A $2.5 Billion Vision for San Antonio’s Affordable Housing Future
For generations, affordable housing has helped shape the lives of San Antonio families. It has given older adults the opportunity to age with dignity, provided working families the stability to build a brighter future and given children the security of growing up in a stable home.
Today, many of those same homes face a different reality.
Built decades ago, some of San Antonio’s oldest public housing communities require significant reinvestment to continue serving the people who depend on them. At the same time, the city’s continued growth has intensified demand for affordable housing, making it clear that protecting deeply affordable homes must go hand in hand with expanding access to new ones.
That challenge — and the path to addressing it — was at the heart of Opportunity Home San Antonio’s launch of Strategy 2037: A Centennial Vision on June 26.
Bridging the Past and the Future
Before the unveiling, community leaders, partners and stakeholders toured Alazán-Apache Courts, where many stepped inside one of the city’s oldest public housing residences for the first time. Walking through the nearly century-old apartment offered a firsthand look at the realities of aging infrastructure and the importance of preserving affordable housing in a way that meets the needs of today’s families.
The group later gathered at Snowden Living, Opportunity Home’s newest senior community near the Medical Center. With modern apartment homes and amenities designed to support independent living, it offered a glimpse of what affordable housing can become.
The contrast between the two communities reflected the vision behind Strategy 2037: a more than $2.5 billion investment to preserve, modernize and expand nearly 15,000 affordable homes over the next decade — the largest commitment to affordable housing in San Antonio since the New Deal.
The unveiling came as cities across the country continue to grapple with rising housing costs and a shortage of affordable places to live. Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros placed the moment in that broader context, reflecting on nearly a century of public housing and emphasizing that access to a safe, affordable home remains as essential today as ever.
A “People Blueprint” Grounded in Dignity
For President and CEO Michael Reyes, Strategy 2037 is about confronting today’s challenges while ensuring Opportunity Home can continue serving San Antonio for generations to come. Modernizing aging communities, he said, is about far more than renovating buildings. It is about protecting the opportunities that begin with having a place to call home.
“Modernizing our housing properties is not just a real estate calculation,” Reyes said. “It’s a moral obligation to the families living in them.”
Over the next decade, Opportunity Home will preserve and modernize 6,000 public housing homes, develop 5,500 new affordable homes, acquire 500 additional homes and revitalize 2,500 within its Affordable Housing Communities portfolio. The strategy also strengthens the organization’s capacity to invest in resident services, partnerships and innovation while ensuring it remains financially resilient.
Foundation for a Brighter Future
The significance of that investment came into focus through the story of Opportunity Home Board Commissioner Janet Garcia.
Standing before an audience that had just visited the community where her family’s journey began, Garcia shared how public housing gave her family stability after experiencing homelessness. Having a place to call home allowed them to stop worrying about where they would sleep each night and begin looking ahead with hope.
That stability gave Garcia the opportunity to continue her education, advocate for her children and pursue goals that once seemed out of reach.
“From surviving to living, and today we are thriving because we finally had the foundation to build a future,” Garcia said.
Her story captured the purpose behind Strategy 2037. While the vision outlines billions of dollars in investment and thousands of affordable homes, its true measure of success will be the opportunities those homes create — strengthening families today while opening doors for those who follow.