Minority- and women-owned businesses received 53% of the City of San Antonio’s contracting dollars from 2014-2020, a new study shows. That’s more than twice the 23% amount reported in a 2015 report looking at the city’s spending record.
The city commissioned the new analysis by Colette Holt & Associates to examine whether minority and women business owners have equal access to contracting opportunities such as construction.
City Manager Erik Walsh said the study shows that San Antonio’s Small Business Economic Development Advocacy Program (SBEDA) is supporting underrepresented small businesses.
“It’s important that city resources and opportunities are accessible to all San Antonians,” Walsh said in an emailed statement. “The SBEDA program plays an important role in supporting historically underrepresented members of our small business community, so it is great to see such progress being made.”
Even so, the study found that San Antonio continues to show disparities in worker wage earnings, entrepreneur wage earnings and business formation rates among minorities and women.
To improve those conditions, the city should continue using targeted race- and gender-based tools to ensure broad access to contracting opportunities and economic improvement, Colette Holt’s analysts recommend.
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This article appears in May 3-16, 2023.