Life on the Fringes: Counting San Antonio's homeless encampments

Volunteers in fluorescent green vests crawled down steep, rain-slicked embankments in Southeast San Antonio just before sunrise. Their flashlights were trained on a man at the bottom of the drainage culvert who pushed a torrent of water around with a broom. The long stretch of ditch parallel to Commercial Avenue between I-37 and Southwest Military Drive cut through a quasi-suburban neighborhood well away from the city center.