Just a few years ago, the intersection on Holm Road was surrounded by low trees and head-high brush. Now, that stretch is overlooked by four stories of affordable housing.
It’s part of a growing fleet of affordable apartment complexes being built in parts of San Antonio’s Southwest Side as housing advocates champion new living spaces and developers invest in a growing community.
On Wednesday, Lincoln Avenue Capital celebrated the opening of Leon Creek Flats — 308 affordable apartments a stone’s throw from Pearsall Park.
It’s one of four new apartment complexes the company is opening this summer. Blake Hopkins, vice president of regional projects in Texas for Lincoln Avenue Capital, says the developer has been anticipating additional growth on the South Side.
Local officials who spoke at the ribbon cutting last week lauded the appearance of the apartments. Units had polished granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and come with washers and dryers.
Low-income folks deserve to have quality homes, said Councilman Edward Mungia (D4) who represents the area. “It feels great. This is such a quality product.”
Leon Creek Flats has 47 units set aside for people making less than 30% of the area median income. The rest are for people making up to 60% of the area median income. That’s $26,650 and $52,200, respectively, for a family of three.
It’s the latest, but by no means the last, affordable housing development to hit South San Antonio. The $64.9 million project is using a $2.5 million loan from the city’s affordable housing bond, along with federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC).
The 2022 Affordable Housing Bond will wind down next year, but for now its funds are still being used for projects nearby, like the 288-unit Palladium at VIDA, and for new affordable apartments across the South Side.
Half of the 12 new apartment complexes built using the housing bond will be in San Antonio’s southernmost council districts in District 3 and District 4.
That wasn’t planned, said Ian Benavidez, deputy director of the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD). Projects are scored based on how they meet housing bond priorities, like proximity to jobs, transportation and green space. Those new apartment proposals have met those needs.
“There is an availability of land. They’re able to connect to a lot of our other priorities,” he said.
Private developers bring the proposals forward based on where they see possibilities. Other types of projects funded by the housing bond, like rental rehabilitation or home production, are concentrated in other parts of San Antonio.
“Our distribution of projects is pretty spread out,” Benavidez said. “We respond to the proposals that are submitted to us.”
But developers are seeing opportunities across the South Side. Lincoln Avenue Capital is building a senior living complex next to Leon Creek Flats called Residences at Pearsall Park. A pair of affordable family-style and senior living apartments called Sageland Flats and Mesquite Trails are also being built at Brooks.
Pete Alanis is the executive director of the San Antonio Housing Trust, which partnered with Lincoln Avenue Capital to develop Leon Creek Flats.
“This area of town has been very long underrepresented in affordable housing,” he said. “People want to live and continue to live in their neighborhoods.”
Affordable apartments gave Southside residents options near their childhood homes to help keep communities together. “We’re seeing in a lot of neighborhoods in San Antonio, families are growing older and children are moving out of neighborhoods. We need to build opportunities for people to stay.”
Mungia said there’s a need for all kinds of housing in his district, from affordable to market rate, to meet community needs. He hopes, though, that high-quality affordable housing opportunities like Leon Creek Flats pushes out other landlords, property managers and competitors.
“It’s also on other people in the private space to do more for their properties,” he said.
Which units are filling up?
Many of the units at Leon Creek Flats have already been leased.
Hopkins said the units targeted toward 30% AMI households had leased up quickly. Those targeted towards 60% AMI households were about half full.
Kayla Miranda, director of the Coalition for Tenant Justice, said she’s concerned that units for higher AMIs aren’t meeting affordable housing needs in San Antonio.
For example, 60% of AMI in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area is $52,200 for a family of three. That’s the income requirement used for Leon Creek Flats.
“[The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development] sets that for the area of San Antonio-New Braunfels,” Miranda said. “We’re not looking at what’s affordable to the City of San Antonio.”
In Leon Creek Flats’ ZIP code, 78242, incomes are lower than in the wider metro area, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median income for households in that ZIP code is actually $50,644, less than what would be 60% AMI across the metro area.
Thirty-percent of that ZIP code’s median income is closer to $15,000, according to census bureau data, not the $26,650 laid out under the AMI guidelines.
Rents should be set at specific incomes, Miranda said, like housing vouchers which guarantee rent at 30% of a person’s income.
San Antonio Housing Trust’s executive director agreed that housing units could be hard to get into, even when they are affordable. Alanis says he still wants to build affordable housing, though.
“It is harder for many of our lowest-income folks in any ZIP code, not just this one. There are many San Antonio community members that can’t afford market rent levels and rent levels at even our LIHTC projects,” he said in an email. “It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t build new affordable supply that do provide affordability for many members of the community.”
