Who We Are: History

Beginnings

In the late 1980s, San Antonio civic leader María Antonietta Berriozábal met with her mentors Sister Dorothy Ettling, CCVI, and Sister Jane Ann Slater, CDP, leaders in their respective congregations of women religious. Ms. Berriozábal motivated these leaders to act collaboratively to provide for the unmet needs of San Antonio’s economically poor. In the early 1990s, teams of women religious met with city leaders to ascertain the city’s most urgent needs, and affordable housing emerged as the most critical. They began to plan for a way to fill that need, and after several years of work, their efforts resulted in founding Merced Housing Texas.

Foundation

Merced was founded in 1995 by nine congregations of Catholic women religious as a concrete, organized response to the need for housing justice for the economically poor. Merced Housing Texas is chartered by the State of Texas as a not for profit corporation and is exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Six congregations—the Founders or Sustaining Congregations—made long-term commitments to provide personnel for board service, volunteer service or employment whenever possible. The remaining three congregations are Associates. A fourth congregation joined as an Associate in 2003.

Merced, formerly a subsidiary of Mercy Housing, Inc., Denver, Colorado, became an independent, statewide, San Antonio-based organization in 1999. At that time, Merced assumed all human resources, accounting and asset management responsibilities previously provided by Mercy Housing, Inc.

Milestones, 1995 – 2007

1995: Incorporation, Merced Board of Directors is formed and hires President Susan R. Sheeran

1997: Merced Housing Texas acts as the developer for Casitas de Merced, a 28-unit Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) development for seniors in Somerset, Texas.

1998: Merced consults for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of San Antonio and San Antonio Urban Ministries to secure $1,188,600 funding for the 18-unit Viceroy Apartments, an independent living complex for low-income adults with chronic mental illness.

1999: Merced becomes independent of Mercy Housing, Inc.

2000: Merced purchases the 23-unit Elmhurst Place Apartments in San Antonio.

November 2000: Merced begins a program of acquisition and rehabilitation of single-family homes in San Antonio for re-sale to qualified low-income families.

2001: Merced collaborates with Los Vecinos de Las Misiones Community Development Corporation to connect 17 homes in the Mission Espada area of San Antonio to city sewer lines.

2001: Merced purchases the 312-unit Bellshire Apartments in Conroe, Texas.

August 2002: Merced begins the Serve Our Seniors (SOS) Emergency Repair Program. This program serves very-low income, Bexar County seniors who, through illness, physical handicap or other misfortune over which they have no control, cannot maintain safe, sanitary, or structurally sound homes.

September 2002: Merced purchases the 477-unit Avion Place Apartments located on San Antonio’s southwest side.

2003: Merced completes construction of the 252-unit Stablewood Farms Apartment Homes in San Antonio, in April and the Stablewood Farms Community Center in September.

2004: Merced expands staff and collaborates in several developments, acquires Eleanor Place Apartments, a 9-unit property in San Antonio’s historic Mahncke Park. Merced contracts with Franklin Development to provide resident services at Artisan at Salado Creek in San Antonio.

2005: Riversquare Apartments, Corpus Christi, begins lease up in March. Artisan at Willow Springs, San Antonio, begins lease up in September. Merced contracts with Rancho Sierra in San Antonio to provide resident services.

2005: Lease-up has begun at Artisan at Salado Creek.

2006: Fenner Square Apartments in Goliad, Texas was completed in September.

2007: Navigation Pointe Apartments in Corpus Christi, Texas was completed in December.