SAN ANTONIO — Public housing advocates gathered outside San Antonio city hall to protest the firing of Ed Hinojosa, former president and CEO of Opportunity Home.
The decision to fire Hinojosa was made unanimously amongst the board of representatives for Opportunity Home Wednesday night. This board is appointed by the Mayor.
Now protestors want Mayor Ron Nirenberg to get the board to reverse their decision and reappoint Hinojosa.
"You fire Ed Hinojosa because Ed Hinojosa is trying to protect public housing," Leticia Sanchez with the Historic West Side Business Association said at the protest.
Councilwoman for district 5 Terri Castillo was also present and protesting the decision that was made.
"Public housing is the last thing that keeps people off the streets," Castillo said.
She and others at the protest said Hinojosa was able to make people feel safe and prior leadership was not able to do that.
Protestors cited the recent controversy brought up in a board meeting on May 1. Opportunity Home was informed that 600+ families living in public housing were given notices to vacate their homes.
They said the board tried using this as a way to get Hinojosa out of his position.
"The housing waitlist for people who need public housing is over 110-thousand people…that wasn’t caused by Ed…that was years of neglect from the previous CEO’s," Sanchez said.
KENS 5 reached out to Mayor Ron Nirenberg for an interview on this ongoing matter. He provided this statement:
“I support the Opportunity Home board’s unanimous decision and renewed direction to develop more effective solutions to address the growing waiting list, improve current housing conditions, and enhance overall resident welfare and safety.
Our community remains committed to implementing the City’s Strategic Housing Implementation Plan and ensuring every San Antonio resident, regardless of circumstance, has access to safe, quality and affordable housing.”
- Mayor Ron Nirenberg
As of right now Michael Reyes is acting head, effective immediately and has rescinded every notice to vacate that was sent out to families in late April.
"The city's housing crisis requires steadfast and hands-on leadership that consists of innovative approaches that are built around the people we serve," Opportunity Home commissioners said in a press release, adding they want to focus on financial stability and strengthening longstanding community partnerships.
Reyes, a graduate of Southern Methodist University and Georgetown who later managed briefings for the U.S. House of Representatives, was previously the public affairs officer for the 87-year-old organization. In their statement, the commissioners empowered Reyes to "take immediate bold action to safeguard our families and find creative solutions to the challenges the organization is facing."
Statement from Opportunity Home:
To protect our residents, all pending, eligible Notices to Vacate (NTV) issued last month to public housing households will be rescinded immediately. All households under the $3,000 current repayment policy will be automatically eligible for a repayment agreement. Additionally, the organization will propose to the Board a one-time repayment policy adjustment to double the allowable arrears balance of up to $6,000 for pandemic-era (post-March 2020) balances to protect additional households. Therefore, the eligibility criteria for this directive would be households with active NTVs and a total household balance of up to $6,000. This action will protect more than 80% of affected NTV households and 100% of yet-to-be issued NTV households, which would have consisted of more than 500 additional households in arrears under one year.
"We must do all we can to protect our vulnerable households, particularly those who are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic," said Acting President and CEO Michael Reyes. "This is the right thing to do and we will continue to find ways in the coming days and weeks to further protect our residents."
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