With downtown giveaways to the rich displacing local families

COPS/Metro Turns Up the Heat on San Antonio Mayor & City Council

COPS/Metro is turning up the heat on the Mayor and City Council of San Antonio, demanding that local housing policy prevent displacement rather than just mitigate its effects. 
 
In an op-ed published by the San Antonio Express-News, COPS/Metro leaders asserted that they support "a thriving downtown and the benefits that UTSA’s expansion will offer," but will "not support development that pushes people out of their homes and uses public dollars to do the pushing.... Development must be planned so that it benefits everyone, not just developers."

COPS/Metro's demands are as follows: 

1. More owner-occupied rehabilitation investment in vulnerable neighborhoods. 
2. Establishment of city-coordinated homestead exemption enrollment and tax deferral programs. 
3. Establishment of a tax abatement program for homeowners. 
4. Aggressive land banking to ensure property for affordable rentals. 
5. Establishment of a coordinated housing system as recommended by the Mayor’s housing task force.

Leaders are taking their concerns not only to the San Antonio Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD), but to the City Council and Mayor.  A recent meeting with Mayor Nirenberg ballooned to a 100 person assembly when leaders learned of the opportunity to directly confront him with their concerns.  

Said Lourdes Menchaca, a leader with COPS/Metro: "risk mitigation ... needs to be more preventive in its approach."

On March 20th, leaders will testify before the City Council for the vote.

[Photo Credit: Scott Ball, Rivard Report]

COPS Metro Urges Mayor to Ramp Up Implementation of Affordable Housing, Rivard Report

Needed: A Displacement Prevention Plan, San Antonio Express-News 

Is San Antonio Doing Enough to Prevent Displacement? San Antonio Heron
 

COPS/Metro Named One of Top 10 
Most Influential Power Brokers in San Antonio

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