Editor’s note: This story was updated to correctly state that a housing project by O-SDA Industries surpassed a project by the Housing Authority of the City of Austin in the state’s ranking system for competitive tax credits.
Angelica Castillo, who leaves her wheelchair outside her apartment due to its staired entryways and narrow doorways, knows that her living conditions at the Santa Rita Courts public housing project could be better.
She and her neighbors have heard of the indoor washer and dryers, central heating and air systems, reliable hot water and greater handicap-accessibility, which they don’t have, at the nearby redeveloped Chalmers Courts.
“We deserve to live in something newer, something more comfortable,” she said in Spanish. Santa Rita Courts, with its cinderblock and brick walls, was built as one of the city’s first three 1939 public housing complexes, alongside Chalmers and Rosewood. It’s the last one waiting for improvements.
Last week, the Housing Authority of the City of Austin, which manages Santa Rita, planned to ask City Council members to remove their approval of another affordable housing project to give Santa Rita a better chance at the fierce state competition for competitive federal low-income tax credits, the country’s largest financing source for affordable housing. The conditions at Santa Rita, the housing authority argued, merited priority before unbuilt projects.