Residents of Texas’ fastest-growing city will soon get a chance to vote on a promising affordable housing resolution aimed at ending homelessness.
San Antonio is adopting an approach built on the Biden administration’s “House America” initiative, according to Bloomberg. A May referendum will decide on a $1.2 billion bond sale, the city’s biggest bond sale, $150 million of which would go toward homelessness.
About $25 million would be set aside for permanent supportive housing, the largest amount directly allocated to address homelessness in San Antonio. Other funds would pay for affordable housing construction and preservation at different levels.
“The proportion of resources that we’re focusing into the housing ecosystem is unprecedented,” says San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “We have also essentially quadrupled the amount of resources in our annual budget going to housing.”
San Antonio joins 70 other communities in House America, which has been called more of a pledge than a program. Nirenberg attributes his city’s outlook in part to Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge’s focus on the issue. The cities, counties, states and tribes that are part of House America account for 40 percent of homeless people in the U.S.
According to HUD officials, part of the program is aimed at connecting leaders who oversee significant populations struggling with housing, such as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. The agency facilitated a conversation between Wu and Jim Kenney, mayor of Philadelphia, where substance abuse has overwhelmed outdoor encampments, a relatively new phenomenon in Boston.
“We think we can make significant progress through ARP resources and near-term reduction” in homelessness, says Richard Cho, senior advisor for housing and services at HUD.
San Antonio previously received $20 million from the federal American Rescue Plan, the relative success of which has largely driven the White House agenda on homelessness.
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[Bloomberg] – Maddy Sperling