With more than 18 years of experience managing multi-family housing developments, Melissa Garza currently serves as the Director of Beacon, after serving as the Assistant Director of Real Estate where she was responsible for assisting the Director with ensuring that the Development Services and Neighborhood Revitalization Department achieved its goals of developing mixed-use, mixed-income affordable housing developments, as well as single-family neighborhoods that would strategically expand the agency’s supply of affordable housing.
Before joining the Development Services and Neighborhood Revitalization Team, Garza held the position of Compliance Manager, where she was responsible for the compliance oversight of Opportunity Home’s 29 Partnership Developments, which encompassed eight different affordable housing programs.
She served as the Opportunity Home Representative for all HUD, TDCHA, BOND and City of San Antonio regulatory compliance requirements. Employed since 2006, Melissa spent 11 years managing public housing developments and spent five years at Opportunity Home’s oldest and largest public housing property, the Alazan-Apache Courts.
She possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at San Antonio and is certified through the National Center for Housing Management as a Certified Occupancy Specialist (COS), Tax Credit Specialist (TCS), Blended Occupancy Specialist (BOS), Management and Occupancy Review Specialist (MORS), Certified Voucher Specialist (CVS) and HOME Compliance Specialist (HOME). In addition, she obtained a Public Housing Manager (PHM) and Public Housing Specialist (PHS) Certification through Jaime Kenny Consulting.