SAN ANTONIO – For more than a decade, Thrive Youth Center has served LGBTQ+ young people 18-24, offering emergency shelter and rapid rehousing during some of the most vulnerable periods of their lives.
Over the next two years, the nonprofit will begin work on a new housing development on Buena Vista Street on San Antonio’s West Side. The project intends to expand space and stability for its clients, with an expected opening of 2029.
The San Antonio Area Foundation has recognized Thrive’s work in the community through general operations grant funding.
For Justin Holley, Thrive’s Executive Director, the housing project and the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community are inseparable.
“You can’t have one without the other,” Holley said. “We have to be resilient right now. We have to be cognizant of what’s going on in the world, especially for the LGBTQ+ youth we serve. They’re being kicked out of their homes, running away or carrying trauma from their childhoods — and then they don’t have a place to live.”
To him, the new project is a response to that reality.
Affordable housing is increasingly out of reach for young people who lack the experience or resources to secure jobs allowing them to have safe housing. And for many, safety and affordability are rarely found in the same place.
“If you’re 18, 19, or 20 years old, you can’t find an apartment for $500 a month,” Holley noted.
What’s needed, he added, is an affirming place where young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness can stabilize and begin rebuilding their lives.
After 25 years in the hotel industry, Holley came to see housing not just as shelter, but as something that restores dignity and a sense of self-worth.
He draws a line between hospitality and social services.
“It’s the same logic I learned in the service industry,” he said. “More nonprofits are looking at the people they serve and asking, ‘How can this experience be better?’ Then they build programs around [answers to] that question. If we can fill their toolbelt with everything they need, they’ll go on to be productive members of the community and give back in their own way,” he said.
One of the two grants Thrive has received from the Area Foundation is for $50,000 in unrestricted funding. Unlike program-specific grants, he said, these funds give him room to think beyond day-to-day operations.
“Unrestricted funding gives me the freedom to build relationships, learn from other organizations, and look for new opportunities,” Holley said.
Thrive also has received an Area Foundation Future Ready Grant of $55,000 for general operations and education.
It’s a welcomed show of support in particularly tough times, making it harder than in recent years to celebrate the otherwise joyous occasion of Pride Month.
“I think we’re a little more self-aware,” Holley said. “There’s also a bit more fear than there has been in the past, and that’s sad. But I also feel like the fighter in us is coming out. More and more people are willing to step up, step out and show their pride … even with that fear still there.”
Andrea Figueroa, the Area Foundation’s Director of Youth Success, echoed that sentiment as a show of support for the organization’s nonprofit partners.
“Pride is a celebration of resilience and belonging,” Figueroa said, describing Thrive as a “local expanding solution” within San Antonio’s housing ecosystem — an organization that is steadily moving from crisis response toward long-term stability.
Figueroa said that the Area Foundation has been reflecting in recent years on how to best support nonprofit partners in our region.
“Our role as a funder is to center community voices, focus on closing opportunity gaps for those who need it most, and advance community-led solutions,” she said.
Want to make an impact with the Area Foundation?
Learn about giving options across various impact areas – Cultural Vibrancy, Livable and Resilient Communities, Successful Aging and Youth Success. You can also contribute to scholarship funds or general unrestricted funding.
