{"id":22,"date":"2026-05-07T06:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=22"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:30:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:30:33","slug":"how-san-antonio-plans-to-push-landlords-into-accepting-housing-vouchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=22","title":{"rendered":"How San Antonio plans to push landlords into accepting housing vouchers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This story has been updated.<\/em><\/p>\n

A San Antonio City Council stocked with progressives is moving ahead with plans to both reward landlords who take on new tenants paying with a housing voucher \u2014 and punish those who try to turn away veterans.<\/p>\n

Read more Small-town mayors cruise to reelection, while some add new faces on council<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas law is clear about protecting a landlord\u2019s ability to choose whether they want to rent to people paying with a voucher.<\/p>\n

But it also allows cities to set some different rules at city-funded properties, as well as for veterans applying for housing within city limits.<\/p>\n

San Antonio has already taken advantage of the former allowance to create more options for voucher recipients, and on Tuesday, started closing in on the latter.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s Planning and Community Development Committee to ban landlords from rejecting veterans who want to pay their rent with a VA Supportive Housing (VASH) or Section 8 housing voucher \u2014 and create escalating punishments for property owners who don\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very narrow window the state gives us to add anti-discrimination efforts [to our strategic housing policies],\u201d said Councilman Edward Mungia (D4), who chairs the committee. \u201cIt\u2019s actually pretty rare that the state would give us that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, the committee also green-lit for landlords who sign a new lease with a tenant using either a veterans housing voucher or a traditional housing voucher, commonly referred to as Section 8.<\/p>\n

That idea is intended to get more landlords participating in a program that\u2019s often stigmatized, and leaves voucher recipients competing over a relatively small pool of participating units.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes when folks don\u2019t know how to access a program, providing an incentive allows them to try and see what\u2019s possible,\u201d said Councilwoman Sukh Kaur (D1).<\/p>\n

Both plans were approved unanimously by the committee. The veterans housing plan will head to the full council for a vote on April 7, while the landlord incentive will be taken up during the budget process later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a package deal,\u201d Mungia said of the two proposals. \u201d \u2026 There\u2019s carrots and a stick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Record-high vacancies, yet vouchers go unused<\/h4>\n

Many landlords and property managers at Tuesday\u2019s meeting stressed the added challenges that come with housing vouchers: Payments can be slow to start, plus working with the government entails added paperwork and inspections.<\/p>\n

But council\u2019s ideas come at a time when many property owners are also eager to fill empty units.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe occupancy rate for apartments in our city is at 81% \u2014 the lowest it\u2019s been in decades,\u201d said Melissa Cabello Havrda,\u00a0the chief government relations director at the\u00a0San Antonio Apartment Association.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, city staff has already been working with the apartment association and other landlord advocates to see how they can help reduce the burdens involved with federal housing vouchers.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve worked to speed up the approval process, and even considered fronting money for the first few months of rent before the first voucher payment comes. <\/p>\n

Still, said Neighborhood and Housing Services Assistant Director Veronica Gonzalez, \u201cabout 1,000 vouchers were unused in 2023 \u2014 meaning some families could not find a unit where the voucher could be used.<\/p>\n

In a complex landscape, housing advocates say offering cash bonuses has been the easiest way to offset the landlords\u2019 up-front challenges.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s housing authority tried such a plan and said it was able to add 300 new landlords to their roster of those accepting vouchers \u2014 before federal funding constraints caused the program\u2019s budget to dry up.<\/p>\n

Read more UIW blends modern design with historic preservation for Founders Hall renovation<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) asking the city to take up where that program left off.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpportunity Home had a fund, and they saw great success,\u201d Castillo said at a press conference outside City Hall on Tuesday morning. \u201cHowever, they haven\u2019t replenished that fund, so we have a responsibility [to help].\u201d<\/p>\n

While council members have overwhelmingly agreed, the city is also facing its own budget deficit that will test councilmembers\u2019 commitment to the idea later this fall.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, city staff said it plans to pull the $500,000 for landlord incentives from another popular housing program, the Resident Relocation Assistance Program, which helps cover moving costs for people facing financial hardships.<\/p>\n

Some council members questioned that strategy at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, but vowed to fight for funding both programs in the upcoming budget discussions this fall.<\/p>\n

Veterans seek housing options closer to VA care<\/h4>\n

Meanwhile, the plan to start fining landlords who reject veterans\u2019 housing vouchers has been a much more emotional topic.<\/p>\n

Roughly two dozen people signed up to speak about the idea at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, including veterans who want the city doing everything it can to help those who\u2019ve served, and property managers who say the ordinance is a solution in search of a problem.<\/p>\n

Like many progressive policy ideas moving through City Hall, the proposal started with an outside group that\u2019s pushing similar ideas in other cities. <\/p>\n

The American GI Forum got Fort Worth to approve a veterans housing ordinance in 2024, and though its efforts here once seemed to have hit a wall, it found an ally in Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, an Air Force veteran who was elected in June.<\/p>\n

VASH vouchers are or who have very little income, and the city says it\u2019s been able to match nearly all of the 830 residents currently holding such vouchers with housing.<\/p>\n

Another 1,140 veterans in San Antonio currently receive Housing Choice Vouchers, known as Section 8, according to city estimates, and are also largely placed.<\/p>\n

But Jones and the veteran advocates contend that\u2019s not the same as allowing them to choose where they want to live, which could be easier if all landlords had to accept their vouchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so economically segregated in so many ways,\u201d Jones said at her own press conference last Tuesday, in which she pointed to a map of the city\u2019s VA health clinics .<\/p>\n

\u201cThe map tells the story, which is why it\u2019s so important that we let these veterans take that voucher, and get that housing where they want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

After some initial skepticism, the council committee agreed to a plan Tuesday that would only apply to landlords who own five or more rental properties. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you own one unit that you\u2019re renting, you may not be able to afford a three-month gap [in rent payment],\u201d said Kaur, who proposed the amendment to Jones\u2019 policy. \u201cBut if you own several, you can probably take that hit, because it\u2019s a business now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council members haven\u2019t yet hammered out the details of how they\u2019ll assess fines or other punishments for those who don\u2019t comply.<\/p>\n

Correction: This story has been updated to correctly state that veterans with either a Section 8 or a Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) voucher would be covered by the proposed ban on income discrimination.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Nearly a year after Hill Country floods, a San Antonio school memorializes Madelyn Jeffrey<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite record vacancies, San Antonians struggle to use housing vouchers. 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