Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones wants to ban landlords from turning down people who pay their rent through a veterans\u2019 housing voucher, but colleagues on the City Council are hesitant to green-light a policy they say could put unfair requirements on private property owners.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Jones put a proposal<\/a> on the council\u2019s agenda that would implement a $500 fine for housing providers who are caught refusing to lease or rent to a military veteran because their legal source of income comes from a federal housing program.<\/p>\n Fort Worth approved a similar <\/a>ordinance and a previous San Antonio City Council considered doing the same<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n But landlords and the San Antonio Apartment Association have complained that the voucher process is too expensive and time-consuming to require all landlords to accept them, and the idea was tabled to focus on a broader effort to increase the housing supply for all kinds of voucher recipients instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaking sure that every single veteran in our community has a place to live is extremely important \u2026 [but] these voucher programs \u2026 there\u2019s been problems with them,\u201d said Councilman Marc Whyte (D10), who pointed to the inspection process and payment delays as examples. \u201cWhat is being proposed, really, is requiring private property owners to participate in a federal subsidy program, regardless of their experience with that program\u2019s administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, Jones brought it back up, suggesting that the council had let a good idea get sucked up in municipal bureaucracy.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what\u2019s been absent from this discussion is understanding the importance of housing and its proximity to the health care that veterans require and need,\u201d she said. \u201d \u2026 As a veteran serving on this body and understanding just how significant veteran homelessness is in our community \u2026 [we should be doing] as much as we can possibly do to help people quickly get through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n Her council colleagues were largely unmoved. <\/p>\n Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) is already working on a plan to incentivize more property owners to accept housing vouchers, they said.<\/p>\n