The homeless housing projects at the abandoned East Side Hotel
San Antonio officials scrapped plans to buy and convert an East Side motel into housing for people seeking to escape homelessness after neighbors – worried about crime and wondering why their area of the city should be the site of such a facility – opposed the project.
Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, whose district includes the Skyline Park neighborhood near the Garden Inn at 211 N. WW White Road, said he asked city staff to drop the project.
“It’s heartbreaking because these are the kinds of things I talked about on the campaign trail — these are the kinds of projects we need,” McKee-Rodriguez said.
Plans for the motel included accommodations with on-site support services, such as mental health care and addiction treatment, for long-term homeless people. It would have been different from emergency shelters, allowing tenants to sign a lease and pay rent at 30% of any income they earn.
The city held three public meetings in the area.
The message from the residents was clear.
Neighbors said the city too often uses the East Side as a proving ground for projects they believe wouldn’t be considered for the more affluent North Side, Rose Hill said. Hill does not live in Skyline Park, but she leads the District 2 Presidents’ Roundtable, a group of East Side neighborhood association presidents.
“The community was very vocal and very opinionated. It was a good, strong discussion,” Hill said. “But it was said loud and clear that they didn’t want it there. It’s too close to the neighborhoods.
Nearby business owners were also worried. Janie Agis owns the Bluebonnet Grill in Radicke, just north of the Garden Inn, and she said she’s had trouble with local homeless people vandalizing her building and scaring away customers.
She is not opposed to helping homeless people. But she questioned the need for such housing on the East Side when a similar project, called Twin Village of Towneis already under construction a mile away.
Every part of San Antonio has a homeless population, Agis said.
“Throughout the city, we need some kind of homes for the homeless, not just on one side of town,” she said.
More worries to come?
The reaction of neighbors to the Garden Inn plan could signal problems for the city as it prepares a series of projects to combat homelessness.
In May’s municipal elections, voters approved $25 million for housing with supportive services to help people escape homelessness. It is part of a larger $150 million housing bond. The city’s new Strategic Housing Implementation Plan also calls for 1,000 new housing units over the next decade.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Social Services confirmed that the Garden Inn project was dead.
“City staff will continue to work with the community and our site partners to include the expansion of existing or previously approved permanent supportive housing projects,” department spokesman Roland Martinez said. in an email.
McKee-Rodriguez said he’s concerned about a pattern in what he’s hearing from his constituents.
“One thing I heard was consistent: District 2 and the East Side is never the place to give innovative things like Port San Antonio or even movie theaters and bowling alleys their first chance. . We don’t get those things,” McKee-Rodriguez said. “But when the city wants to try a solution to homelessness, it’s ‘Let’s try it in District 2’.”
City staff have previously said they chose the Garden Inn for its proximity to bus routes, grocery stores, and pharmacies. The building is also in good condition, which would have facilitated renovations.
McKee-Rodriguez said he’s open to similar housing plans elsewhere in District 2. But he said city officials and his office should advocate for them with residents and explain how such projects would work.
“You have to be ready with a communications plan, an audience input plan,” he said.
The association takes the lead
The Garden Inn project would have been the city’s first attempt to develop housing – with access to support services – for people coming out of homelessness.
A non-profit developer is already doing this.
Towne Twin Village on Dietrich will be the first of its kind in San Antonio, and the neighbors seem to support it. At public meetings about the Garden Inn project, some even asked if the city could spend its funds on Towne Twin Village instead of building its own facility. City staff are exploring that idea, McKee-Rodriguez said.
The project includes about 200 residential units, a mix of tiny houses, apartments and mobile homes, said Edward Gonzales, executive director of Housing First Community Coalition.
“We know there is a critical need for this type of housing in San Antonio,” Gonzales said.
The first 60 units are under construction and should be ready to move in by the end of October or the beginning of November. A transport pavilion, multi-purpose buildings and a laundry will also be built in the first phase. Gonzales expects the entire project to be completed next year.
Residents will have on-site access to psychiatrists and counselors, dental services, medical providers, meals and showers. A handful of social workers will live in Towne Twin Village, and it will employ full-time security staff.
Developing affordable housing or housing with supportive services is difficult because of the stigma attached to such projects, Gonzales said. When his organization released its Towne Twin Village plans, neighborhood leaders expressed some of the same concerns he heard about the Garden Inn project.
He said Housing First has worked hard to speak with residents, show them site plans and answer their questions. The result was increased community support.
“Everyone has the right to housing,” Gonzales said. “We’re not sugarcoating it – we’re saying there will be formerly homeless people living in these units. But we’re going to have support services.
“We have to do it right so we can demonstrate that it works, and that it can work in a way that doesn’t disrupt a neighborhood and cause all these negative effects that everyone is worried about,” he said. he declares.