El Paso’s public housing agency, branded HOME, is on an apartment-buying spree.
It’s acquired at least 13 private apartment complexes with just over 4,000 units in the last four years for more than $600 million, including seven in states far from El Paso, taking them off the property tax rolls with the aim of providing affordable rentals for low- to moderate-income tenants.
The acquisitions were financed through the sale of millions of dollars in bonds.
Seven of the complexes were bought in 2025 and 2026 for just over $414 million in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia by Sixteenth Floor Residential Inc. That's HOME’s fledgling, quietly formed, not-for-profit affiliate named for its 16th-floor offices in HOME's Blue Flame Building in Downtown
El Paso, deeds and other public documents show.
Six other apartment complexes in El Paso were purchased in 2023, 2024 and 2026 by HOME for an estimated $200 million through various public facility corporations set up to develop affordable housing, documents show. Three of the complexes are adjacent to each other on South Mesa Hills Drive in West El Paso.
HOME also is in the process of trying to buy 15 low-income apartment complexes in several areas of El Paso County, totaling 1,352 apartment units, owned by El Paso’s Tropicana Building Corp.
The buying spree comes after HOME spent years and more than $1 billion in private and government funding to renovate orrebuild dozens of El Paso public housing complexesthrough the federal government's Rental Assistance Demonstration program, or RAD.
The Houston Chronicle first exposed the Sixteeth Floor acquisitions in an Aug. 31 story.
Gerald Cichon is force behind huge expansion
Master mind of this expansion — rivaling that of private, for-profit housing companies — is Gerald Cichon, a lawyer who’s been the housing authority’s chief executive officer for almost 19 years
He also is chief executive of Sixteenth Floor Residential, established in May 2025. Its board of directors is the same as HOME's five-member board of commissioners.
"Twenty thousand El Pasoans are waiting for an affordable home and no local money is available to help them," Cichon said in a statement. "We can't wait for funding that isn't coming, so we built a way to earn it."
That will be done by using Sixteenth Floor earnings to build more affordable housing in El Paso, he said.
Rents from the properties pay off the bonds, and no city, county or state money is used, according to a HOME statement.
Cichon was not immediately available for an interview. Jeff Hahn, owner of the Hahn Agency, an Austin public relations and marketing firm working for HOME, provided information from Cichon and other HOME officials in response to questions emailed by the El Paso Times.
88-year-old mission: Low-cost housing for El Paso
The Housing Authority of the city of El Paso, rebranded several years ago to HOME (Housing Opportunity Management Enterprises) is a public agency independent of El Paso City Hall. But its board is appointed by the El Paso mayor.
The 88-year-old agency's mission is to provide low-income El Pasoans with access to low-cost housing, according to HOME's website.
Apartments taken off tax rolls
HOME and Sixteenth Floor Residential convert their acquired private apartments into income-restricted apartments, meaning a large percentage of renters must meet certain income limits to receive reduced rents below market rates.
Apartments not under income restrictions are rented at market rates.
The acquired apartment complexes are taken off property-tax rolls, Cichon confirmed.
"The fact is, affordable housing is tax exempt because it is a great public benefit for every community," Cichon said in a statement.
Sixteenth Floor ambition: Cut affordable housing shortage
Sixteenth Floor's ambitious purpose is to provide affordable rental housing for low- and moderate-income families and to lessen the burden on government agencies in addressing the projected shortage of affordable housing in the United States, according to its corporate filing with the Texas secretary of state's office.
Its website (sfresidential.org) states that Sixteenth Floor is a Texas nonprofit company "providing high-quality, mixed-income affordable multifamily housing that empowers working families and individuals to thrive in the communities where they live and work." The website also has a mechanism to donate money to the company.
S&P Global, a New York credit rating agency, in an April 2026 report rating a HOME bond issue, noted that the housing agency has an "extensive growth strategy" to add hundreds of apartments annually through acquisitions and new construction, and that in 2025 it expanded that strategy to areas outside El Paso. The report gave glowing reviews to HOME and deemed its financial performance strong, despite its elevated debt.
HOME purchases outside Texas
Apartment complexes acquired outside El Paso by Sixteenth Floor Residential Inc., El Paso Home affiliate, with purchase or deed filing date:
The Scottie: $70.5 million; (8-20-2026).; 312 units in 12 buildings, 3730 Ingleside Blvd., North Charleston, South Carolina.
The Crest at Brier Creek: $64.4 million; (7-31-2026); 291 units in eight buildings; 6450 Viewpoint Circle, Raleigh, North Carolina.
MacArthur Park: $40.6 million; (7-31-2026); 290 units in 19 buildings; 101 Little Rock Drive, Augusta, Georgia.
The Lively Victor Park: $61.18 million; (5-28-2026); 318 units in four main buildings; 1000 Village Mill Drive, Greer, South Carolina.
The Reserve at Wescott: $57.8 million; (12-11-2025); 288 units in12 buildings; 4976 Wescott Blvd., Summerville, South Carolina;
Otarre Pointe: $61.5 million; (12-10-2025); 299 units in 27 buildings; 1137 Fort Congaree Trail, Cayce, South Carolina.
Latitude at Wescott: $58.1 million; (10-21-2025); 290 units in 12 buildings; 9500 Old Glory Lane, Summerville, South Carolina.
Total: $414.1 million
Sources: Deeds and other documents
HOME purchases in El Paso
Apartment complexes acquired in El Paso area via HOME companies, with purchase or deed filing date:
Forty649 North Hills: $51 million; (2-24-2026); 342 units in 42 buildings; 4649 Loma Del Sur Drive, Northeast El Paso.
The Arthur: Price N/A ($32.6 million in bonds sold to finance purchase); (5/27/2026); 248 units in 16 buildings; 535 S. Mesa Hills Drive, West El Paso.
The Retreat at Mesa Hills: N/A ($145.4 million in bonds to finance purchase and renovation; (appraised value $29.3 million in 2024); (11-22-2024); 752 units in 53 buildings; 945 S. Mesa Hills Drive, West El Paso;
The Estates: N/A ($5.1 million in bonds sold to finance purchase); (9-27-2024); 142 units in one building; 435 S. Mesa Hills Drive, West El Paso.
Tuscany at Mesa Hills: $55 million; (12-01-2023); 369 units in 42 buildings; 415 S. Mesa Hills Drive, West El Paso.
Villas at Zaragoza: $27 million; (11-30-2023); 216 units in nine buildings; 1640 N. Zaragoza Road, East El Paso.
Estimated total: $200 million
Sources: Deeds and other documents
In the works
HOME is in the process of trying to buy 15 low-income apartment buildings with 1,352 units in the El Paso area owned by El Paso’s Tropicana Building Corp., which built them with financing via federal tax credits. HOME has grouped them under EP Palms 1352, a public facility corporation formed by the agency to purchase and operate the apartments.
HOME's five-member board authorized the EP Palms acquisition and sale of bonds to finance the purchase at its Sept. 16 meeting.
But Bobby Bowling IV, who owns Tropicana Building with his brother Randy Bowling, said a deal is not "remotely close" to being done. No sale agreement has been made, and the two sides have not agreed to a purchase price, he said.
A statement from HOME officials said the agency "is in negotiations only, and it is not known whether they will result in a sale."
The 15 apartment complexes, now managed by Tropicana Properties:Tropicana Palms, Sunset Palms, Cooperstown, South Cooperstown, Pueblo Montana, Patriot Palms, Paseo Palms, Mission Palms, Horizon Palms, Deer Palms, Americas Palms, Castner Palms, Capistrano Palms, Burgundy Palms, Diana Palms.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 915-546-6421;vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on X, and @vkolenc.bsky.socialon Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso HOME buying spree: $600M in apartments, El Paso to Carolinas
