INSIDER
Soap Factory residents want city council to delay baseball stadium vote
Read full article: Soap Factory residents want city council to delay baseball stadium voteResidents of the 381-unit Soap Factory Apartments worry that affordable housing will be out of their grasp if a downtown baseball stadium project forces them out as planned.
Opportunity Home San Antonio president, CEO change draws pushback from housing advocates
Read full article: Opportunity Home San Antonio president, CEO change draws pushback from housing advocatesEarlier this month, the San Antonio Housing Authority Board of Commissioners decided that Opportunity Home, the city’s public housing authority, needed a change at the top.
Opportunity Home accepting applications for affordable housing vouchers program until Nov. 15
Read full article: Opportunity Home accepting applications for affordable housing vouchers program until Nov. 15Opportunity Home is accepting applications for its Housing Choice Vouchers Program to help those needing affordable housing.
Mobile home co-op plan poised to get city bond funding
Read full article: Mobile home co-op plan poised to get city bond fundingAs part of the second round of proposals to use bond and federal dollars, city staff on Wednesday recommended helping fund a plan to purchase a South Side mobile home park and convert it into a co-op.
Rundown apartments now subject to extra inspections
Read full article: Rundown apartments now subject to extra inspectionsIn a near unanimous voice vote Thursday, the San Antonio City Council passed a new “Proactive Apartment Inspection Program,” which stems out of the attention that properties with numerous citations like Seven Oaks Apartments attracted in the summer of 2022.
Increasing short-term rentals could make creating affordable housing more difficult, expert says
Read full article: Increasing short-term rentals could make creating affordable housing more difficult, expert saysThe increasing popularity of short-term rentals could contribute to the City of San Antonio’s uphill battle to create affordable housing.
Landlords, San Antonio housing officials collaborate to expand voucher opportunities
Read full article: Landlords, San Antonio housing officials collaborate to expand voucher opportunitiesLandlords, tenants and San Antonio city officials met at this year’s Landlord Summit to find solutions for affordable housing in the Alamo City.
City housing department budget set to triple
Read full article: City housing department budget set to tripleThe housing department’s proposed jump from $48.8 million in the current budget year to $150.2 million for FY 2023 is fueled almost entirely by the city’s first-ever housing bond, which voters approved in May. The $99.9 million in bond money is split between producing and preserving affordable housing.
Voters to decide fate of San Antonio’s first-ever $150M housing bond
Read full article: Voters to decide fate of San Antonio’s first-ever $150M housing bondAs San Antonio voters decide whether to approve the city’s biggest-ever bond program, they’re also considering a new way to fund affordable housing.
Why is a market-rate, downtown high-rise getting $7.5M in city incentives?
Read full article: Why is a market-rate, downtown high-rise getting $7.5M in city incentives?The city may have turned its focus to affordable housing, but the remnants of a now-defunct incentive program will provide San Antonio's tallest apartment building millions in incentives.
City sets 10-year goal of producing, preserving 28,049 affordable housing units
Read full article: City sets 10-year goal of producing, preserving 28,049 affordable housing unitsThe Strategic Housing Implementation Plan - or SHIP - was approved unanimously with one abstention and a second councilwoman away from the dais. At its core, the SHIP is about helping 95,000 Bexar County households who are most at risk of housing instability.
Problems plaguing the future: How one network is actively looking for solutions
Read full article: Problems plaguing the future: How one network is actively looking for solutionsWhen we think about the world and the problems people encounter every day, a few of the biggest hurdles would be poverty and hunger, climate change and inequality, to name a few.
WATCH | Episode 2: Solutionaries tackles affordable housing crisis
Read full article: WATCH | Episode 2: Solutionaries tackles affordable housing crisisEpisode 2 of “Solutionaries” tackles the lack of affordable housing across America and highlights the people and organizations who are working to solve the crisis.
How the government is addressing housing issues
Read full article: How the government is addressing housing issuesAs part of an initiative to create more affordable housing and an increased inventory of homes, President Joe Biden recently announced his administration wants to make single-family homes less available to investors.
How did the housing market get so crazy? These 4 reasons help break it down
Read full article: How did the housing market get so crazy? These 4 reasons help break it downIt’s been a strange time, living through a global pandemic. What first might have come as a surprise, is the housing boom that followed -- and the fact that things have stayed red hot.
Affordable housing advocates concerned about former councilwoman joining San Antonio housing commission
Read full article: Affordable housing advocates concerned about former councilwoman joining San Antonio housing commissionA group of housing advocates protested in front of City Hall to voice their concerns about affordable housing in San Antonio.
Affordability concerns stall Friedrich Lofts complex housing development
Read full article: Affordability concerns stall Friedrich Lofts complex housing developmentThe council members on the San Antonio Housing Authority Public Facilities Corporation Board delayed a vote on financing during a Tuesday meeting that would have allowed the “Friedrich Lofts” project to move forward. The project would create 358 units of studio, single-bedroom, and two-bedroom apartments in a non-historic portion of the Friedrich Complex on East Commerce and Olive Street.
City Council considers housing voucher requirement for projects getting city incentives
Read full article: City Council considers housing voucher requirement for projects getting city incentivesTaking city incentives like fee waivers or tax abatements could mean future housing developments in San Antonio would be required to accept housing vouchers, like Section 8, from their renters.
Proposition A: Charter amendment vote could open up possibilities for San Antonio bonds, public works improvements
Read full article: Proposition A: Charter amendment vote could open up possibilities for San Antonio bonds, public works improvementsSan Antonio voters will consider a charter change that would give city council more flexibility on the types of bonds it brings forth for approval to voters in the future.
Amazon to invest more than $2 billion toward affordable housing
Read full article: Amazon to invest more than $2 billion toward affordable housingAmazon’s new housing equity fund will invest in moderate to low income housing around Seattle, Nashville and Arlington, Virginia, where the company ultimately expects to have at least 5,000 employees each, the company said. The first investment of more than $567 million will go toward 1,300 affordable apartment units near “HQ2,” Amazon’s new Virginia headquarters, and up to 1,000 apartments near its Seattle, Washington headquarters. Amazon has been criticized in the past for gentrifying the areas where it has opened large operations and driving up the cost of housing. In addition to its $2 billion investment, the fund also includes $125 million in grants to minority-led organizations and public agencies aimed at improving the shortage of affordable housing, which disproportionately affects people of color, Amazon said. The fund will also give grants to government partners, like transit agencies and school districts, to help working families in those fields.
Study: Older San Antonio homes key for affordable housing
Read full article: Study: Older San Antonio homes key for affordable housingSAN ANTONIO – A study commissioned by the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation and presented to the City Council on Wednesday found that older housing units are providing much of the city’s affordable housing, but they are also being lost “at a rapid pace.”The study, prepared by Donovan Rypkema at PlaceEconomics, found that 22 percent of the city’s housing units were built before 1960. At the heart of the study’s conclusion is a simple idea: when it comes to housing, older generally equals more affordable. But in large, in the aggregate, the older share of housing is more affordable housing.”Rypkema said these homes, though, have been disappearing -- three every week for the past 10 years. And in a city racing to get ahead of an affordable housing problem, that’s an issue. “Almost by definition, anytime you tear down an old unit of housing, you’ve torn down a unit of affordable housing,” Rypkema said.