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HUD secretary’s hometown no housing modelSAN ANTONIO (AP) — Justwest of downtown — away from San Antonio's river shops, its high-tech military bases and its shiny, new domed stadium — is a row of narrow, dilapidated houses that might more accurately be called shacks.They don’t meet building codes. Roofs leak, and boards are falling off. Hot water is a hot ccmmodity.For many residents of this river city, these Iwuses and others likethem—not the Alamodome or the rest — are the real San Antonio, the reality they must live with day after day.This is the city that Henry Cisneros led for eight years. And lie is the man who, as Presicknt Clinton’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, has been put in charge of fixing the nation’s housing woes.“I must tell you honestly I could not hold up San Antonio as a national model, and I have to accept some responsibility because I was mayor for eight years in the 1980s,” Cisneros said on a recent trip back to the city, the nation’s lOth-largest with a population of 1 million.“I could not hold up San Antonio as a national model of housing progi^ssivenewi, he said, “or of housing achievement.The numbers back him up. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recently ranked the city 43rd out of 44 m^or metropolitan areas in terms of the physical condition of housing for the poor; it escaped last place by barely squeaking past New Orleans.The study also placed San Antonio among the worst in overcrowded low-inoome housing. And it noted that from 1975 to 1986, a big growth period for the city, the number of low-income housingunits declined, while the number of renters needing such homes increased.No one here blames Cisneros for the full measure of despair. Community activists and munici-’s hugepal leaders point to the city poor population, to a decade of federal neglect and bureaucracy, andto years of other local issues — mostly economic development — taking precedence.But there is hope that the ascension of the city’s hometownhero — he was bom here, grew up here, married his high school sweetheart here — will benefit not just San Antonio, but all the nation’s cities.“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Winston Martin, executive director of the San Antonio Development Agency, which does business with HUD. “There’s just no one in the country that’s as qualified.”Since Cisneros’ appointment, itisineouicklv has moved uo thecity’s list of priorities. In his 1992 acrenda for thecity. Mayor Nelsonhave any more fingers.’I told him.Use your toes.’“rte«lt;Th« AmodaM PfMtRalph Flores, 26. holds his S-year-oW son, Christt^her, at the San Antonio Metropolitan Ministry shelter last week; they are staying there until they can find suitable housing.Wolff listed it as the 43rd item. This year, it’s first.But putting housing at the top of the list is one thing; solving a problem of this magnitude is quite another.Sister Lauren Moynahan, who runs a community outreach program on the city’s west side for the Santa Rosa Health Care hospital corporation, sees the extent of San Antonio’s housing problems every time she visits residents’ homes to conduct health assessments.Of 38 people surveyed since Decemlier, she said, five had norunning water, four had no electricity and 10 had no heat.‘This is right in the heart of San Antonio,” sl^ said. These people here, for being in an American city, a part of the world that has almost anything you can want, don’t have the basics like running water.Patti Radle, co-director of InnerCity Development Inc., a nonprofit group that assists a poor neigh^rhood near downtown, routinely sees dramatic overcrowding in the Alazan-Apache Courts, the city’s oldest and largest housing project with about 1,M0 units.Radle remembers asking agroup of schoolchildren to indicate how many people lived in their homes.Thisone kid goes like this,shesaid, holding up all tl^ fingers on both hands, and says, T don’tre is a significant amount of substandard housing,” said Apolonio Flores, executive director of the San Antonio Housing Authority. “There’s no question about that. You can see that. All you have to do is drive around.Or enter the small, falling-down house on the west side where a 64-year-old man liveswith his older sister.The bathroom has a tub and toilet, but no sink or hot water. A gaping leak in the roof has destroyed family keepsakes “old memories.” the man says, pointing ruefully to ruined pictures. He and his sister each have a bed in the front room, which doubles as a living room, and though the house is cramped, there is an obvious effort to keep things neat.I’m really depressed,” says this man, who is too proud to allow his name to be used, “but God gives me that certain strength.”Advocates say several programs started near the end of Cisneros’ mayorjil tenure, which stretched from 1981 to 1989, are starting to make a dent in the city’s daunting problem.The San Antonio Housing Trust Fund, the first of its kind in Texas, was created in 1988 with $10 million when a private (xim-pany bought the city’s cable holdings. Interest on the money has been used in low- and moderate-income housing projects.One of the most prominent prt^rams is Vista Verde, an effort to clean up another rundown area west of downtown. Families in those dilapidated shacks wererelocated and deteriorating houses replaced with new ones. The city acquired the land, made it available to developers, andthen let residents buy the newhomes under favorable terms.PattiLou *sFamily RestaurantHours: Mon.-SaL 6a.m.-9p.m. Sun. 7 a.m.-2 p.m.600 Pile St., Clovis, 769-3033What's Cooking March 7-13...Pattil.ou's Lunch Buffet Mon-Fri, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. All You Can Eat!Sunday Brunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m.All You Can Eat! Breakfast items included!Sunrise Breakfast Specials $2.29 * Silver dollar pancakes sausage, coffee 1 egg, bacon!sausage, hashbrowns, biscuits or toast, coffee* Eggs Benedict English muffin, 2 eggs. ham. cheese sauce, coffee♦ PattiLou's Spanish omelette 2 eggs, salsa, hashbrowns, toast or biscuits, coffeeMonday: Oriental Buffet, 5-8 p.m.All You Can Eat!Tuesday: Chicken Fried Steak Special, 5-8 p.m.Buy one. get one free!!6loqan ContestIWednesday: Mexican Buffet, 5-8 p.m.All You Can Eat!Thursday: Catfish Special, 5-8 p.m.
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Sun, Mar 07, 1993
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Sarah G.
USA 13 Jul 2018
Other Publications Near Clovis, New Mexico
The Clovis News
The Eastern New Mexico News
Clovis Evening News Journal
Clovis News Tribune
Clovis New Mexico Evening News Journal
