect, keeping neighborhoods racially and economically divided.

Barriers exist between San Antonio neighborhoods that influence the funding our schools receive, the jobs we can apply for, the types of transportation we have access to, and the amount of time we have away from work to spend with our families.

Building healthy, prosperous communities is essential because neighborhoods shape children’s lives. Studies show that the ZIP code of a child’s birth is a top predictor of education, professional achievement, mental and physical health, and even life expectancy.

San Antonio is the most-impoverished large metro area in the United States, with 14.2% of residents living in poverty. Latino/a and Black persons, particularly children, are consistently the most impacted by economic inequity in Texas.

People with jobs also experience poverty. A larger proportion of our San Antonio neighbors living in poverty are employed, compared with Texas and the U.S. overall. Fifty-two percent of Bexar county residents are asset limited, income constrained, and employed (also known as ALICE). These individuals are earning above the federal poverty line yet are struggling to accord basic household necessities. 

In our city, women and single-parent families are particularly affected by poverty, with 55% of San Antonio households living in poverty being headed by a single female. 27.2% of San Antonio children under 18 live in poverty compared to 22.9% in Texas and 20.3% in the U.S. Additionally, one in five Bexar County children experience food insecurity.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated long-standing gaps in prosperity in San Antonio, but it’s important to note that these problems existed long before the pandemic. The pandemic worsened food insecurity, access to health care, internet access, and financial security, among many other things.

Low-income communities in Bexar County have also been the most impacted by COVID-related infections and deaths throughout the pandemic. According to an analysis by KSAT of COVID-19 deaths by ZIP code, communities with high poverty rates, larger household sizes, low health insurance rates, and lower median incomes had the highest death and infection rates.

The pandemic spurred anti-poverty programs in San Antonio, but residents still haven’t seen long-term change. The poverty rate has hardly budged since 2020, and San Antonio remains one of the poorest metro areas in the country.

The biblical mandate to care for vulnerable community members is a huge part of what it means to be a Christian. Micah 6:8 entreats us to “do justice” and Matthew 25:40 exhorts us to serve “the least of these my brothers.”

Jesus also calls us to : “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31) and “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind … and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27).

The commitment to “neighboring” is at the heart of the gospel. When Jesus is asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:25–37) he responds with a powerful story that offers a clear answer: you can be a neighbor to whomever you encounter in need. As San Antonians, we believe we need to keep hearing that question and attending to that answer. We need to lean into what it means to be a neighbor today–and to start by listening and learning.

We’re better together than we are alone, and we know that with the support of our neighbors, family, and friends, all of us have a better shot at achieving our shared dreams for our city.

Fighting poverty doesn’t just improve the lives of people experiencing it. Our collective well-being is linked to one another. Poverty and inequities hurt all of us in the long run, undermining our ability to relate to one another, harming our economic growth, and increasing political and social tensions across our communities.

“Since this country’s founding, we have not allowed our diversity to be our superpower and the result is that the United States is not more than the sum of its disparate parts. But it could be. And if it were, all of us would prosper. In short, we must emerge from this crisis in our republic with a new birth of freedom. Rooted in the knowledge that we are so much more, when the we in we the people is not some of us, but all of us. We are greater than and greater for the sum of us.” – Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

Studies suggest that inequality also hurts the economy – affecting the earning potential of everyone, including families who are well-off.

Moreover, when people have more wiggle room in their budget, they are more likely to spend it at shops and restaurants in their communities, growing local economies.

We believe that strong relationships across communities are crucial in creating accessible economic opportunities across the San Antonio region. We can’t even begin to know who our neighbors are and how to support them until we see them and engage with them.

What are our collective ambitions, their fears, and the challenges we face? What inspires us? Once we know, understand, and trust our neighbors, we’ll be able to connect with them around a vision for creating thriving communities with greater access to nutritious food, affordable housing, and supportive social networks.

These cash payments are money that families receive on a regular basis that they can choose to spend however they want, with no strings attached. The H.E. Butt Foundation has recently partnered with San Antonio foundations, nonprofits, business owners, and community leaders to explore these direct cash payments, or investments, with an organization called UpTogether. 

When families join UpTogether, they have the opportunity to receive extra cash with no strings attached. UpTogether invests in their members directly because of the belief that families know what’s best for themselves, trusting them to spend the money in ways that will help them get ahead. 

UpTogether’s members lead busy lives as community leaders, activists, family members, and caregivers, so they make the process of becoming a member as easy and seamless as possible. All members have to do is visit the UpTogether website and join.

Yes! In November 2020 UpTogether launched a pilot in San Antonio, where 1,000 eligible households received a total cash investment of $5,100, distributed over 27 months. In addition to the cash payments, families received support through UpTogether’s online platform, which helps members create powerful online communities that strengthen relationships between neighbors and build much-needed support systems.

Since UpTogether opened its doors, they have invested more than $135 million in over 200,000 people living at or below the federal poverty line, and during the pandemic when so many Texans were in freefall, they quickly put $10 million directly in the hands of people who needed it most.

UpTogether has a proven track record of distributing money throughout communities, and they have seen how UpTogether members’ financial situations have transformed after receiving cash payments. Families know best what they need and cash gives them flexibility to address needs that other types of social programs and support may not necessarily cover.

Everyone deserves the breathing room and mental space to actually plan for their futures, and with extra cash, UpTogether trusts that their members can make the best decision to build their businesses, pay for college courses to jumpstart their careers, boost their savings, or pay for basic home repairs, school supplies, and books for their kids.

Data UpTogether gathered shows that before COVID, on average, after two years of engaging with UpTogether, members:

• Increased their monthly savings account balance from $311 to $976 and increased their monthly income by 23% 
• Increased retirement investment account from $602 to $1,256 and increased total liquid assets from $759 to $2,396 
• Increased monthly business income by 77% (from $164 to $290) with 66% of new family-owned business activity 
• Reported their children had excellent, good, or improvement in grades (88%)

The flexibility of cash also improves people’s mental and emotional wellbeing. According to a study conducted by UpTogether, the VELA Education Fund, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc., and the Walton Family Foundation, UpTogether members who received cash saw improvements to their mental health and emotional stability, helping them focus on their goals and children’s education rather than how to keep the lights on.

Even through the pandemic, member-formed communities stayed strong. According to the same study, a majority of members shared that they received the support they needed from their communities all or almost all the time.

UpTogether also provides an online platform for people to create powerful online communities that strengthen relationships and give members a much-needed support system. The platform lets its members create groups where they can offer words of affirmation, share rides or childcare, and find meaningful ways to give back to their communities. The platform works like an ad-free and secure social media site, but exclusively for goal setting, skill-sharing, and resource pooling.

UpTogether recently conducted a study about how members are using the platform and they found that families with the lowest incomes rely on community groups the most, showing that people with the fewest resources are banding together to lift one another up.

In San Antonio alone, members have created or joined nearly 1,000 different groups to share their expertise and skills, truly making a difference in each other’s lives. Texans are providing transportation, food, emotional support, caregiving, money, physical labor, tutoring, and even housing to other members of the UpTogether community. By strengthening social ties and connections, members are also connecting with one another to find new jobs and springboard their careers.

Cash investment programs do not replace vital existing social support programs, but rather supplement them.

Pre-existing social support programs are important when addressing our most important needs, like food, housing, health care, etc. However, there are other individual, urgent aspects of daily life that these systems do not address, like transportation needs, school expenses, debts, and many, many more.

For families to thrive, we need to get cash in their hands while also accessing the existing network of social support programs.

Cash investment, or guaranteed income,  pilot programs are increasing in frequency nationwide, with many completed, ongoing, or upcoming projects across the county and more announced every month. These pilots are not niche or coastal initiatives but deeply American opportunities to address problems around poverty that have persisted in this nation for generations.

Federal programs are also proving the benefits of unrestricted cash. The COVID-19  stimulus payments and the expanded Child Tax Credit show that money flowing directly into people’s pockets eases financial strain and improves wellbeing.

An analysis from researchers at the University of Michigan found that stimulus checks significantly reduced hunger and financial instability by 40%, and reported adverse mental health symptoms fell by 20%.

The expanded Child Tax Credit, a federal program that gives unrestricted monthly payments to 90% of families with children, is expected to dramatically reduce child poverty and anxiety. According to researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, the Child Tax Credit is expected to reduce child poverty by an astounding 45 percent — from 14 percent to 7 and a half percent. ​​​​Additionally, a single Child Tax Credit payment reduced financial anxiety for 56% of families who received it.

Individuals and families receiving unrestricted cash payments spend it on basic needs and life-changing resources like school supplies, books, groceries, and utilities. Data from the Census Household Pulse survey shows that families primarily spent their recent Child Tax Credit payments on basic needs. 

To keep up to date on UpTogether, follow them on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also explore all of the content on their website.