Residents at San Antonio’s Victoria Plaza ask to relocate after pair of slayings

After the slayings of two tenants earlier this month at the Victoria Plaza Apartments, residents said they’re fed up with the lack of security and plan to request emergency relocations out of the complex.

Victoria Plaza, a public housing site located in the Lavaca neighborhood, is operated by Opportunity Home, formerly known as the San Antonio Housing Authority.

“It’s a government-funded trap house,” said one Victoria Plaza resident, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns. “Prostitution, drugs, whatever. It’s all up in there.”

Residents told the Current security has long been an issue at Opportunity Home but the deaths of Nick Martinez, 59, and Donnell Sterling, 52, are the last straw.

“We’ve been complaining about safety for years,” the resident said. “The office doesn’t do anything.”

The San Antonio Tenants Union has sent emails to the Current raising safety concerns at Opportunity Home properties since at least 2022. Despite the entity receiving a $117,256 Emergency Safety and Security Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development earlier this year, a lone Texas Lawman security cruiser was the only security spotted at the Victoria Plaza Apartments this week during a trip to the property.

“As an affordable housing organization, we rely on the San Antonio Police Department to keep our city and communities safe,” Opportunity Home told the Current in an emailed statement. “We assist in addressing resident concerns by requesting patrol officers for our communities, providing local SAFFE officer information, and encouraging emergency calls to 911 when there is a threat, which should be all residents’ first form of communication during a security emergency.”

Even so, Victoria Plaza residents told the Current that it’s been months since they have seen SAPD cruisers patrolling the area.

Tragedy at the Plaza

Martinez’s body was discovered inside his Victoria Plaza apartment on Oct. 1. Police say he died of sharp force injury.

Sterling’s body was discovered only three days later. He died of a gunshot wound to the head.

SAPD on Oct. 7 arrested and charged Daniel Gonzalez, 35, with murder in connection with Sterling’s fatal shooting. Although Gonzalez is considered a person of interest in the death of Martinez, he’s not yet been charged in that case at of press time, police said.

Maureen Galindo and long-time San Antonio housing advocate James Hamilton — a resident at Opportunity Home’s Lewis Chatham Apartments — attended the public housing authority’s Oct. 9 board meeting to raise concerns about safety at its properties.

“Residents are afraid,” Hamilton said at the meeting. “These people want to be comfortable and enjoy their lives, and feel safe and not have to worry about somebody coming in and doing something to harm them. I was told Opportunity Home can’t afford security, but the cost is we’re paying is with our lives. We’re dying.”

Victoria Plaza tenants aren’t the troublemakers. Instead, they blame overnight guests.

“It’s not the public housing residents that are the reason for the crime,” Galindo said. “It’s because of their vulnerability that they get targeted for crime, and it leaks into the surrounding community.”

Indeed, murder suspect Gonzalez wasn’t a Victoria Plaza resident but an “unauthorized occupant who was allowed entry into the building by several other residents,” Opportunity Home told the Current in a statement.

Despite resident complaints of unauthorized occupants, Opportunity Home maintains that its staff conducts monthly home visits to check for unapproved guests, among other things.

Tenants also told the Current that their security concerns at Victoria Plaza include a broken front door.

Even though Opportunity Home installed a new key-fob entry system at the complex, during a visit by the Current, the door could be easily opened if pushed with enough force.

Opportunity Home told the Current that the key-fob door “is currently operational” as of Oct. 11.

Beyond Victoria Plaza

However, Opportunity Home’s security issues extend beyond the confines of Victoria Plaza, according to residents.

During Opportunity Home’s recent board meeting, Hamilton alleged that a man with a gun chased him out of the authority’s Lewis Chatham apartments in 2020.

“This board said there wasn’t enough evidence to support that it even happened, even though the guy that did it got arrested and sent to prison,” Hamilton said.

Meanwhile, people experiencing homelessness have repeatedly trespassed into Opportunity Home properties to find a place to sleep, Galindo told the Current.

Opportunity Home declined to answer the Current’s specific questions about crime rates and deaths at its properties, only writing that the authority continues to collaborate with SAPD.

“Security patrols are synchronized with the crime statistics and are conducted on a daily basis and evaluated by the Opportunity Home Security Department to address patterns of crime, as well as individuals associated with crime incidents,” Opportunity Home said in a statement. “All calls for police service are reviewed daily. The Security Department coordinates all information with property management to implement mitigation strategies that address the calls for service (CFS) and crime incidents.”

Victoria Plaza residents said they’re done waiting around for Opportunity Home to address their security concerns. But with more than 100,000 San Antonio residents on a waitlist for housing assistance from Opportunity Home, an emergency relocation seems like a long shot.

“There’s nothing positive about this place,” one Victoria Plaza resident said.

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This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 15, 2024.