Housing Authority and private developer seeking tax credits, disagree over practices

The El Paso City Council voted on Monday to support both the Housing Authority and a private sector builder competing for state tax credits to build affordable housing for El Pasoans.

The Housing Authority for the City of El Paso (HACEP) and Tropicana Building were originally competing for city-issued points the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs (TDHCA) considers when evaluating bids for the tax credits.

TDHCA allows cities to award 17 points to affordable housing projects that fit the city’s vision and are better for the local community. HACEP and Tropicana were competing in the same category for regional funds and both have said they need the city’s official support.

HACEP Chief Executive Officer Gerald Cichon argued his agency is the housing arm of the city, preventing a massive homeless population like other major cities. He said only HACEP, not the private sector, builds affordable housing with the city’s strategic interests in mind. HACEP apartment complexes are near schools, community centers and mass transit.

“We are not the same. We shouldn’t be treated the same. We are the infrastructure to prevent homelessness. We are the last resort for 40,000 people to live,” Cichon said, adding HACEP provide housing to a more vulnerable, poorer population than the private sector.

Tropicana Building President Bobby Bowling agreed with Cichon, saying his company doesn’t cater to the most vulnerable but still serves a purpose. “Our goal is to really allow housing for working class El Pasoans, not just people that a lot of the times don’t have a job or have lived in (housing) projects for generations. Ours is more a working class, moving up and getting into home ownership type of population.”

Bowling disputed Cichon’s claim that private developers only build where its more economically feasible without the city’s best interest in mind. “One of the first things we always look for where the schools are going to be, where the roads are and where the infrastructure is. It’s the key component for all of Tropicana’s developments.”

Bowling said HACEP was trying to get special treatment from the city, arguing Tropicana only wants a “level playing field.”

Cichon contended privately-built affordable housing units must only remain that for 30 years. “Eighty years from now the housing authority will still be here. In 80 years, I doubt any of the developers in that room will still be here.”

Council decided on Monday to ditch its usual scoring system and instead chose to write a letter of support for both the housing authority and the Tropicana, in an effort to get four projects funded.

It also voted to create a housing strategic plan to map out future housing fits with schools, transportation and doesn’t just fall in the outskirts of the city.

“When children in public housing can walk to schools, tutoring, community centers have access to mass transit, we are giving them the best chance at getting ahead,” City Rep. Peter Svarzbein told the rest of council.

The city has in the past chosen “art-space,” an affordable housing complex for artists in Downtown El Paso and this year was slated to allocate its support points to the Northgate mixed use development in Northeast El Paso. But the future development was not ready for tax credits.