By Cynthia Spielman, For the Express-News Jan. 28, 2020
“The more intensely we build in our inner-city neighborhoods, the more affordable the housing.” We hear it from city staff and from our elected officials. It is no wonder this idea has become the rationale for much of the recent developer-driven city policy on infill.
This seems reasonable on the surface. The more housing we build, the more affordable it becomes: supply and demand. The model of supply and demand is an old and simplistic one that belies the reality that affordability is a complex process, particularly when applied to San Antonio’s housing.
Intense development is not producing affordable housing in our inner-city neighborhoods. On the contrary, it is producing market rate (expensive) housing that drives up land values through property valuation and speculation. This practice results in displacement and increases the income segregation in this city. Often affordable “middle” (duplex, triplex, and fourplex) housing has been demolished and its residents displaced to make room for expensive new construction. The density stays the same; the land values rise.
Incompatible and expensive development destabilizes resilient communities and destroys the neighborhoods in which they live. A recent study, “Opportunity at Risk: San Antonio’s Older Affordable Housing Stock,” prepared for the San Antonio Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) by PlaceEconomics (2019) shows that much of San Antonio’s affordable housing was built before 1960 and that this affordable housing (rental and owner-occupied) is disappearing quickly to make way for market-rate rental and condo units. The most affordable housing is the housing we live in now and it is disappearing quickly.
Manhattan, San Francisco, and Chicago are very dense and very expensive. Density does not necessarily lead to affordability as recent studies have pointed out: It is not how much you build, but what you build.
The argument for density, even if it is market rate, is that eventually, as the new structures age, or as another part of town becomes desirable, those who can will move into newer or more attractive neighborhoods, and their old housing will become available and will cause rents and house prices in their old neighborhood to fall.
Theoretically, this makes sense. But in reality, significant obstacles inhibit the affordable housing this model predicts. For instance, much of the new housing being incentivized and encouraged by the city is infill development — building within our existing neighborhoods. This new development is quite expensive causing surrounding properties to rise in value — thus the dreaded property tax hike that is pushing many of us out of our original neighborhoods (we can afford our mortgages, but not our taxes!). This model assumes that used housing — not unlike used cars — will filter down to lower and lower income families, yet by the time it does, it often requires significant investment to make it livable once again.
The question often asked is how (or why) did our housing stock deteriorate to the point that low-income housing is practically uninhabitable? The two most compelling answers would be, first, the lack of available investment dollars through the mid 20th century due to redlining policies that steered investment capital into the suburbs; and, second, the gradual shift through a house’s life from being owner-occupied to being renter-occupied. When a house becomes renter-occupied, it is an investment. As an investment, it may make better financial sense to defer maintenance— and the house deteriorates.
The solutions that help stabilize our neighborhoods, while producing more affordable housing, include building affordable housing on vacant lots that is compatible not only in design, but also in value to the neighborhood and does not impact the housing market. We need to ensure equity in investment across all of our neighborhoods. The city needs to incentivize and help with the rehabbing of declining housing stock so that vulnerable residents can stay put.
The Task Force for Removing Barriers to Affordable Housing proposes the construction of accessory dwelling units to provide the much needed “middle housing“ that is being demolished in our neighborhoods. Accessory dwelling units can provide rental property to offset rising taxes for the homeowner, and they can provide affordable housing that is compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.
To adequately address the problem of the housing crisis we need to build affordable housing along our transportation corridors and in our regional centers. By building on empty and/or blighted retail space, we would meet the projected need for affordable housing and adhere to the SA Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan. At the same time, we would be building infill that is compatible to our neighborhoods in both design and cost.
San Antonio’s leadership cannot expect to solve the crisis of the affordable housing shortage by making decisions based on business adages such as “supply and demand” that do not correlate to the human element in housing. San Antonio’s inner-city neighborhoods are too fragile and many of its residents too vulnerable to survive if we get this wrong. Those of you elected to represent us must be visionaries who do not lose sight of the needs of your most vulnerable constituents.Cynthia Spielman serves on the Steering Committee of the Tier One Neighborhood Coalition. Email: t1nc.sat@gmail.com