At Home with SAHA
If Deborah Ann Flach could turn back time, she’d say she didn’tsee it coming.
As a young adult, she had no idea one day she would rise tothe rank of senior vice president of operations for the San AntonioHousing Authority (SAHA), a feat she reached in June 2007.
In fact, the only thing she saw comingat the tender age of 23 was her infantdaughter, a fading marriage and plenty of unwelcome uncertainties.How would she and her baby get by?Where would they live? Who wouldcare?
By the grace of God and her grandmother,who opened the doors of hertiny house on East Houston St. to Flach, her sister and an aunt, she had someplaceto go during a turbulent time. Today,she’s helping thousands of othersincluding single moms and elders whodon’t.
“Integrity times three” is how LeticiaMartinez, former inner–governmentalrelations manager for SAHA,encapsulates Flach. “Deborah knowsher job and does it very well, and is inmy opinion one of the best in the country,”Martinez says.
“What I do gives me a feeling ofcompleteness,” says Flach. “How manypeople can say they go to work andimpact someone’s life every day? Wecan’t help everyone. But we can offeroptions, even if it’s temporary shelter or transitional housing.”
One such option involved a woman and five children wholived in a car. “She came to us during the holidays,” Flach recalls.“Those kids had no place to bathe or sleep. We weren’t able to helpthem immediately with long–term housing, but we did get theminto the SAMM Shelter.”
Flach’s first taste of real estate came when she took a job sellingbricks to builders for the American Brick Company and gothired six years later as an inspector at the Bexar County HousingAuthority, where she earned promotions to housing counselorand later to executive administrator, which includes running thecounty’s voucher program. In 1996, Flach entered SAHA as a supervisor.She spent the next 12 years working in nearly every operationalarea of the organization and later was promoted to hercurrent commanding role—a success she says she achieved thanksto her bosses and the people who have worked for her along theway.
Flach is one of three key spokespersons for her current boss,SAHA President and CEO Henry A. Alvarez III, the SAHA Boardof Commissioners, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD) and others. Primarily,she helps develop and implement strategiesthat enable SAHA to increase itseffectiveness and commitment to itshistoric duty to public housing and toreinventing and improving the industry.
Included in her watch are the HousingChoice Voucher and Public Housingprograms and Real Estate Services. Altogether,these initiatives provide thousandsof public and private multifamilyand single–family homes for people inneed. And more are on the way, complimentsof forward–thinkers like Flachwho believe in contemporary solutionsto old problems.
A good example is the “mixed–income”community. A growing trend inbig cities, such as Dallas and Atlanta andunderway in San Antonio, mixed–incomehousing integrates lower–incomefamilies with higher–income families inboth public and private housing communitiesin the hope that the businessprofessionals and working families willserve as motivational role models.
“The old adage, ‘you are who yourfriends are’ rings true in housing communities,” says Flach, whostrongly believes in the concept. “This program can work wondersif we can overcome unfair stereotypes. In striving to bring 20 percentof eligible housing clients into mixed–income areas, we areworking to move society away from the outdated model of ‘warehousingpeople.’”
The once–despondent 23–year–old–turned–housing–executiveis petite in stature, but big in optimism and gratitude. She is quickto tip her hat to the “wonderful staff” who works for and besideher each harried day. One minute she is face–to–face with the media;the next she is reaching to answer an urgent telephone callfrom one of her properties. “I love the unpredictability,” Flach says.“That’s the beauty of our business.”
