Quote:
Originally Posted by texboy
You know, Ive never been a big fan of the San Antonio Housing Authority, especially after the Stone Oak Fiasco with them pulling the wool over people's eyes.
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I worked for SAHA for a couple of years in media relations. It was long before any of the stone oak stuff went down, but the public housing issue is way more complicated than a bunch of fart-knocker retirees in Stone Oak think. Don't be mad at SAHA, be mad HUD who created new mandates in the mid 90's that said public housing developments (we never called them projects) could no longer be concentrated in the urban core. There's percentages and prescriptions for how they have to be spread around town. All SAHA is doing is following federal mandates. And honestly, you'd rather have them purchase an apartment complex in the neighborhood than build something from scratch in it, because they wont pour a bunch of cash into new, non-highly visible developments - case in point - the former Mirasol Homes project with the craptastic KB homes that are only 8 years old, but are already falling apart, and full of mold (who knew there was a sub-standard version of a KB home, but I guess there is.)
It was a stretch to call it stone oak anyhow, because Blanco and 1604 is at the best, the edge of SO, unlike say a property at Stone Oak at Hardy Oak or something, and lies outside the actual SO platted development, but thats another argument.
But the deal was for SAHA to own the property and only 10% or something nominal would be dedicated to non-market rate rents. SAHA already has 22,000 familes (thats probably close to 75,000 folks assuming each family consists of 3 people) in the section 8 program- meaning they can rent a home or apartment pretty much anywhere in town. Cause federal law says that if you took out a loan to purchase the property that was from a FDIC insured bank, then you have to accept section 8 renters. So if an apartment complex was purchased and a bank provided the financing for it, or a landlord purchased a property with a mortgage, then they have to accept section 8 renters. What does this mean for SA? With 1million in the city limits (not MSA & burbs) about 1 in 13 folks here are in the section 8 program, and it's probably a good bet they are your neighbors. So if you live in the city of San Antonio proper, you more or less dont live too far from a federally subsidized renter. I can promise you they were all over town; including the then-annexxed areas of Stone Oak. For those of you all in Bexar County proper, there's a parallel but seperate agency (the Bexar County Housing Authority) that provides the same thing to about 1,000 families in areas outside SA city limits).
Finally, don't think that this deal to buy Talavera was unique. SAHA is a quiet apartment owner all over town. They've owned apartment complexes for years, all over town that are operated exactly as Talavera would have been run, including Burning Tree on Jones-Maltzberger, Towering Oaks in the Med Center and ironically enough, Churchill Estates Apartments in Churchill Estates , less than two miles from Talavera.
Blame SAHA for being inept. Blame them for being stupid enough to buy a bill of goods from KB Homes. Blame them for allowing a corporate culture if ineptitude to develop. But dont blame them for following federal regulations. Blame Jack Kemp (HUD Secretary under Bush 41) and Andrew Cuomo (HUD Secretary under Clinton).
Back to the topic. I've just heard lots of people throwing some inaccuracies around on here and wanted to put some facts out there.