Since the beginning of the year, officials with the housing authority in San Antonio have cited a six-figure waitlist for public housing and subsidies — but more than half of those individuals are no longer seeking housing here or didn’t respond to the agency’s recent inquiries.
At the start of the pandemic in 2020, there were about 35,000 on the list, according to Opportunity Home San Antonio officials. In November, the waitlist had 116,144 people on it. But after a rigorous review that started in June, it now stands at 65,920 unique applications. That’s a nearly 65% reduction and officials say the review is ongoing.
“The waitlist numbers the organization had previously provided did not fully capture the true story of the affordable housing needs in San Antonio, as they included applicants from across the country and had not been updated for more than seven years,” said Michael Reyes, acting president and CEO of Opportunity Home, said in a press release Thursday.
Reyes told the agency’s board of commissioners on Wednesday that maintenance on the waitlist — which includes lists for public housing, vouchers and other subsidies — was a top priority of his when he was appointed to lead the organization in June.
“We now have real numbers that reflect the affordable housing needs of our city,” Reyes stated. “Moving forward, the organization is committed to maintaining accurate waitlist data, as these numbers have vast implications for our city’s housing partners and the housing needs of San Antonians.”
The public housing waitlist is 48,101 applications long, the Housing Choice Voucher has 17,124 and other types of vouchers and programs have 9,294, according to Opportunity Home.
The reduced number means the housing authority can more efficiently go through lists when housing and subsidies become available, Jose Mascorro, the agency’s chief operating officer who joined in October, told the San Antonio Report.
“When a family sees 116,000, it’s almost like [the odds of] winning the lottery — there’s not a whole lot of hope,” he said. “When you give a more accurate number and you’re able to work through the families not needing [subsidies] any longer and remove them from the waiting list, it does help with a glimmer of hope for those that are still on the list.”
Only about 4% of housing and subsidy offers are accepted by waitlisted applicants, most of whom do not respond to the offer, he said. Other times, they decline the service or do not end up meeting income requirements.
Of the nearly 66,000 applicants who remain on the list, about 20% (or 13,184) have an out-of-state address. Most of them are from Chicago, where the waitlist is more than 10 years, Mascorro said. About 18% of applicants are from other Texas cities and 62% are from the San Antonio area.
A lot of people apply in several different cities and states to find housing, he said. “And San Antonio is a great place to live.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which funds and oversees local housing authorities, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
It is fairly typical for a housing authority to accept applications from people living anywhere, Mascorro said.
“It’s not a steadfast rule that HUD says you must do this, but in a roundabout way with federal fair housing rules and regulations and laws, it does imply: Try not to create such a finite selection plan that you’re excluding a large group of people,” he said.
HUD provides guidance surrounding waitlists, but does not require housing authorities to maintain them in a specific way, he said.
Opportunity Home will begin exploring new policies, which will require board approval, to further streamline and focus the waitlist. That may involve requiring more frequent applicant interest verification, adding a preference for San Antonio residents and automatically giving people on the waitlist at least two chances to accept a program offer.
But these ideas are all preliminary and will involve extensive resident input, Reyes and Mascorro stressed.
“The best practice for any agency is to continuously look at best practices,” Mascorro said. “We have an obligation to continuously improve.”
The city is roughly four years in to its 10-year housing affordability plan and two years into spending its $150 million housing bond, the last of which is slated for allocation next year. The Strategic Housing Implementation Plan seeks to support 95,000 cost-burdened households in San Antonio.
“I am grateful to see the new Opportunity Home leadership is providing clarification and working toward a realistic picture of our community’s housing needs,” said Mayor Ron Nirenberg, a champion of the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan.
“Tens of thousands of San Antonio residents are in need of affordable housing, but I am encouraged that the size of the problem is not as dire as previously reported.”