Community Dialog Results

There were four panelists who addressed two questions:

The San Antonio public dialog was held January 19, 1999 at the downtown Public Library in San Antonio.

What are the principal affordable housing problems San Antonio faces?

What are the solutions to the affordable housing problems?

City Council Member, Ed Garza

Problems: The problems are a lack of financing for affordable housing, a hostile public perception toward lower cost housing, the need to educate public about the housing needs of lower income San Antonians, the need to cooperate to get this done as an alternative to NIMBY.

Solutions: Perception of school quality drives property values up or down. Need to develop mixed income neighborhoods with a variety of housing types and costs.

Susan Sheeren, Merced Housing Texas

Problems: (1) Affordability. It is hard to get high quality housing that will last more than 40 years with what people can pay. We need to help poor people. A 30% of income for rent standard is too high a standard for what is affordable. 50% of the area median family income in San Antonio is $19,900 for a family of four. These families can't meet expenses even with $275 rent. Here is an example of who that person might be - a single parent who is an account associate or a two parent family one might work fast food and the other be a stay at home parent. (2) Insufficient housing and inadequate supply, substandard housing and many generations sharing house. (3) Lack of funding and competition for funding. The complexity of rules can be insurmountable to the people who are trying to solve the problem.

Susan Sheeren, Merced Housing Texas

Solutions: Collaboration. Nonprofits must admit they have things they need. We must seek to create environments that produce for the nonprofits asset accumulation and skill development. Nonprofits should develop community based initiatives that yield economic gains for residents and the low-income community.

Sister Yolanda Tarango, Visitation House

Problems: For the past 13 years I have been living and working with homeless families headed by single women. The effects of homelessness are devastating, especially on children. The #1 problem we face is affordability. Over eight years we saw people saving enough money while living in our shelter to get a place of their own and within a matter of months they were faced with choice of paying the rent or utility bill. Then they were homeless again. The number two problem is you cannot pay rent with minimum wage. We have to get both an increase the supply of housing and increase in wages.

Yolanda Tarango, Visitation House

Solutions: The solution is neighborhood support. We must revitalize existing stock of lower cost housing. Remind ourselves of the inter-connectiveness of these problems: employment, social, housing.

Professor Char Miller, Trinity University

Problems: Dumbfounded by our ahistorical approach. The statistics from the American Housing Survey about San Antonio are depressing. The data demonstrates there is no change or improvement in housing quality in San Antonio over time. 50% of low-income housing is substandard now and the same was true in the 1930's. Roosevelt said we were a nation of 1/3 poorly fed, poorly clothed and poorly housed people. What was 1/3 for the rest of the nation was 1/2 in San Antonio. Ironically today’s bad housing was the new housing in the 30's.

Professor Char Miller, Trinity University

The city's political will has never been there to solve these issues. Landlords object to tearing down slum housing. The City passed a law that public housing could not be placed on slum clearance sites. The "Triangle of death" was addressed in 1940's and 1950's with federal funds. But we had known about it since the 1890's. I'm depressed that the amount of decent, affordable housing San Antonio has produced in the past sixty years isn't greater.

Solutions: Save historic housing. Make new development in older neighborhoods aesthetically connected. SA is primed to be the ideal city. Construct new neighborhoods that once were old.

Comments from Other Participants

Rosey Castro, San Antonio Housing Authority; land where they built PH was not suitable for anything else. Since the1980's we are making headway with nonprofit organizations. Private builder: We need people to have wages high enough so people can afford housing. Also the city should expand tax abatements. Isenhouser: Vets self-help. Rebuild their will. Swat equity. Peace: Inclusionary zoning. Sandra Williams: San Antonio needs a dedicated source of funds for the city’s housing trust fund.