When Patricia Davis saw the Four25 San Pedro complex rising up in her neighborhood, she knew she wanted to move in.<\/p>\n
She reached out as soon as the building started leasing. The new affordable housing units were safer, more spacious and had more amenities, said Davis, a 66-year-old retired home healthcare worker.<\/p>\n
Davis didn\u2019t want to move out of her neighborhood. She was close to bus lines and parks, just north of downtown near San Pedro Avenue, and she wanted to stay in the area and have an affordable rent.<\/p>\n
The units at Four25 San Pedro, a new affordable housing development, accomplish that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to love every minute of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The 80-unit complex is now open. Residents are moving in.<\/p>\n
It <\/strong>took years to build \u2014 funding for this type of affordable housing complex was part of a 2017-2022 city bond package. The San Antonio Housing Trust worked with other nonprofits, businesses and the City of San Antonio to put together a structure for funding and support services and finally broke ground in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now that the nonprofit housing trust has a blueprint for building affordable housing projects, it plans to build more, said Pete Alanis, the housing trust\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n Residents at Four25 San Pedro will live in spacious two- or three-bedroom units designed for wheelchair and disability access. There is a gym, common areas and a play structure within the complex, which is designed specifically for families.<\/p>\n There are also permanent supportive services on site. SAMMinistries, a local nonprofit, will have offices, staff and a food pantry for residents of the building. One full-time and one part-time case manager will work there, helping residents build more stable lives.<\/p>\n Four25 San Pedro isn\u2019t the first permanent supportive housing site in San Antonio. Towne Twin Village opened in 2023<\/a>. SAMMinistries has been providing permanent supportive housing services at individual apartments since 2010, said its president and CEO Nikisha Baker. Nonprofits and local governments are pushing to build projects that are designed to have residents and services in the same place.<\/p>\n What does permanent support look like?<\/p>\n David Urdiales is one of the case managers who provides those specialized services in San Antonio.<\/p>\n He\u2019s worked as a case manager for SAMMinistries since 2023. He won\u2019t be working at Four25 San Pedro \u2014 his work is focused on single individuals experiencing homelessness, not families \u2014 but the model he uses is the same.<\/p>\n \u201cOur number one job is making sure our clients stay housed. Everything else is secondary to that,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a cookie-cutter response.\u201d<\/p>\n Urdiales works with 17 different clients who are being housed after experiencing homelessness. There\u2019s no sunset on his services \u2014 they can have a case manager as long as they want. That\u2019s what makes it permanent supportive housing. <\/p>\n He helps clients with whatever goals they have. That can be getting a job or enrolling in college. It can also be applying for a driver\u2019s license or a new social security card. Starting over in a new home can be an overwhelming experience, Urdiales added, and case managers at SAMMinistries support people through that.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce they get housed, it\u2019s hard for people to adjust,\u201d Urdiales said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve been living on the streets, you\u2019ve been living in fight or flight [mode].\u201d<\/p>\n Urdiales said clients have to get used to living in a home and often have to find new communities after they leave the ones they inhabited while homeless.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tackle every aspect of a person\u2019s life. If there\u2019s something they want to do, we help them with that. That could be family reunification, document recovery or going to H-E-B,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Soon after a client is housed, Urdiales said, SAMMinistries conducts a bio-psycho-social assessment. It\u2019s a thorough process that covers sensitive personal topics, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t do it immediately at move-in,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to build trust.\u201d<\/p>\n Once that assessment is complete, case managers better know how to work with their clients on their specific goals. They meet once a month, at minimum. Clients can exit the program if they are stable, Urdiales said, but they don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n \u201cSuccess can look different for different people. There are some people who will be in permanent supportive housing for the rest of their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Who gets services? Who can move in?<\/p>\n Baker, who oversees SAMMinistries, said all residents at Four25 San Pedro can talk to the case managers like Urdiales and access services they provide.<\/p>\n But 25 units at the development are set aside for families exiting homelessness and will work with SAMMinistries before they even move in.<\/p>\n That program is a collaboration between SAMMinistries and Opportunity Home San Antonio. OHSA is providing federal housing vouchers, also called Section 8 vouchers, for those 25 units. Those families pay a percentage of their income, rather than a set rent.<\/p>\n To qualify for the program, they must be homeless or fleeing domestic violence and must not have been terminated from public housing programs for the previous five years or committed violent or drug-related crimes in the last seven years, according to a program description from SAMMinistries.<\/p>\n The rest of the apartments are for families making less than 30%, 50% or 60% of the area median income. Rents are based on family size and income, Alanis said.<\/p>\n For example, rents for a family making 30% of area median income living in a three-bedroom apartment might pay $556 a month, while residents of a two-bedroom apartment making 60% of the area median income could pay $1,172.<\/p>\n Area median income is dependent on local income data and family size<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those requirements make applying for an apartment a little more complicated, said Ryan Baldwin, senior vice president of Franklin Development, the company that will operate the apartment complex.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit heavier paperwork-wise. There\u2019s a few more forms,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s really not that much more intense than going to a market rate.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldwin and his team are available to help people with those applications, he added. Prospective residents can drop by in-person or go to the project\u2019s website<\/a> to learn more.\u00a0<\/p>\n A blueprint for more affordable housing<\/p>\n Alanis said Four25 San Pedro meets many of the San Antonio Housing Trust\u2019s goals. There are safe spaces for children and food assistance onsite to help cost-burdened families.<\/p>\n