[Excerpts below]

It was celebrated as millions in new funding for housing renovation.

Last August, at a time when federal funds for home repairs and renovations for low-income homeowners appeared to be dwindling, the city had “found” $4.7 million to bolster those efforts, tapping unspent federal housing grants. This would be in addition to $1.8 million in new funding. Together, the $6.5 million would repair 81 homes.

But it turns out much of that $4.7 million was already allocated to home repair projects. It might not have been spent, but it also wasn’t available.

“The money was not there,” said Maria Tijerina of COPS/Metro Alliance. “It wasn’t new money. It was old money.”

....“This wasn’t some misunderstanding,” said Walker Moore, interim lead organizer for COPS/Metro.

To the degree possible, the city should apply new funds to home repairs for the upcoming budget — funds that can be spent and honor what COPS/Metro and others thought was happening in August.

[Photo Credit: Carolyn Van Houten / San Antonio Express News]

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Four months after a nonpartisan accountability assembly in which 750 COPS / Metro leaders secured public commitments of support for senior housing rehabilitation from city council candidates, the San Antonio City Council unanimously voted to support the allocation of $6.5 Million during the next year. This represents a 261% increase in funding and will allow the city to rehab 81 homes in the next fiscal year, compared to 25 in the current year.

Said COPS / Metro leader Shirley Ellis of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, "It is now time for the 'Decade of Neighborhoods.' Instead of investing in developers, we should invest in homeowners -- homeowners who have invested their lives into this community."

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