San Antonio officials and Our Casas Resident Council leaders celebrated the completion and purchase of the first home in the Zarzamora Affordable Home Project on Wednesday.
The celebration was held at the home, which was completed and sold in May.
The lot the home was built on is one of five homes the city’s Office of Urban Development sold to Our Casas Resident Council in 2017 to develop affordable homes for first-time homebuyers.
Our Casas Resident Council is a U.S. Housing and Urban Development-certified Community Housing Development Organization (CDHO), which allows it to receive HUD funding through the city.
Roman Peña, chairman of the board of Our Casas Resident Council, gave the opening remarks at the event. “Today we come together to celebrate not just the opening of a new home, but the promise of a brighter future for our community as we stand in the midst of this housewarming event,” he said.
The home includes an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), often referred to as a casita, which the city’s Chief Housing Officer Mark Carmona said is an important part of their affordable housing efforts.
“Accessory Dwelling Units really provide an opportunity in a number of ways,” he explained. “People that need affordable housing, people who want to age in place, and people that are on a on a fixed income”
The home is the first from a San Antonio CDHO to include an ADU.
District 4 Councilmember Adriana Rocha Garcia, who attended the event, said the ADUs were especially important to Latino families in San Antonio.
“What we had missing for a long time, and it’s not uncommon to Latino families in particular, is the ADU — the ability to have a casita where our parents, our grandparents, our extended family, sometimes our children can stay and be close to us,” she said.
The Zarzamora Affordable Housing Project is specifically for families under 80% of the average median income of the San Antonio area. For a family of three, that’s $63,750 per year.
Three of the five lots sold to Our Casas Resident Council, including the one celebrated on Wednesday, have finished home construction, and two other homes are still being built.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the Zarzamora Affordable Housing Project was finally bringing needed housing support to the city’s historic West Side.
“A house is a symbol of opportunity, it’s a symbol of safety, it’s a sanctuary for families,” Nirenberg said. “And today we are celebrating another one opening in a place where, frankly, the community’s been waiting for opportunities for a long time and it’s about time they see them delivered.”
District 5 Councilmember Teri Castillo, in whose district the housing project sits, said the city needs to keep moving forward on housing initiatives like this one.
“I think this is a great example of what we should continue to do — keeping families housed to ensure that while we experience economic development and growth like the beautiful linear greenway trail, there’s an opportunity for folks to access safe and accessible affordable housing,” she said.
