Posted: 10-15-2019
by Adolfo Pesquera
San Antonio (Bexar County) — A coalition of nonprofit organizations and designers obtained a recommendation from the Zoning Commission that helps clear the way for a new housing community for homeless people with mental illness and/or other disabilities.
The East Side project will be on about 15.66 acres. The land, currently zoned industrial, would convert to general commercial with a “Specific Use Authorization for a Human Services Campus.” The application now goes to City Council for final approval.
The applicant, Housing First Communitas, is working with LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corp.), a national organization with the capacity to provide financing and management.
Alice Salinas, a loan underwriter with LISC, told the commissioners a technical team is in place to assist with the project and LISC is committed to raise $5 million for construction. Given the full scale of the concept, that would be a small fraction of total cost.
Cecil King, program administrator for The Center for Healthcare Services said housing continues to be the most challenging problem when trying to help the mentally ill. But when they are placed in homes, he said the average annual success rate for sustaining their housing is 89%. Center for Healthcare Services is the largest provider of medical services to the population at Haven for Hope.
RVK Architects is the project designer, however, this concept has been in planning for some time. In 2017, the graduate architecture class at the University of Texas at San Antonio produced many of the concepts for elements of the campus, including 15 styles of tiny houses and a concept master plan. The RVK version made many revisions.
The majority of the campus is comprised of about 100 small tiny houses configured in a garden like setting. The little homes are not aligned along a grid but rather follow meandering trails and winding streets, forming a more organic series of housing clusters.
There are also four apartment buildings planned and a recreational vehicle park. In all, there are facilities sufficient to provide 215 residential units of some type.
There is, however, an array of social services and these are housing in more structured facilities.
The RVK site plan lays out the assorted facilities as follows:
- Community Center / 10,000 Sq Ft
- Public Administration Building / 4,000 Sq Ft
- Chapel/Event Center / 3,200 Sq Ft
- Apartments / 61,224 Sq Ft (20 units per building and 500 SF per unit)
- Houses / 50,000 Sq Ft (100 homes at 500 SF/home)
- RV Neighborhood / 24,045 Sq Ft (35 sites with 687-square-foot pads per site)
- Recreational Area / 22,400 Sq Ft
- Community Kitchen / 3,000 Sq Ft (3 Buildings at 1,000 Sq Ft per Bldg)
- Pathways and Walks / 16,865 Sq Ft
- Drives and Roads / 116,750 Sq Ft
- Community, Public and Staff Parking / 22,518 Sq Ft (140 spaces)
- Public Restrooms/Laundry / 1,200 Sq Ft (3 units at 400 SF per unit)
- Detention Basin / 21,600 Sq Ft
- Dog Park / 2,000 Sq Ft
- Dog Rescue / 3,800 Sq Ft
- Maintenance Building / 1,250 Sq Ft
- Monument Signage
The mission of Housing First Community Coalition (HFCC) is to prioritize housing as the first and most necessary step in providing services to the most vulnerable populace. Housing First Communitas is the campus they have campaigned to create. The development is intended to complement the work of Haven for Hope–a downtown homelessness campus that has been in operation for several years.
HFCC is partnering with existing city agencies to provide case management, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, medical/dental/psychiatric care and other services. Volunteer groups would assist with non-traditional support, such as companionship, transportation, hospitality events, seasonal social events, etc.
