DEPARTMENT: Neighborhood & Housing Services Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Ver?nica R. Soto, AICP, Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: All
SUBJECT:
Briefing on the Fiscal Year 2020 Affordable Housing Budget to include an update on the affordable housing strategies and goals in the Mayor's Housing Policy Framework.
SUMMARY:
In August 2017, Mayor Ron Nirenberg created the Mayor's Housing Taskforce to develop comprehensive housing policy recommendations. Over a period of 11 months, the Taskforce engaged in extensive, inclusive, and meaningful community outreach with over 500 community members. The effort resulted in the Mayor's Housing Policy Framework that was accepted by City Council in August 2018. The Framework identified 5 key action items that must be implemented in order to meet the affordable housing needs in San Antonio and also set housing goals for the next 10 years. The goals were established for owner and renter occupied units and categorized by AMI. Goals were also set for rehabilitation and production of affordable housing units.
The City immediately started to implement the strategies identified in the Framework and allocated $26.1 million to affordable housing in the FY2019 Budget. The funding was used to add additional staff and resources to the Neighborhood and Housing Services Department, expand programs that promote homeownership through down payment assistance and homebuyer counseling, develop programs that support housing repair and preservation like Under One Roof and Let's Paint, protect residents from displacement associated with development through the creation of the risk mitigation policy, provide assistance to residents impacted by displacement through financial assistance, and facilitate more housing production through gap financing. Additionally, the Mayor created a committee to help identify barriers to affordable housing production in preparation for the Unified Development Code amendment process. The Mayor also...
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