A food bank in a fast-growing Texas community is building affordable housing next to its bank, to ensure people who have to juggle food and rent are able to, with minimal effort.
The 51-unit apartment complex hasn’t gone up yet, but planning has begun for facilities that would temporarily house people struggling to afford the cost of living while undertaking job training or studies.
30 minutes outside San Antonio lies one of the fastest-growing towns in the US: New Braunfels.
Here, homelessness is growing due to an exploding population. The New Braunfels branch of the San Antonio food bank wondered if they could do more than just cover the cost of food.
“What we know about a food insecure household is that rent eats first in every household budget,” says Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank.
“If we can provide food, that in some ways allows a family to cost-shift their dollars to stay housed. For food banks across the country, hundreds of millions of dollars in the value of food is offsetting rent payments going to landlords.”
Cooper told Adele Peters of Fast Company that despite believing they could do more, the board of directors of the food bank was worried about ‘mission creep’—trying to do too much and ending up doing several things poorly.
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But the opportunity was there to make the leap when a vacant lot next to their location had been sought after by local organizations working on homelessness. A foundation purchased the land, but they needed someone to take on the building.
After long deliberations, the board came to the conclusion that their purpose was to help their neighbors, whether that be with food or housing.
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Partnering with Open Studio Architecture, the food bank is planning a 51-unit complex that will be rented to families with children for a period of 24-36 months that may have either one or two earners who are currently undergoing training or education for a job that pays enough to support the family outright.
Cooper believes it’s the first affordable housing complex ever built by a food bank.
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