With 85% of the $150 million Affordable Housing Bond funds already allocated, the San Antonio Neighborhood and Housing Services Department gave a presolicitation briefing to the City Council on the two most recent projects during a Nov. 12 meeting.

The big picture: Presented by Veronica Garcia, NHSD director, the presentation gave details on one project meant to increase affordable rental housing stock and another that seeks to build more homes for residents to own.

As part of the proposal, at least 15% of the units must be affordable to households earning less than 30% of the area median income, which is roughly $26,000 for a family of three.

The homeownership RFP will facilitate the creation of new affordable housing for low-to-moderate-income families. The criteria also note that the target families will earn up to 80% AMI.

According to Bobby Wilkinson, the owner of Caring Transitions of San Antonio Central, the number of people turning 60 is increasing every year.

“More and more people are turning older than 60 this year,” Wilkinson said.

Learn more: That’s where Wilkinson said Caring Transitions comes into play—a service that helps families transition older loved ones into new living spaces, from assisted living facilities to full-time care centers.

“When you have a family member that is not able to take care of themselves, the focus should be on them, not other things,” Wilkinson said.

What are the options? The process begins with a consultation with family members to discuss the logistics of the moving process.

“We come in and take care of some of the stress of the situation,” Wilkinson said.

Whether it's from a single-family home to an independent living facility or from one nursing home to another, Wilkinson said any situation can be covered.

From Nov. 6-15, around 220,000 people celebrated German culture while supporting local nonprofit organizations at Wurstfest.

Wurstfest—which originated in 1961—began as a one-day festival created by the New Braunfels meat inspector, Ed Grist, as a festival to honor sausage. The festival has since grown to 10 days of celebrating the city’s German heritage.

Read all about it: Marc Allen, 2025 festival general chair and president-elect, said crowds were evenly dispersed across the 10-day event, and attendance was up about 4%-5%.

“I think it was a huge success,” Allen told Community Impact.

One of the significant changes implemented at the event this year was eliminating drink tickets, which sped up the lines. By eliminating drink tickets more space was created on the grounds.

“We had seven new vendors that we were able to put in spots where drink ticket booths were,” Allen said.

Texas cannot use its newly redrawn congressional map in the 2026 election, an El Paso federal court ruled Nov. 18.

The details: The state must instead use the congressional map that Texas lawmakers drew in 2021, after the 2020 census. 

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown wrote in the Nov. 18 preliminary injunction. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 map.”

What they're saying: Texas Republican leaders said they would “swiftly appeal” the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court takes up the case, its justices will be pressed for time ahead of the Dec. 8 deadline for candidates to apply to run in the March primary elections.

Texas Democrats celebrated the Nov. 18 ruling as "very good news for Texans."