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San Antonio and its Neighborhood and Housing Services Department will begin looking at incentives to solve a “missing middle” housing problem — housing types outside of traditional single-family homes or multi-unit apartment complexes.
District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur filed a city council consideration request last month asking the city to develop a program that targets rehab or creation of multi-family housing units that have between 2-to-20 housing units.
In the request she calls the city to provide predevelopment assistance in identifying land, creating a point of contact within the city for logistical assistance, and identifying fee waivers developers can apply for.
Missing middle housing refers to duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, bungalows, and casitas among other housing options outside of single-family detached homes and large-scale apartment complexes.
“These housing types are essential to bridge the gap between single-family homes and large apartment complexes, providing affordable options for working families,” Kaur said in her request.
On Wednesday, the city council's governance committee greenlighted Kaur’s request unanimously triggering the neighborhoods department to start the process and begin identifying possible solutions.
During the meeting, Kaur told her colleagues that the urban core of the city was losing residents.
“There are a lot of families that are moving out of the urban core, and we have to continue to create more housing options for folks that want to come and live in and around downtown areas in our urban school districts,” she said. “In order to do that, we have to get creative with our housing supply.”
While the city does have some existing programs in place such as a casita rehabilitation program, fee waivers for qualified housing projects, gap funding and tax incitement financing, Veronica Garcia, director of the Neighborhood and Housing Services Department told council members developers run into roadblocks.
“Missing middle housing creates smaller projects which lack economies of scale, and the development costs for these projects are spread across fewer units. They also have challenges with accessing financing due to perceived risk and longer payback periods,” she said.
According to the U.S. Census, San Antonio has a 51% homeownership rate compared to the Texas average of 61%. Renters in San Antonio are paying a median rent of $1,389.
San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones noted that while this type of housing exists in some quantities, the quality is not always up to par.
“We can build it, but I think the level of quality is going to determine whether somebody actually wants to rent that or buy it. So it's not just, do we have enough of it? Is it? Do we have enough of the type of quality that people are going to want to live in or buy?” she said.
District 4 Councilman Edward Mungia said the types of housing being suggested would work in some parts of the city.
“I think these types of homes in the city core is where you're going to see young professionals move before they can buy a house. Especially if they want to live in the area there's limited apartment options. So I think if it's done well and targeted, it can be a really useful tool,” he said.
Garcia told council members that the department would have an update at a future city council meeting.
