The San Antonio Housing Belief (SAHT) closed a deal to buy the historic Robert E. Lee Flats constructing Tuesday, closing out a year-long saga during which tenants efficiently organized towards a big developer.
SAHT plans to renovate the 72-unit constructing at 111 W. Travis St. and hold it as reasonably priced housing, officers with the nonprofit group sat. The vast majority of Robert E. Lee tenants obtain federal housing vouchers and earn 60% or lower than the realm’s median revenue.
“Our purpose was to guard present residents and safe long-term reasonably priced housing in a first-rate downtown location,” San Antonio Housing Belief Basis Government Director Pete Alanis mentioned in a press release.
Final 12 months, San Antonio actual property improvement firm Weston City positioned a $4.35 million bid on the 10-story downtown constructing. On the time, the tenants — a few of whom had been previously homeless — instructed the Present that they feared being pressured again onto the streets ought to the takeover happen.
Weston City’s bid got here a couple of month after the corporate revealed that residents at downtown’s low-cost Cleaning soap Manufacturing unit Flats could be displaced to make approach for a brand new minor league baseball stadium for the San Antonio Missions. Weston City can also be a majority stakeholder within the crew.
The Robert E. Lee Tenants Union, led by organizer Megan Navarro, with the assistance of District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur, fought again towards Weston City’s deal. The group managed to work out a cope with the San Antonio Housing Belief in June.
Navarro instructed the Present that she hopes the union’s victory over company builders evokes others to combat for housing safety.
“Along with my neighbors, we’ve proven that housing is a human proper,” Navarro mentioned. “We’re greater than our revenue bracket. We’re people who love and take care of our neighborhood and need to reside the place we need to reside.”
Subscribe to SA Present newsletters.
Observe us: Apple Information | Google Information | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Fb | Twitter | Or join our RSS Feed
Associated Tales
Tenants or a certified nonprofit have 90 days to put a counter bid on the downtown low-income house constructing.
San Antonio ISD is ready to debate the doable land sale subject throughout a Dec. 16 board assembly.
Residents of one in all downtown’s few affordable-housing complexes mentioned they’re fearful they’ll be pushed out.
