SAN ANTONIO – Brandee Perez, the chief operating officer of Opportunity Home San Antonio, discussed the organization’s efforts to provide affordable housing in the area Sunday on Leading SA.
“Our mission at Opportunity Home San Antonio, is to provide low-income, affordable housing to our San Antonio community, as we know that there is a greater need for affordable housing,” Perez said.
Perez explained that they oversee two federal housing programs: public housing and the Housing Choice Voucher program. Rent is income-based with families paying around 30% of their monthly income while the programs subsidize the rest.
Perez said the need has grown substantially, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We actually saw our waitlist for both our for our public housing communities increased substantially during COVID,” Perez said. “We’re seeing the need. It’s closer to about 100,000 individuals waiting to receive assistance from our program.”
Recent housing bonds approved by San Antonio voters have granted funding for Opportunity Home to rehabilitate existing affordable housing as well as build new affordable housing units in the city.
Perez emphasized the daily impact of their work.
“Many of us know families that are in need of to fill that gap of affordable housing, so they are impacting their mother or their grandmother, a relative or close friend that they work with and knowing that they are going to be able to get some relief when it comes to finding affordable housing in the city of San Antonio,” Perez said.
If you are interested in applying for affordable housing, you can visit their website at www.homesa.org.