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SAHA President and CEO Speaks to Lessons Learned in the wake of Hurricane Katrina
In the turmoil of great difficulty, we learn great lessons. Recently, all of us have experienced great difficulty, and we are all learning from the great and small tragedies that affect us.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the nation learned nature and human fragility often make the best-laid plans irrelevant and useless. San Antonio learned it has a huge capacity for caring as it opened its doors to those seeking shelter. SAHA stood side-by-side with our city and community agencies to alleviate some of the suffering of those displaced families.
Even as we joined the national effort to help displaced families, we never lost focus of our responsibility to the people of San Antonio. Our normal operations continued. From maintenance on property to the day-to-day operations of our housing programs, including SAHA’s ongoing efforts to improve many of our older neighborhoods, the agency never wavered in its commitment.
In mid-September, some of our residents experienced difficulties when one of our neighborhoods lost power during a storm. We immediately implemented plans designed to resolve the problem. Our people responded to the calls and we thought we had the problem under control. But, as often happens, our planning didn’t cover the unexpected, and we should have handled it better. As a result, a number of families in the neighborhood went without power longer than we thought they should.
The experiences bring bitter, but important, lessons. The people of New Orleans and the Gulf States learned the unexpected can happen. They are also learning to trust the compassion and sympathy of people they never expected to meet.
We have learned a similar lesson. We can’t predict the future, nor can we control what may happen. We can only take what happens and make sure the mistakes of the past are corrected. And we are striving to learn our lessons well.
That’s how we get better. And rest assured, SAHA is getting better every day. We are dedicated to ensuring decent, affordable housing for San Antonio citizens, and we use each difficulty, each success and every interaction with our residents as lessons to continue improving how we meet that goal.
There will be many more challenges as we move forward. Some we’ll handle perfectly, and there will be a few that we will need to correct as we move forward. We’re paying attention, and we will continue to strive to meet your expectations.
Respectfully,
Henry A. Alvarez III
President and CEO
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