Protesting the Politics Behind CoSA’s ‘Affordable Housing’, Part 2: It Ain’t Texan
By Mason Brand and Chris Schuchardt
Texas history is full of legend and lore, but no such lesson should be needed here in the Alamo City.
Some of the Texans who fought for Texas Independence are lesser known, like Captain James Eberly in General Sam Houston’s Army. He was one of the leaders during the Runaway Scrape. His first wife passed and he eventually married Angelina Eberly, famous for later firing the cannon in Austin during the “Battle of the Archives.”
One of the daughters from his first marriage, Julia Ann Eberly, married Dr. James Fisher Martin. Dr. Martin tended to the wounded after the Battle of San Jacinto. He later became a rancher and Sheriff of Matagorda County, whereupon he shot and killed a man for rustling cattle on his own property.
Both Captain Eberly and Dr. Martin knew what it meant to trudge forward in life, to pull themselves up by the bootstraps, protect what is theirs, and preserve their own communities. ‘True grit’ kind of stuff!
Six generations of bloodline later, one of Captain Eberly and Dr. Martin’s heirs, yours truly, would settle in one of the 281 North communities after a career in the Marines and write this account. The political aggressor in this story, in an ironic twist of fate, is the City of San Antonio (COSA) and its Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP), which attempts to tread on our communities with its Section 8 aka “Affordable Housing” projects.
It Ain’t Texan
Note the word “should” in the first sentence. It seems nowadays that such lessons are overdue to remind elected Alamo City leaders and their bureaucratic staffs of the tenacity of the Spirit of Texas and the Texans who embody the mantra.
Our school districts are already pillaged by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) under Chapter 49 of the Texas Education Code. This deems a school district “too unfairly wealthy” in property taxpayer revenue. Nevermind that such wealth is the result of the hard work and success of the property owners.
In an August 29th 2024 email from Comal ISD Chief Financial Officer Glenn Graham, he informs that, under Chapter 49, TEA has vanquished nearly $30 million dollars from Comal ISD since 2018 and sent it to other school districts.
And yet, Comal ISD property taxpayers are to sit idly by while more taxpayer-funded high density “Affordable Housing” projects encroach into our communities and bring more students into our local schools? These students will in all likelihood get “wraparound” (as CoSA likes to refer to it) financial assistance, for items such as musical instruments, sports equipment, technology equipment, transportation, or other extracurricular expenditures.
There goes that PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association) budget! The occupants of these projects obviously won’t pay school district property taxes, while the “Affordable Housing” developer receives tens of millions of dollars in tax credits.
Creating government programs, under the false pretenses of compassion, that maraud into other Texans’ communities, impact the educational welfare of their respective children in local schools, increase traffic and crime in that community, and aim to hand what that Texan has earned to someone else?
‘Well them’s fighting words! Politically anyways!’ And, unequivocally, ‘It just ain’t Texan!’
And yes, as politically incorrect as it may be, government housing projects result in increases in crime in communities and is at least correlated to, if not causation of, “arrests for violent crimes” of men in those projects, according to a study by the Texas A&M Department of Economics.
In 2022, a Dallas suburb codified it into their HOA bylaws that, because of the stark increase in crime that resulted in their community, properties for rent in their community could not include recipients of Section 8 housing vouchers.
Nonetheless, you can create a feigned “Affordable Housing” program, even “strategically” as COSA says. You can get away with it with for a while, but communities wise-up, peel back the layers of this “Texas onion,” and dissect what’s really happening.
In the near-term, we will enact no “Runaway Scrape” from COSA’s “Affordable Housing” projects, and plans that are essentially a ‘slow and silent coup’ of our 281 North communities. We’re digging in, and we’re fighting! ‘Politically, anyways!’
Among other actions we’re taking, our communities need to press our State Representatives and our State Senators to enforce legislative concepts (outlined below) proposed by former candidate for San Antonio mayor and Bexar County Precinct 3 Commissioner, 281 North and Timberwood Park’s own Chris Schuchardt.
As our communities have wised-up, we’re learning these “Affordable Housing” projects and plans aren’t just Democrat and liberal bleeding-heart political objectives to tread on your communities. They have Republican friends, and those handshakes go all the way up to Governor Abbott’s office!
Either way, if you don’t stand together, hold your line, and fight for your communities, these politicians and developers will continue to impose upon you. “Affordable Housing” at Political Gunpoint!
Stay tuned for Part 3, to find out more about that “Texas Onion,” and just exactly what our communities have peeled back!
Semper Fidelis
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Chris Schuchardt’s Legislative Concepts:
Chapter 49, known as “Recapture,” of the Texas Education Code should be repealed. If not, the following needs to be passed in the next legislative session:
1. The current public notification radius for Affordable Housing projects, and zoning changes to allow multifamily projects, is 200 feet from the subject property line. This needs to be extended to 1 mile. This also applies to voluntary annexation requests.
2. Areas covered by an ISD that is remitting funds back to the TEA under Chapter 49 are exempt from any taxpayer-funded housing projects.
3. Public bonds issued to pay for Affordable Housing projects must be paid back with inflation-adjusted dollars.
4. If a developer is looking to build an Affordable Housing project with local housing trust bonds and Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) tax breaks/funding, they’re not to be allowed to undertake any entitlements or engage with elected officials on zoning changes prior to fully acquiring the subject property.
5. Developer fees paid to Affordable Housing developers are not to be paid by taxpayer funds, bond funds, or tax credits. These developers need to have skin in the game, same as a private developer, and need to raise the capital required to make the project profitable for them. That way, the project is being held liable by the market.
6. There needs to be a mechanism put in place where funds under Chapter 49 are drawn in a way that’s similar to a revolving line of credit and paid back with interest. We deserve to know where our money is going. If our money is being redistributed to a school district with falling enrollment and failing grades, we need to have the option to claw that money back and cover what our school districts went without while that money was outside the district.
7. Affordable Housing developers may not have immediate family members employed or contracted by the TDHCA or the Texas Bond Review Board.
The views and opinions expressed in the is guest editorial are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of InfuseSA. InfuseSA shall not be held liable for any inaccuracies represented in guest editorials.