{"id":140547,"date":"2025-08-12T20:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140547\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T20:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T20:21:14","slug":"proposed-federal-cuts-could-have-a-dramatic-impact-on-affordable-housing-in-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140547\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed federal cuts could have a dramatic impact on affordable housing in San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

Los Arcos at VIDA is one of San Antonio\u2019s newest affordable housing projects.<\/p>\n

The 324-unit South Side apartment complex has a community garden and a pool. It also offers services like financial literacy education and health screenings for resident families at a range of lower income levels, including the deeply affordable housing for families who make 30% or less of the area’s median income.<\/p>\n

Its financing came together through a combination of private investment, city housing bond dollars, tax credits, and $9 million from two federal grant programs \u2014 the HOME Investment Partnership Program and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG).<\/p>\n

San Antonio\u2019s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD) Executive Director Veronica Garcia said the tens of millions of dollars per year her department receives from the two programs are essential for the work they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the use of the HOME and CDBG funds, there would be literally hundreds of families fewer that we could serve every year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In May, the Trump administration called for the elimination of both programs in its \u201cskinny budget\u201d for next year, citing federal inefficiencies in running the programs and alleged misuse of funds by municipalities. Instead, the White House proposed having states administer the programs, but it offered few details on where the funding for them would come from or if they could be funded at all.<\/p>\n

Both are multi-billion dollar national programs that are key components of how cities like San Antonio build and preserve affordable housing. The two programs are different, and what their funds can be used for is limited. The HOME program is dedicated specifically to housing, whereas CDBG can also be used for infrastructure, parks programs, after school services, and other municipal programs.<\/p>\n

City officials, developers, and builders who operate across the country have said the loss of funding would significantly damage their ability to create affordable housing, and they are pushing back in Congress to protect the programs.<\/p>\n

\"Veronica<\/p>\n

Courtesy photo<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

City of San Antonio <\/p>\n

Veronica Garcia (center) and the Neighborhood and Housing Services Department team at the ribbon-cutting for Los Arcos at VIDA.<\/p>\n

Garcia said the funding doesn\u2019t just allow San Antonio to build affordable housing \u2014 it is part of what allows them to build the kind of affordable housing that residents really want to live in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for not just low cost housing, but also housing with a lot of amenities and services, really high quality housing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd [Los Arcos at VIDA] is just one example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City of San Antonio has used $44 million from both federal programs to support more than 2,200 local affordable housing units since 2021.<\/p>\n

Garcia said there\u2019s been a major return on that investment. \u201cEvery dollar spent on helping a family stay housed \u2014 stably housed \u2014 really helps reduce monies you would have to direct to some of the other areas,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it’s a smart investment, and we’ve been able to show how, and other communities have done the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal funds rarely provide the majority of funding for a housing project. But they are regularly used as gap funding \u2014 a few hundred thousand or couple million dollars to cover what private and local funds can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The CDBG and HOME dollars are one layer of what one developer called a \u201clasagna\u201d of funding essential to build affordable housing, a type of housing that developers are less incentivized to build because of their lower rents, and therefore, revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Developers] already thread a needle today with what’s available,\u201d explained Roger Arriaga, the executive director of the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers. \u201cIf those sources of funding go away, then it’s going to be even more difficult to make any one of these developments happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 65-unit complex filled up within three weeks, the fastest of any such project in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

The NRP Group is one big developer that has built several multifamily affordable housing projects in San Antonio. It has a national portfolio. It has utilized more than $8.5 million in CDBG and HOME funds in San Antonio since 2021.<\/p>\n

Debra Guerrero, the NRP Group’s senior vice president of strategic partnerships and government affairs, said reductions to the programs would be felt nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a huge loss to our area if HOME is eliminated, and honestly, it’ll be a huge loss to this country, because that means less affordable units will be built,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Smaller developers and builders will feel the impacts too.<\/p>\n

Habitat for Humanity San Antonio uses exclusively private funds to build its low-cost homes, but Chief Development Officer Stephanie Wiese said CDBG funding literally lays the groundwork for future development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe buy raw land that then we need the funding to be able to put in the streets and the drainage and the sewage and all of that, to be able to make that all be a community,\u201d Wiese said. \u201cSo we very much rely on HOME and CDBG funds to be able to do the back end side of the development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiese said the few million dollars Habitat for Humanity San Antonio gets from the programs each year are critical to its functioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we did not receive that four to six million dollars a year, that would be catastrophic to our organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Merced Housing Texas, another local group, uses CDBG funds to offer home rehab services to low-income residents in San Antonio and Bexar County.<\/p>\n

Kristin Davila, Merced Housing Texas\u2019 president and executive director, explained that they\u2019ve been able to provide essential health and safety repairs to more than 150 families over the last five years with just $3.5 million in CDBG funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely shifts our outlook,\u201d she said of potential cuts to the programs. \u201cI mean, we would have to scale back our owner occupied home repair program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davila said the federal uncertainty is even more reason for San Antonio to pursue a new housing bond this year.<\/p>\n

The city passed its first ever housing bond in 2021, which supplied $150 million to housing efforts. Garcia said almost all of those funds have been committed to projects, and the remaining $20 million will be used to buy land for future projects.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio City Council has been largely supportive of a new housing bond, and it has until Aug. 18 to call a November election during which San Antonio residents would decide its fate.<\/p>\n

\"City<\/p>\n

The ribbon cutting for the NRP Group’s Nova Lofts affordable apartment complex in March.<\/p>\n

But the city and developers said the need for affordable housing is so great in San Antonio and across the country that they need both local housing bond funds and federal support, not one or the other.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the city, developers, and builders said they are working with regional, state, and national partners to advocate for the programs in Congress. One of those partners is the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), a massive and powerful lobbying group.<\/p>\n

J.P. Delmore, the groups assistant vice president of government affairs, explained that the NAHB was \u201cextremely concerned\u201d about potential cuts to the programs. \u201cWe believe these are two programs that have worked very effectively and delivered results to communities across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he said he believes there\u2019s still time to protect them. \u201cWe’re going to be advocating very strongly to preserve funding for these programs, and I’m optimistic that we’ll be successful in making our arguments,\u201d Delmore said.<\/p>\n

His optimism is reflected in the direction Congress has taken to the programs in early budget talks so far.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Aashish Kiphayet<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n

The U.S. Capitol<\/p>\n

The latest bills from the relevant Senate and House subcommittees in July reduced CDBG funding by $100 million rather than eliminating it.<\/p>\n

But those same subcommittees did not agree on HOME \u2014 the Senate version restored it and the House version cut it completely. The House bill said unused American Rescue Plan Act dollars could be used to support HOME without giving it its own funding, but developers have said those funds can\u2019t be used for HOME\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

Garcia said San Antonio\u2019s 2026 appropriations from the programs have already been renewed, meaning that changes to the programs in the federal budget this fall won\u2019t have immediate impacts.<\/p>\n

The final budget approved by Congress and the president in the fall will decide the future of both programs and how much money municipalities and developers have to create more affordable housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for\u00a0TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-140547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115017658308137671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}