DEPARTMENT: Office of Historic Preservation
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Shanon Shea Miller, Director
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: 5
SUBJECT:
Briefing on the District 5 Shotgun House Rehabilitation Pilot Project and an overview of the Office of Historic Preservation Shotgun House Initiative.
SUMMARY:
The District 5 Shotgun House Rehabilitation Pilot Project goal is to complete affordable rehabilitations on three shotgun type houses and assess current processes and resources. The project will be completed through a collaboration between the City of San Antonio, UTSA, and community partners. The partners will collaborate to establish workforce trainings framed within best practices under the Secretary of Interior Standards as well as sustainable and green building practices. After the completion of the three rehab projects, best practice "how-to guides" will be developed for owners, city staff, financial institutions, and micro-business support organizations dedicated to utilizing and maintaining the affordability of existing housing. The outcomes of the pilot project will help to define the infrastructure and framework needed for a system that can be replicated citywide.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
In late 2018 the Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) began the Shotgun House Initiative that sought to locate every shotgun house in San Antonio. The initiative is ongoing and serves to celebrate and promote this important housing type and to encourage the reuse of the existing and naturally affordable housing stock.
The shotgun house is a valuable cultural resource that is rapidly vanishing in the United States. These homes were historically affordable housing and continue to be affordable housing today. To date, over 300 shotgun houses have been found in San Antonio. The oldest dates to the 1870s. They can be found in almost all of San Antonio's older neighborhoods and have been located in Districts 1, 2, 3, and 5.
These narrow buildings were easy to build on sma...
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