AUSTIN — About 12 years ago Jennifer Denton was recovering from a methamphetamine addiction and squatting in an unfinished apartment complex. The only place for her to shower was the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.

Every day at 4 a.m., Denton and her “soul mate,” a Chihuahua named India, trekked the 2 miles to the shelter to wash her clothes, bathe and imagine ways to get her life back on track.

With help from services at the shelter, Denton eventually found a job in a downtown Austin clothing store and completed a master's degree in public administration.

Now 38, she is the communications and volunteer coordinator at the same place where she found a way to pull out of the darkest part of her life, she said.

“It's a huge blessing for me to be able to come full circle,” Denton said. “To do for the folks here, who need our help every day, what was done for me; to be on the opposite side of the counter and be that person who can make a difference.”

Denton left Dallas on a train for Austin in 2000 with a backpack, a puppy she found in a trash can and a comforter, she said.

Her plans to stay with a friend fizzled. “I was instantly homeless within two hours of being in Austin,” Denton said.

In Texas this year, 29,615 people experienced homelessness, equating to about one in every 885 Texans, according to just-released numbers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual count conducted in January. That total, while the fourth-highest in the U.S., represents one of the bigger decreases — 13 percent — from 2012. About 14.5 percent, 3,878 people, were veterans.

In San Antonio, the number of homeless people was 2,980 this year, a decrease from 3,670 in 2012, HUD reported.

San Antonio had the third-highest rate of homelessness in the state in 2012, according to the Texas Homeless Network, which put the total that year at 3,036 people. Only Amarillo and Beaumont surpassed San Antonio's rate.

Melody Woosely, interim director for San Antonio's Department of Human Services, said the city's homeless rate has slightly increased during the past three years because of the economic struggle the country has been through.

The city funds a number of homeless prevention services and shelters through partnerships with nonprofits, she said.

“For us, it's ensuring — whether we do it or a partner does it — that services are comprehensive and transformational,” Woosely said. “The city's strategy is to support services that actually let people move into self sufficiency.”

San Antonio spends more than $9.2 million on homeless services and prevention, according to data provided by Nicte Hays, public information officer for the city.

Evita Morin, associate vice president of external relations and community initiatives at Haven for Hope, San Antonio's largest homeless shelter, said the 20-acre site downtown provides transformational services such as job, education and certification training, legal, mental and physical health services and identification services.

“We are able to address our clients' homelessness while giving them access to hundreds of services to help them address the root causes of their homelessness,” Morin said. “Our purpose is not just to provide three meals and a place to sleep; it is really about trying to transform their lives into something outside of homelessness.”

At any given time, the shelter has about 1,000 people receiving services, Morin said. Since its opening in 2010, Haven for Hope has moved more than 1,300 people into permanent housing, she said.

“Essentially we are helping the most vulnerable residents of San Antonio,” Morin said. “It is important as a city that we continue supporting the most vulnerable, because without us they would continue to be suffering,”

Haven for Hope and the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless operate with private and public funding and accept donations, in-kind and cash, as well as furniture, mattresses, blankets and clothing. Each organization has a volunteer program open to members of the community.

“We are all human beings and we all deserve the same basic rights,” Denton said. “We are all here for the same purpose and everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and a safe and stable place to live.”

Denton's life has been a rocky roundtrip — from a homeless drug addict, with warrants for her arrest, to a role model and leader at the one of the largest homeless shelters in Austin.

Her past provides a unique perspective to helping homeless people, many in the same position she once was, climb out of the revolving and dangerous lifestyle of living on the streets.

Born and raised in Dallas, Denton began drinking at age 14 and struggled with alcoholism and drugs, as well as depression in high school. After graduation in 1994, Denton moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas, dropped out and moved back to Dallas.

“I fell very quickly into a methamphetamine addiction, which over the course of time basically destroyed my life,” she said. “I struggled getting in and out of rehab, going back and forth to jail and living in a park for a number of years.

“I spent about 21/2 years on the streets, struggling to figure out where I was going to get a meal, where I was going to take a shower, how long was I going to be in this situation.”

Eventually she was advised by a volunteer at an Austin soup kitchen to check out the resource center, which helped her get back on her feet, find a job and eventually an apartment.

The shelter, also known as Front Steps or ARCH, serves about 11,000 people annually, including hundreds from San Antonio. The shelter provides legal and health services, job and education training, a computer lab and phones, as well as room for about 250 people to sleep nightly and do their laundry. No requirements are needed to receive services other than an intake process in which personal data is recorded.

“Before I was homeless, I had the same stereotypes that I fight every day now: that these people are just taking advantage of the system, which is not the case at all,” Denton said. “The reality is we are all a paycheck or two away from being in the exact same situation and we cannot look past them any longer.”

kparker@express-news.net

Twitter: @KoltenParker