SAN ANTONIO — Five apartment complexes that provide affordable housing in San Antonio are set to be sold after a California nonprofit said they can't maintain or fund them anymore.
Gloria Farias, executive director of Pico Union Housing, said that since purchasing the properties in 2020 they have not been able to maintain payments or fill vacant units.
Farias said she runs the Westwood, Roselawn, Spanish, Pecan and Winston apartment complexes. But they will all have to be sold in the next three months because she can't bring in the money to maintain them.
The latest problem the nonprofit faced: A water shutoff at its Roselawn and Westwood Plaza apartments Tuesday.
"We ended up in a $170,000 payment a month (with SAWS). That was in March," Farias said. "We’ve been doing the payments every month."
On Monday, Farias said they weren't able to make that full payment to the San Antonio Water System. She said they provided around $57,000 that day and asked for an extension, but SAWS denied it.
Later that day, Farias said her team was able to gather $110,000 from their properties in California to pay SAWS. Now they've set up a new payment plan with the company so they can pay off the remaining balance and the next water bill.
A SAWS representative told KENS 5 on Tuesday the nonprofit had set up a payment plan before this incident, but had broken it due to the inability to pay.
Farias said the hope is this new payment plan will prevent water from being shut off at the complexes in the future. In the meantime, Pico Union is forced to place all five properties on the market because they no longer have the money to maintain them.
“The deal I made with the broker is to make sure the ones that stay here stay with the rent," she said.
Farias' goal is to sell the complexes to another nonprofit that will help keep rent prices low for those who need it.
She said there are around 300 units between all the complexes that are vacant. Those would have to be rented out at market value if the apartments are sold.