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SAN ANTONIO

“Affordable Showcase of Homes” Showcases Civic Cooperation

Demand for affordable housing is enormous in San Antonio, Texas. For years one of America’s most ethnically diverse cities, San Antonio is also one of the fastest growing (now the ninth largest U.S. city) and one of the most Hispanic. The Latino community represents more than half of San Antonio’s population and is concentrated in totally Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.

The bulk of households earn only low to middle incomes, due to the area’s reliance on service industries and tourism and the presence of several military bases. Aware that the poverty rate exceeds the national average by almost 50 percent, civic leaders agreed that more needed to be done to create a solid base of homeowners and consumers in poorer communities.

In 1995, through the efforts of the City of San Antonio and its nonprofit San Antonio Housing Trust, nine builders agreed to construct affordable homes on a 15-acre site that the City had seized for back taxes. Abandoned, dilapidated buildings were demolished using City and CDBG money, and the City conveyed the site to the San Antonio Housing Trust. The development was named Coliseum Oaks, and lots were sold to builders for $1 as an incentive to participate.

The homes sold quickly, and soon thereafter the Greater San Antonio Builders Association decided to renew the home-building effort annually, if possible, and showcase the work in a program modeled after their Parade of Homes, which draws attention to expensive new suburban subdivisions. The new program was called Affordable Showcase of Homes.

Its aim was to attract builders into affordable housing, and it is succeeding. More than 230 homes have been built and sold, all for less than $89,000.  Some were constructed by the San Antonio Alternative Housing Corporation and Neighborhood Housing Services, community development corporations (CDCs) that receive Living Cities support through The Enterprise Foundation.

The Affordable Showcase of Homes, still supported by the City of San Antonio (in part using some of its CDBG allocation), is one of many ways in which government and the private sector are collaborating to make community development an important civic priority.

CDCs in San Antonio are branching out to support a rising middle class in other ways. The city recently succeeded in attracting an $800 million Toyota assembly plant, which created 2,000 new jobs and an additional 1,000 jobs in related services businesses. CDCs are working hard to create housing for workers on the south side of San Antonio.