Texas Housers releases the 2025 edition of our San Antonio City Council District Renter Profiles at a pivotal moment marked by both uncertainty and opportunity.
At the national level, the Trump Administration continues to cut critical housing resources that people with disabilities, veterans, older adults, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income families all rely on to remain safely and stably housed. Meanwhile, efforts at the state level in Texas seek to weaken tenant protections and increase the risk of eviction for low-income renters.
Locally, San Antonio recently elected Gina Ortiz Jones as mayor – whose campaign focused on expanding Pre-K, increasing affordable housing, and reducing poverty – alongside four new City Council members. As federal and state policies threaten progress on housing affordability, it is essential that our local leaders remain steadfast in their commitment to housing stability for all San Antonians, especially those with the lowest incomes who face the steepest barriers to finding and keeping a home. This includes prioritizing deeply affordable housing in ongoing housing bond discussions and in future opportunities to shape the city’s housing going forward.
The 2025 San Antonio City Council District Renter Profiles, included below, draw on the latest data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and local and state housing agencies to provide a detailed snapshot of renter household characteristics, rental costs, the supply of subsidized housing, and key housing challenges in each of San Antonio’s City Council districts. These profiles were created as a tool for elected officials, advocates, and the public to better understand the city’s diverse housing needs and to support efforts that expand affordable housing and advance renter stability across all districts.
Below, we highlight key takeaways that distill the most important insights from the data.
- Subsidized housing remains concentrated in certain parts of San Antonio and largely absent from others.
Subsidized housing tracked by the Renter Profiles includes public housing units, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) units, and units where the household uses a Housing Choice Voucher to rent. These units receive federal funding to keep rents low, making them affordable to some of the lowest income households in San Antonio.
The concentration of subsidized housing in certain areas of the city, and its absence from others, reminds us that San Antonio’s long history of economic segregation is still very apparent in its current landscape. Nearly one-third of all renters live in the Northside City Council districts 8, 9, and 10, yet only 10% of the city’s subsidized units are located in those areas. Recently, plans to introduce affordable housing on the Northside were blocked after some residents opposed the development, citing unfounded fears about increased traffic and crime – a reflection of growing NIMBYism, where communities resist affordable housing based on harmful stereotypes and misconceptions.
Subsidized housing tends to be concentrated instead in districts 2, 3, 4, and 5, which have significantly lower median household incomes than the Northside districts. New affordable housing funded through the city’s 10-year Strategic Housing Implementation Plan (SHIP) also appears to follow this pattern, primarily locating within the inner-410 districts.
Housing Choice Voucher units are relatively evenly spread across San Antonio’s City Council districts – except in districts 8, 9, and 10. Only 13% of San Antonio’s HCV households live in these Northside districts, and voucher holders have reported difficulty finding landlords in those areas willing to accept their vouchers. Similarly, just 10% of LIHTC units are located in districts 8, 9, and 10. Recent LIHTC development has concentrated heavily in districts 3 and 4, which accounted for 80% of the 1,914 LIHTC units added in the past year. Public housing is even more concentrated – more than 60% of the city’s public housing units are located in just two districts: districts 1 and 5. Altogether, this geographic imbalance means that some parts of the city – particularly the Northside – remain largely inaccessible to low-income families.
- A large share of renters in every district spend more than they can afford on rent.
Between 48% and 54% of renters in every San Antonio City Council district are housing cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. When households exceed this threshold, any financial emergency – a medical bill, car accident, or delayed paycheck – can put them at risk of falling behind on rent and potentially losing their home.
Additionally, at least one in five renters in every district are severely cost burdened, spending more than half their income on rent. Even in district 9, which has the city’s highest median household income, nearly half of renters are cost burdened, and over 20% are severely cost burdened. This signals that San Antonio’s rental housing stock is not adequately serving all renters, especially those with low incomes. In fact, 77% of extremely low-income renter households in the San Antonio metro area are severely cost burdened.
- The risk of eviction is growing and calls for urgent, sustained action.
Recent investments in affordable housing have made a very real and meaningful impact. However, both housing cost burden and severe housing cost burden increased in San Antonio over the past year, highlighting the ongoing need for sustained investment. When households are forced to spend more than they can afford on rent, they face a heightened risk of eviction. In fact, eviction filings in San Antonio rose by 7% in 2024. City Council district 4 had the highest eviction filing rate (or the share of renter households in the district that received an eviction filing) and one of the highest rates of severe housing cost burden. These trends underscore the need for continued investment not only in the production and preservation of affordable housing, but also in renter stability measures that help prevent displacement.
Where we go from here
The 2025 San Antonio City Council District Renter Profiles are more than just data – they are tools for education and advocacy. They provide a clearer understanding of where renter households live, where affordable housing is concentrated, and where low-income renters have few or no housing options in San Antonio. With this information, advocates, community members, and policymakers can push for investments that both preserve and expand affordable housing where it already exists, and importantly, introduce it to areas where it is missing – particularly in higher-income neighborhoods on the Northside.
In the face of growing challenges to affordable housing, including movements like NIMBYism and the loss of federal funding for affordable housing, it is critical that local elected officials take bold action. At every opportunity, from bond discussions to economic development plans, they must prioritize deeply affordable housing that expands access to opportunity for San Antonio’s lowest-income residents. San Antonio must prioritize people over profit.
