San Antonio’s public housing authority, Opportunity Home, this week approved a controversial change to its operations that tenants, activists and at least one city councilwoman warn could lead to displacement and a rise in homelessness.
During a Wednesday board meeting, Opportunity Home approved a plan to begin converting its 6,000 or so Section 9 units — traditional government-owned public housing projects — to a different form of subsidized housing via the federal government’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program.
Facing another multi-million budget deficit and $550 million in deferred maintenance, Opportunity Home maintains moving to RAD — which relies on longer-term contract-based subsidies tied to the federal voucher system instead of annual government appropriations — will bring in more money and allow easier financing for needed repairs.
“The housing model is broken,” Aiyana Longoria, Opportunity Home’s chief strategy, data and innovation officer told City Council’s Planning and Community Development Committee on Tuesday.
Longoria continued: “We cannot sustain what we have, and without taking a new approach, we will, regrettably, probably lose these communities. Rather than lose the housing that we have, we want to be able to preserve it and preserve the affordability.”
Opportunity Home officials maintain that existing tenants won’t be displaced under the transition to RAD, adding that those families will continue to pay just 30% of their incomes toward rent.
Loopholes and limits
However, housing advocates and District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo warn that the shift to RAD could allow Opportunity Home to convert public housing into Section 8 voucher-based housing, thereby displacing some of San Antonio’s most vulnerable residents.
“Loopholes exist, allowing housing authorities to permanently eliminate apartments, especially those left vacant due to disrepair, which reduces the overall supply of affordable housing,” Castillo said in a statement. “At the same time, the program allows assistance to be moved to new locations, forcing residents to relocate far from their communities, jobs, and support systems.”
Indeed, Opportunity Home’s plan includes a cost-cutting clause that allows the housing authority to transfer its existing properties to a private tax-credit entity.
Doing so could limit tenants’ rights to organize since the units would become privately owned, according to critics. What’s more, they argue, tenants could lose privileges available in public housing such as the ability to have additional keys made for friends and family who don’t live in the unit.
Despite those concerns, Opportunity Home officials told council’s Planning and Community Development Committee that they don’t plan to privatize the properties, even though RAD technically allows such a move. Further, they said the authority plans to keep and maintain its public housing units.
‘Shady’ maneuvers?
Tenants remain skeptical about those promises.
They said they don’t trust Opportunity Home and allege the authority has engaged in “shady” behavior to avoid criticism of its plan, including a last-minute venue change for the Wednesday board meeting where RAD was up for discussion.
At first, the meeting was to be held at an Opportunity Home’s downtown headquarters, 818 S. Flores St. However, the venue was changed to the East Side’s Sun Park Lane Apartments, 4523 Lavender Lane, without explanation.
Organizers from housing advocacy group Pueblo Over Profit allege Opportunity Home relocated the meeting because officials found out about a planned protest and didn’t want concerned tenants to attend a public comment session.
Prior to the start of the board meeting at Sun Park Lane, a guard from Vets Securing America, a private security firm contracted by Opportunity Home, threatened to arrest demonstrators for trespassing, even though they were protesting on public property in front of a public meeting.
Inside the complex, Opportunity Home security guard Domingo Ibarra told a photographer for the Current that she couldn’t take photos of the board meeting. However, a Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy eventually corrected the matter, telling the guard that members of the press are allowed to photograph public gatherings.
Pueblo over Profit organizer Robert Hernandez described Opportunity Home’s behavior prior to and during the meeting as “dehumanizing.” He suggested the authority’s actions show it has something to hide.
“We organized people to go attend a meeting and have a protest downtown, and they changed the location on us,” Hernandez said. “That’s not right, and they won’t let some of us speak.”
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