When Wi-Fi routers are installed and activated at Mission Park and Riverside Apartments, 24,276 residents who live in public housing projects will have free access to the internet, according to officials.
Opportunity Home San Antonio has developed about 100 affordable housing properties across the city. Of the properties it manages, most will have free Wi-Fi.
“The capability that all communities will soon have is going to change the lives of those we serve,” Jo Ana Alvardo, the agency’s director of innovative technology, stated in a news release. “Our residents will no longer have stress about how they can get connected digitally; they can access the internet on their device from any area in their apartment community.”
It’s unclear when Mission Park and Riverside will receive Wi-Fi as the housing authority is working with the City of San Antonio on logistical issues, a spokesperson told the San Antonio Report.
More than 130,000 households, about 20% in Bexar County, are estimated to lack adequate internet access, according to the 2021 San Antonio and Bexar County Digital Inclusion Roadmap.
In an increasingly digital world, reliable internet access and digital literacy are daily requirements to access a wide range of services, find employment, get health care or go to school.
The local housing authority, which receives the bulk of its funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, started offering broadband access and digital devices in shared community rooms in 2013. It started expanding that to reach individual homes in 2017.
In 2020, Opportunity Home’s Board of Commissioners approved $4 million in flexible HUD funding to expand free Wi-Fi to each home in 74 communities, including Mission Park and Riverside.
All residents of Opportunity Home’s public housing or mixed-income communities can also receive a free digital device — a laptop, tablet or smartphone, depending on their needs — after completing a digital literacy course. The ConnectHomeSA course provides an overview of several topics, including internet navigation, computer, social media and email basics, online safety and cybersecurity.
Opportunity Home also provides residents who want private internet service with information about the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides a discount on monthly internet bills for qualifying low-income households as well as one-time discounts on digital devices.
