SAHA Staff and Board members meet with Legislators


SAHA representatives recently met in Washington, D.C. with Senator John Cornyn, Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez, and Congressman Henry Cuellar, as well as staff from the offices of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congressman Lamar Smith, and various HUD officials. The meetings focused on housing and funding issues that impact our local community.

SAHA serves the needs of more than 22,000 families, seniors and disabled persons, but an additional 17,000 families remain on our waiting lists. Understanding that we face a seemingly insurmountable task as increasing cuts in federal funding take priority over crucial programs, we sought to share our vision for addressing this need.

One effort to help alleviate cuts in federal subsidy is funding through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program.  But we need more help as barriers to attain this vision grow harder each legislative funding cycle.  Although historically under-funded in San Antonio, SAHA has aggressively forged partnerships with public and private organizations to create affordable, market rate, and public housing units in apartments, townhouses, and single-family homes, with both homeownership and rental opportunities.   These efforts have resulted in great success with tax credit developments, including Refugio Place Apartment Homes, Legacy at Science Park, Legacy at O’Connor Road, Crown Meadows, and our latest revitalization effort, San Juan Homes.  But our message was clear; we need continued support for our region as federal funding diminishes.

Public Housing Capital Funds have helped us to redevelop and refocus the severely distressed, “at risk” housing developments that are now serving as homes to San Antonio’s poorest families and seniors.  Decreased funding of this program is alarming as the declining state of our housing stock is coupled with escalating modernization costs.. This makes it extremely difficult for SAHA to meet its goal of providing public housing that is an asset to the community, rather than a liability.

Operating subsidy has also been seriously under-funded for almost a decade.  Housing authorities receive operating subsidy to cover the gap between rent paid by our low-income clients and the actual costs for operating and maintaining public housing units.  A management model used in the private sector, known as asset-based management, is now required for public housing.  With property expense levels now calculated for each property based on a cost study, public housing will experience dramatic changes in how it is funded and managed.  This must not result in financial distress and lead to a subsequent loss of public housing units for our community.

As we communicated this to those who can help us meet our goals for assisting the poorest of the poor in our community, we also sought their continued support for housing and assistance programs to help our citizens reach self-sufficiency.  These included continued funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8), CDBG funding, Tax Credits, HOPE VI, and others.


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