The city of Houston’s housing department hopes to open a facility with 150 to 225 beds for homeless people in East Downtown sometime in early 2026.
The proposal comes as Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s administration ramps up efforts to get homeless people off the streets. The “superhub” is a key pillar of the multipronged initiative, framed as a housing-focused alternative to criminalization.
Housing department director Mike Nichols described the site as “a place of refuge for people with no other places to go.” It would be the first of multiple such hubs across the city, though the department only plans to have temporary beds in the centrally located “superhub.”
Compared to many of the other shelters in Harris County’s network containing about 2,000 temporary beds, the superhub would have a “low barrier” to entry with no program requirements, no pet prohibitions, the ability for couples to enter together and no restrictions on entry hours. It would serve as a “triage point,” connecting people with healthcare, psychiatric support, substance abuse programs and, ultimately, pathways to permanent housing.
According to the housing department, the upfront purchase price of the facility located at 419 Emancipation Avenue would be $16 million with an annual operating cost of $10 million to $14 million.
The 2-acre campus includes a 38,751-square-foot residential building with 75 rooms, each of which includes a full bathroom, as well as a commercial kitchen, commercial laundry facilities, a health clinic, “recreation/auditorium” space and administration offices. A separate 15,525-square-foot office building holds multipurpose rooms, a computer lab and flexible office spaces.
The proposed superhub was met with pointed questions from city council members and outright criticism from some community members.
“This sounds very necessary,” council member Sallie Alcorn said. “We have to do something, but there’s a lot of, ‘We hope we get this, we hope we get that, we hope the federal funding is here.’ I mean, it’s a big money commitment for years and years to come.”
Nichols, for the first time on Monday, referred to the city’s fundraising strategy as the “homelessness ramp-up plan,” in which $168 million is raised over three years — $56 million per year.
He previously stated the city hoped to raise $70 million per year. So far, the city’s first-year fund holds $49 million, including funding from the METRO transit authority, the federal government and private philanthropic foundations. Fundraising efforts are ongoing, and the department hopes to eventually transition to a fully local model not reliant on federal funds.
Nichols also pointed to $8 million recently allocated by Harris County for homelessness, which a Harris County housing department spokesperson said “will focus on serving people found in the outer reaches of Harris County but will also include areas of Houston as appropriate/needed.”
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Of the four community members who commented on the proposal, three spoke in opposition — including commercial real estate developer Bobby Orr, who pointed to the upcoming FIFA World Cup matches in 2026, the Republican National Convention in 2028 and the $2 billion overhaul of the George R. Brown Convention Center.
“That is the wrong location for this city … it’s undermining a $2 billion investment that we’re going to make in this city,” Orr said. “The timing is wrong … Are we showcasing homelessness, Houston’s homelessness, to the world?”
Second Ward resident Scott Singleton described the proposed facility — located near a condominium building and the Shell Energy Stadium — as “very scary to the neighbors.”
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In addition to the housing-focused initiatives from Nichols’ department, Houston police officers have been issuing more citations to homeless people after the city council expanded a rule intended to get them off sidewalks in certain parts of the city, including in the downtown and East Downtown areas.
“(Citations and arrests) have gone up,” said the mayor’s public safety and homeland security director, Larry Satterwhite. “There’s no doubt about that because we’re dealing with the population now that it’s a little bit more resistant … (but) we’re offering them help. This is another chance to say, ‘Hey, let’s leave this life. Here’s some help. Here’s some places to go. Here’s some resources.’ So, while it’s not what we want to do, it does give us another chance to work with this individual, and you have to hold accountability, or we will never solve this problem.”
According to the presentation, the superhub will serve as a “citation alternative.”
The site would focus on the downtown-area population of homeless people, estimated to stand at just over 100 — a fraction of the overall 3,000 homeless individuals in Harris County, about 1,200 of whom sleep on the streets.
The housing department plans to pursue a city council vote for the purchase on Oct. 15, followed by a vote in December to approve a contracted operator and the opening of the superhub in the first three months of 2026.
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