by Iris Dimmick September 6, 2022
Towne Twin Village opens this fall
There are large swaths of land in Bexar County that would have been easier to find and cheaper to buy than inside Interstate Loop 410, but the Housing First Community Coalition wanted to build a permanent supportive housing campus near the people it already served, said Edward Gonzales, executive director of the coalition.
“Access to housing for the people served at Catholic Worker House and others living in encampments is nonexistent so it only made sense that we be inside San Antonio city limits,” Gonzales said in an email.
The Coalition was founded by volunteers and supporters of the Catholic Worker House, which has been serving homeless individuals on the East Side since 1985.
The Towne Twin Village will feature tiny, 500-square-foot homes, apartments and RVs plus amenities including an interfaith chapel, community garden, event space and health clinic. Once completed, Towne Twin Village will be the largest single-site permanent supportive housing campus in San Antonio. In November, residents are expected to start moving in, Gonzales said.
He hopes that the project will demonstrate that a “housing first” approach can work — for the residents and the surrounding neighborhoods.
But Towne Twin also ran into its fair share of resistance, which was anticipated, he said, so the coalition made sure staff was available to answer the community’s questions.
Without communication, neighbors start to become suspicious, he said, and think “You’re trying to hide something.”
Now, some of “those very angry, very heated, very passionate neighborhood folks” are asking to participate in activities on the campus, said Gonzales. “If they hear that somebody’s talking negatively about our project, they’re the first ones to defend it.”
But some minds will not be changed.
