The relative cost of living in Bexar County compared to the rest of the country has been a significant factor in its growth, but an influx of new and often higher-earning residents has increased the strain on available affordable housing stock, schools, property tax rates and city services.
During a CityFest 2023 panel moderated by Senior Reporter Iris Dimmick, panelists explained what the impact of inequities mean for local residents across racial and economic groups, as well as those in very deep poverty or experiencing homelessness.
Equity, they agreed, needs to be top-of-mind as Bexar County grows — not an afterthought.
In 2008, San Antonio decided that a strong city needs a strong downtown, which led to benefits for the city through millions of dollars poured into revitalizing downtown, said Ramiro Gonzales, the CEO of economic development group Prosper West SA.
That sort of intentionality needs to be applied to the equity challenges in San Antonio, Gonzales said.
“Contrast that to our other areas of the city and particularly on the West Side, where at the end of this spring we started asking for an increase of funding so that we could do some revitalization of our corridors, and now we’re in a conversation of, ‘Are we even going to get the funding that we normally get?'” he said. “That’s the major contrast of, when we want certain things to happen, they will happen. … It’s a matter of us being willing.”
Fabiola Avila, the director of social and community engagement for the nonprofit Family Service, said the digital divide that’s present in San Antonio is a big factor in continued inequities in the city, and that needs to be taken into account.
“When we’re writing grants right now, we make sure that we’re doing some digital inclusion for those families that need that,” she said. Equitably serving San Antonio’s most vulnerable citizens means “always, always being open to hearing the voices of those families, of the community, making sure they are the ones that are telling us what do they need,” she said.
Nikisha Baker, president and CEO of SAMMinistries, said case management happens wherever it is easiest for their clients to receive those services — whether it’s the library, schools or any other place they’re at.
“We have seen a growing number not just of youth and young adults, but of children — 3, 5, 7 — who are coming to our programs because their family is experiencing homelessness,” she said. SAMMinistries provides them with counseling and support, but also goes into the schools to educate teachers and leaders to better understand what the children going through, to ensure that they’re meeting the needs of those children in the most equitable way, Baker said.
Kiran Kaur Bains, president and CEO of SA2020, explained that even nonprofit funding is a place where historic inequities still exist.
“We’ve already touched on the inequity that we know is baked into how this work is funded,” she said. “What are the ways in which we are so ripe with possibility to advance equity? … We can bake it in a meaningful way into processes and we will see outcomes that touch peoples’ lives.”
That means building equitable systems within government and education, she said, an example of which is a $1 million city appropriation to study accessibility and mobility across San Antonio’s sidewalks. That study should take into account data that shows that the areas of town that have the highest percentage of people who live with a disability also have the highest percentage of people who use public transit, Bains said.
“What a beautiful opportunity with this funding to bridge accessible sidewalks, curb cuts in our sidewalks that align with bus stops,” she said. “That funding is there, it has been implemented, that work has started. … At the same time, there is yet no conversation about how the study itself will be administered in an equitable way.”
Jonathan Malagon, the director of equity and learning for Austin-based nonprofit Every Texan, agreed that equity needs to be applied to every issue, including street repairs. Malagon said that during his time at the City of San Antonio’s Office of Equity, an Equity Atlas was created so that decision-makers could see data at the census block level.
“What the city will do is make decisions based on street conditions, or [Pavement Conditions Index scores], without necessarily considering people,” he said. “If I get a flat tire, I have the ability to replace my tire more so than somebody who might be very low income, only one vehicle in the household, doesn’t have the ability to miss work. … So we have to always have an approach that includes what we know about people.”
It is also important to include people with lived experience when developing programs or services at the local government level as well as in the nonprofit space, Baker explained.
“Their feedback is important, so that what we think from a societal or cultural or academic standpoint, what we think is the right avenue or an equitable program is not necessarily what is lived out in practice,” she said. “There is so much to learn … from the individuals that we’re serving about equity.”
