Norma Patterson stood nervously, waving at the large crowd gathered in front of her new apartment complex on Tuesday morning to celebrate the grand opening of the state-of-the-art, 76-unit Vista at Silver Oaks apartments.
While it resembles any other modern apartment complex popping up in San Antonio, Vista at Silver Oaks is actually the latest development completed as part of San Antonio’s voter-approved, $150 million 2022 Affordable Housing Bond.
The complex is located not far from Castle Hills, with easy access to schools, grocery stores and office buildings. Its cool, gray exterior is finished with white accents and accessible by chalky sidewalks, all behind a closed iron gate.
Patterson, 64, moved into the complex in January with her autistic, non-verbal 3-year-old granddaughter off of a fixed income. Patterson spends less than $1,000 a month to live in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit in the quaint new complex, which includes a fitness center and onsite laundry facility.
“Being a senior, I was wondering how I was going to make ends meet to take care of this child,” she said. “Living here — it’s gonna make it possible.”
The newly opened complex brings the total number of completed affordable housing units to 800 of roughly 4,100 planned across the city as part of the 2022 Affordable Housing Bond. That means the city is approximately 20% of the way to its total goal, according to the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department.
“We are expecting by the end of this [fiscal] year to have over 2,000 homes completed,” said Victoria Gonzalez-Gerlach, the city’s housing bond administrator, who used the terms “home” and “unit” interchangeably.
She added that additionally, more than 2,700 are under construction and 800 more are in development.
Of the total bond amount, $115 million has already been committed to projects across San Antonio, ranging from new, single-family homes to multifamily units for purchase or rental, as well as repairing existing homes, Gonzalez-Gerlach said.
Vista at Silver Oaks makes up $3.3 million of that total, and is the second such apartment complex to be completed through the housing bond.
At the apartment’s ribbon-cutting on Tuesday, Mayor Ron Nirenberg called the grand opening a “monumental” moment for the bond.
“Vista at Silver Oaks is not just another development,” he said. “It is truly a lifeline for San Antonio families.”
The city’s public housing authority, Opportunity Home San Antonio, plus developers Atlantic Pacific Companies and OCI Development, invested $29.3 million in the project, on top of the bond dollars.
A new approach to housing
The 2022-2027 bond program was San Antonio’s first bond to include a proposition that specifically focused on affordable housing, following a change to the city charter that voters approved in 2021.
All six provisions in the bond package passed, but the affordable housing portion had the tightest margin, with just under 60% support.
Three years into the housing bond, affordable housing in San Antonio remains a challenge. Nearly half of renters in San Antonio are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30% of their income on rent.
San Antonio is experiencing overdevelopment and gentrification in some areas and underdevelopment in others, reflecting broader national trends that are reshaping housing markets across the country, Christine Drennon, associate professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University, told the San Antonio Report in September.
The area median income for a family of three in San Antonio is $79,700, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Vista at Silver Oaks offers eight units for families who make 30% of the area median income, or no more than $23,900 per year. Twenty-two units are available to renters who make 50% of the median income, and 46 units are available to those who make 60% of the local area median income.
The amount each Vista at Silver Oaks tenant will pay depends on their own income, compared to the area median income.
Reason for hope
Despite ongoing challenges with housing affordability, the city and its partners aimed this week to highlight the hope that now exists for each of the 76 new units’ residents.
Analco Gonzalez, co-founder and managing partner of OCI Development, called Tuesday a celebration that is about “the necessity and the impact of what this building behind me represents.”
“I wanted to recognize … probably one of the most important persons in the audience … one of our new residents at Vista at Silver Oaks who’s joined us today, Miss Norma Patterson,” he said. “Miss Paterson, could you please stand and be recognized? Thank you for joining us, and we’re so proud and privileged to have you be a part of the family.”
Nirenberg credited local voters for their support of the $1.2 billion bond package, recognizing their commitment to prioritizing housing with their tax dollars, which he said made Vista at Silver Oaks a reality.
“Let’s be clear, that didn’t happen by accident,” he said. “It happened because the people of San Antonio stood up and voted for those values.”
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly state that $115 million of the total housing bond amount has already been committed. Previously, the story cited a city press release that listed that amount as $124 million.
