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The historic 10-story Robert E. Lee Apartments building is in the heart of downtown, sitting in the shadow of the Frost Tower just three blocks away from City Hall.
The Robert E. Lee was built as a hotel in 1922 before being converted to affordable housing apartments in the 1990s.
It remains one of the only affordable housing options inside downtown San Antonio.
The massive sign on the top of the 72-unit building has worn down significantly since it was put up in 1938 and has serious structural damage, but it still declares “Hotel Robt. E Lee — Air Conditioned.”
Because of the building’s place on the National Register of Historic Places and conservation groups’ protests, efforts to change its name from the Confederate general have failed.
But its tenants do feel a strong bond with this building, and many have been here for a long time.
Megan Navarro is one of them. “People here look out for one another,” she said. “It's not just, ‘Oh, we're neighbors,’ you know, if somebody doesn't have something to eat, we bring them food. If somebody is too ill to leave their apartment, we go and we pick up their prescriptions.”
A few blocks from the building is the Soap Factory Apartments, a rare market rate apartment complex downtown with affordable rents.
Soap Factory’s owner, local real estate firm Weston Urban, will tear it down over the next several years as part of a plan to bring the Missions baseball team downtown.
The firm also owns at least six other properties within three blocks of the Robert E. Lee and stated its intention to purchase it last year.
That’s when Navarro sprang into action.
“Because even though my options are limited, I wouldn't choose to put myself in this vulnerable position again, especially after just losing my previous home to a fire and being uprooted again,” she said. ”So that from that moment is what motivated me to found a tenants union.”
Weston Urban did not respond to TPR’s request for comment.
A tenants union is a group of tenants or renters who collectively organize to improve their living conditions, similar to a workplace union. In some cities, tenants unions enact collective bargaining agreements with the owners of their apartments — like a workplace union contract. They are often formed in market rate apartments where increasing rents and poor living conditions drive tenants to organize.
Navarro went door-to-door to organize her neighbors, many of whom she said are either retirees or were recently unhoused. Initially, she was met with a lot of skepticism.
“I really had to explain that to them repeatedly and show them examples of, 'hey, this is what happened to me, and these are the facts, and I will let you draw your own conclusion.' But the more and more I kept speaking out against mass displacement, especially in downtown San Antonio, they came around and started to see, 'hey, she really does have our best interest at heart,' ” Navarro said.
She then got connected with legal and housing organizations. One of those connections was with the San Antonio Housing Trust Foundation and its executive director Pete Alanis.
“We had the ability to act, so we acted,” Alanis said of the housing trust's decision to buy the Robert E. Lee.
The housing trust was founded in the 1980s with the mission to preserve and create affordable housing downtown. Since then, Alanis said it has done so for 14,000 units, 4,000 of which are currently under construction.
But it’s only very recently that something as big as the Robert E. Lee purchase has been possible.
“It's because of the 60 or so apartment communities that we've been able to place in service, generating revenues from those activities that are helping us make future investments in the affordable housing world,” Alanis said.
Alanis met with Navarro and other tenants several months ago before putting in the bid and heard their fears about the future of the building.
“They had a lot of concerns, right?” Alanis said. “'What's going to happen to us?' You know, 'are we going to go the way of Soap [Factory]?' ”
The Robert E. Lee is under a land use restriction that requires the building’s owner to keep rents affordable, but the restriction is set to expire in December 2027.
The tenants union voted to support the housing trust’s bid for the building, and it put forward a $3.27 million initial offer.
“The decision was made collectively: 'okay, we're going to vote to have the [housing] trust put in the offer on our behalf, and we're going to work with them,' ” Navarro said. “Because, personally, I was like, 'oh yes, like, let's do a cooperative. Like, let's own everything, right?' But, that's the thing, right? In unions, you talk to your neighbors, you talk with one another.”
The final purchase price has not been disclosed, but the housing trust is now under contract to take over the apartments on Aug. 1.
Alanis said the building’s affordability land use restriction will be extended another 40 years once it’s formally in the housing trust’s hands.
Navarro recalled how she felt after the contract became official. “I was just kind of in disbelief,” she said. “It's something that we've been working really hard on for so long, and it didn't feel like there was ever going to be an end or a resolution.”
“Half of the [tenants] think that I'm making it up. They don't believe, like, this is actually happening. I'm like, 'no, it really is.' ”
Next come the renovations — a combination of housing trust funds and potential competitive state tax credits next year will be used to fix up the damaged building and improve tenant services.
“It is going to be our goal that we do a full-scale rehabilitation of the property from head-to-toe,” Alanis said. “I think [the tenants are] happy that there is finally going to be a path forward to a high quality of living at the Robert E. Lee, and so that's something we're excited about, too, because that's our mission.”
Navarro said the tenants union has discussed some major changes they want to see, including wheelchair accessibility for the building’s laundry room and using empty commercial spaces on the first floor to host computer literacy classes or other services.
She said they’re also dreaming of a future where the San Antonio Food Bank could conduct monthly drives for the surrounding community based out of the Robert E. Lee or where health care equipment nonprofit Project MEND could visit a few times a year to help residents in need of wheelchairs or other equipment.
These potential changes to the building's function and services may have been possible only because of the housing trust's decision to step in.
Land acquisition is a key tool the housing trust regularly uses for its mission to create and preserve affordable housing. It buys up vacant lots downtown, purchases land with partners, and Alanis said they’re considering working with the San Antonio Independent School District to potentially convert some closed schools into housing opportunities.
But Alanis said the housing trust’s purchase of the Robert E. Lee all on its own was a first for his organization.
“Is this a model for what we do in the future?” he said. “I think perhaps, I mean, we're focused on getting this done first and making sure we have a successful outcome here. There could be future opportunities where the housing trust virtually acts alone, right? But you know, we have great nonprofit partners in San Antonio that we want to support.”
Navarro said she’s excited to work with the housing trust on making the Robert E. Lee better for her and her neighbors, but she doesn’t plan on stopping there.
“I think we're going to show that with our working relationship with the housing trust, that this can be done on a larger scale, and it's not going to just end with us, you know,” she said. “We're going to leave the door open, and we're going to invite more people to follow us and say, 'buy this building, buy this building, let's make it affordable, and let's not displace the people that live here.' ”
