San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Most in S.A. spend too much income on rent
For Susan Richardson, finding an affordable apartment inside Loop
410 was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Richardson, a former teacher, receives about $1,700 a month from a partial pension and Social Security and tries to supplement her earnings with part-time jobs.
When she started searching for an apartment several years ago, she sought to pay about $900 for a place near the urban core because she substitute teaches for the San Antonio Independent School District, her friends are close by and her vehicle is old.
Most of the units she found online were out of her price range, while other complexes were in substandard condition, had yearslong waiting lists or didn’t return her calls seeking information about availability. The waiting list for a housing voucher was also lengthy.
“It’s just so limited,” she said.
Richardson eventually found a duplex through word of mouth and friends where the landlord cut her a deal. But she is bracing for a looming drop in her earnings when she turns 65 and her Medicare premium is deducted. She recently decided to move to Kentucky, where her brother lives, in part because she hopes to secure housing that’s more affordable as she gets older.
While serving on the city’s Housing Commission for part of 2020 and 2021, Richardson said she advocated for the development of more apartments for people earning 30% to 50% of the area median income. More of those units are in the works, she said, but it’ll be years before construction is finished and people can move in.
“It’s almost too little too late,” Richardson said.
Tragic trade-offs
Some 52.7% of renter households in the San
Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area were “cost-burdened” in 2022, meaning they spend 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities, according to a new report by the Harvard Joint
Center for Housing Studies. Twenty-seven percent are severely cost-burdened, meaning at least half of their income went to those costs.
Across Texas, 51% of renter households spend
too much of their income on rent.
“If you’re spending more than 30% of your income on rent, you don’t have enough money for other essentials,” said Ben Martin, research
director at Texas Housers, a housing research and advocacy organization. “This forces families to make tragic decisions about trade-offs. Are they going to pay for rent, or