$250 Million Affordable Housing Ballot Headed to the Ballot in San Antonio

"Next May, for the first time, San Antonio voters will be asked to approve a housing bond of significant size: $250 million to go toward the construction and preservation of new apartments and single-family homes, as well as the acquisition of property for future below-market housing, also known as land banking," reports Ben Olivo.

"The housing bond is part of the $1.2 billion 2022-2027 bond package, which will be filled with several dozen large-scale projects across the city—from repairing streets and sidewalks, to building new libraries and parks, to improving drainage issues," adds Olivo.

Voters last approved a major bond package in 2017, but this will be the first time that housing will be included in the laundry list of bond-financed projects.

According to Olivo, the $250 million amount "is pulled straight from the Housing Policy Framework, the 2018 report by the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force," though the funding proposals for the housing bond are still subject to change. The city's Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, which followed up the Task Force's report, will provide additional guidance on how to spend the bond funding, if it's approved by voters.

A recent analysis by Economic & Planning Systems estimated 96,000 cost burdened households in San Antonio.