At a live news event hosted by the San Antonio Report and H.E. Butt Foundation, local leaders, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg and housing experts, discussed the urgent housing crisis facing San Antonio. The panel highlighted the forces driving housing insecurity and emphasized the need for a unified community effort to tackle these challenges. Officials discussed solutions, including removing the stigma around affordable housing, promoting transit-based development, and addressing the city's growing affordability gap. The event called for a shift in thinking about who affordable housing is for, as housing insecurity affects everyone.

San Antonio Leaders Call for Unity to Address Housing Insecurity Crisis

San Antonio is facing a severe housing insecurity crisis, and local leaders are urging the community to come together to find solutions. During a live news event hosted by the San Antonio Report and the H.E. Butt Foundation at the Whitley Event Center, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, along with housing experts and officials, examined the challenges impacting the city’s housing market.

The panel included Mayor Ron Nirenberg, San Antonio Housing Commissioner Nikki Johnson, CEO of Opportunity Home Michael Reyes, and Christine Drennon, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Trinity University. They explored how San Antonio reached its current state, where rising housing costs and mass property buyouts have driven families out of their homes.

Understanding the Crisis

The event featured a clip from the documentary "Everyone Needs a Home," which highlighted the factors leading to San Antonio's housing crisis, including foreclosure-driven evictions and corporate acquisition of affordable housing. Mayor Nirenberg pointed out that forces are removing affordable housing stock, leading to significant cost pressures.

“There’s a supply issue at all levels of affordability,” Nirenberg explained. He and other panelists agreed that this housing insecurity contributes to economic instability for many San Antonio families.

Solutions and Collaboration

Tackling this issue will require significant financial investment, but the panelists emphasized the importance of working together to shift the narrative around affordable housing. Expanding transit-based development, which would make commuting easier for inner-city workers, and removing the stigma around public housing were proposed as part of the solution.

Mayor Nirenberg noted that San Antonio began developing a housing framework even before the pandemic, which they have been able to strengthen using federal resources. “We have a crisis level of housing insecurity, but we also have a community that’s committed and aligned,” he said.

A New Approach to Affordable Housing

Panelists agreed that part of the solution lies in changing perceptions of who benefits from affordable housing. Addressing the “not in my backyard” mentality and recognizing that housing affordability impacts everyone is essential to San Antonio’s growth.

“It could be your cousin who lost their job, your aunt deciding between paying for groceries or her mortgage,” Housing Commissioner Nikki Johnson said. “We need to reframe how we think about affordable housing—it’s for everyone.”

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