July 2026 community research baseline
San Antonio Housing Access Report From housing supply to housing access
This report examines whether San Antonio residents can realistically apply for available rentals—and whether screening, fees, voucher policies, and navigation systems help or block the path to stable housing.
Community research collaboration
American GI Forum of My City Is My Home developed this community research with contributions from UTSA Rowdy Corps Community Scholars through the UTSA Center for Civic and Community-Engaged Leadership.
What the 2026 baseline found
Available does not always mean accessible.
The report keeps apartment research, MLS rental analysis, HUD-VASH outreach, and Housing Helper testing separate while showing how their findings fit together.
Housing Finder properties
Apartment, mobile-home, and related rental-community records reviewed.
Apartment Section 8 “No”
787 of 1,128 clear analytical classifications; 100 unclear records excluded.
In-city MLS rentals
Single-family and duplex records after geographic and property-type filtering.
MLS records marked “No”
1,506 No and 131 Yes in the separate single-family and duplex analysis.
Rent-screened outreach pool
Section 8 No listings at or below the initial HUD rent benchmark.
Professional office contacts
The 924 rent-screened listings consolidated into this outreach opportunity.
The report’s framework
Housing success requires three connected systems.
Counting units is only the first step. Residents must also be able to access and navigate them.
1. Supply
Does a potentially suitable rental exist for the household?
2. Access
Will the household receive a realistic opportunity to apply for and rent it?
3. Navigation
Can the household complete screening, payments, inspections, referrals, and deadlines?
Visual report
Explore the findings panel by panel.
Select any panel to open the full-size image. The complete report provides the methodology, limitations, supporting discussion, and policy recommendations.
Ready for the full evidence and recommendations?
Open the final July 2026 report as a PDF in a new browser tab.
Community accountability
Track the five policy recommendations.
The July 2026 baseline makes it possible to track whether each action is introduced, adopted, funded, implemented, rejected, or left without action.
Remove the five-unit threshold from veteran source-of-income protection
Next checkpoint: San Antonio’s scheduled review of the veteran ordinance.
Adopt Know Before You Pay and portable-application safeguards
Priority for City-supported and participating housing beginning in FY2027.
Establish fair-chance and alternative-identification standards
Focus: rental housing receiving City funding, incentives, land, or other support.
Develop a phased rental registry and public-data system
Phase 1 would focus on professionally managed rentals and useful public information.
Add targeted rental-access priorities to the State Legislative Program
Prepare the City’s priorities for the 90th Texas Legislature while protecting veteran authority.
Accountability timeline
From policy adoption to measurable results.
Veteran protection took effect
San Antonio’s veteran source-of-income ordinance became effective.
Community baseline released
The report established findings and policy benchmarks for future comparison.
Ordinance review checkpoint
Track the five-unit threshold, enforcement, reporting, and implementation.
Transparency and limitations
Read the findings accurately.
The report uses several related research streams. Their totals should not be combined into a single unsupported citywide percentage.
Apartment research
The Housing Finder analysis contains 1,228 rental-community records. Under its analytical rule, a blank Section 8 field is classified as “No,” while a later clear verification overrides the earlier entry.
- 787 Section 8 No
- 341 Section 8 Yes
- 100 income-based or otherwise unclear
Single-family and duplex research
The separate MLS analysis uses 1,637 current in-city records after geographic and property-type filtering. The MLS field was marked Section 8 “Yes” or “No”; it does not independently prove owner intent, current availability, HUD-VASH acceptance, or legal noncompliance.
- 1,506 marked No
- 131 marked Yes
- 92.0% marked No
Property-level research is maintained for correction, legitimate research, policymaking, and investigation. Sanitized supporting data may be provided to appropriate reviewers. The records are research observations—not a list of confirmed ordinance violations.
Apartment district comparisons in the full report are exploratory because the working assignments use ZIP-overlap and nearest-district-centroid rules rather than complete address-level geocoding. See the full PDF for definitions, limitations, methodology, and citations.
Use the baseline to move housing policy forward.
Ask what has been introduced, funded, adopted, implemented, or rejected—and whether San Antonio renters experience measurable improvement.