Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) is a housing organizer who was among the new progressive voices elected to the council in 2021. She represents the near Southwest side.
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Please tell voters about yourself.
Teri Castillo is a lifelong and generational resident of District 5. Castillo is a trained urban historian with a master’s degree in history and an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where Castillo received training to teach 7th-12th grade United States history, government and economics.
Castillo worked for the San Antonio Independent School District for six years prior to being elected as Councilmember to District 5. At the core of Castillo’s work is her values and vision as a community organizer, particularly in housing and health care, where she has worked alongside the community for Medicaid expansion as well as the preservation and production of affordable housing. As the District 5 Councilmember, Castillo has secured historic infrastructure investment to the residents of District 5 moving our community forward together.
List any previous experience in government or participation on local boards, commissions, or neighborhood associations.
Castillo is the sitting council member with a wealth of experience in community building and tackling District 5’s most pressing issues. Castillo successfully secured nearly double the amount of bond investment from the previous bond cycle and advocated for an increase in funding for basic infrastructure.
Castillo was selected as a recipient for the 2023 Texas Housers Award in recognition for the work of the District 5 team tackling housing issues. Castillo is a member of several important city council committees, including the Planning and Community Development Committee, Economic and Workforce Development Committee, and Municipal Utilities Committee. Additionally, Castillo currently chairs the Community Health Committee.
In the city’s 2024-2025 budget survey, residents ranked homelessness, streets, housing and animal care services among their top concerns for the city to address. Which issues do you consider a top concern for District 5 and how would you work to address them in your first 100 days?
All of the above are serious concerns for District 5 — according to our 2025 Budget Survey affordable housing and homelessness were our top concerns. Homelessness and housing are inextricably tied together. Our office has proactively worked toward ensuring that we are preserving our existing affordable housing stock, while receiving funds from the 2022 Housing Bond to continue to build more affordable housing.
We have expanded our home rehab program funding to over $35 million, and we have implemented Operation Rebuild, a program that holistically looks to preserve homes slated for demolition and instead rehabs it from top to bottom. We have expanded our infrastructure funding every year, and we are looking to implement policy that will continue to provide holistic traffic calming solutions for our residents.
Finally, we have bolstered our Animal Care Services budget to adequately address stray and roaming dogs, while also increasing the penalties for neglectful owners. We will continue to bolster all of these efforts when elected to the final term in office.
In a crowded field of council candidates, what differentiates you from the others?
Whether it is constituent services, policy, or positions from the dais, I have the experience and the results that show that I am willing to grind it out for my residents. We nearly doubled our amount of bond investment in the 2022 Bond to nearly $100 million in funding to ensure that we are delivering more essential infrastructure like our streets, sidewalks, drainage, and a new fire station.
I am also the clear champion for housing, health, and labor issues in our district and San Antonio. When my colleagues introduced water breaks for City-funded contracts I made sure to bring in our local unions to advocate for these common sense worker protections. When we learned that opioid overdoses are a major issue that cuts across socio-economic status we declared overdoses a public health crisis and have allocated opioid settlement dollars toward harm reduction programs that work.
If elected, how do you plan to solicit input and feedback from residents in your district?
Our District 5 office will continue to conduct grassroots outreach by bringing the office to the people of District 5 with our door-to-door outreach, open office hours, as well as our physical and digital newsletters.
Read more about Teri Castillo
District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo brings organizer ethos to dais
