At the close of the October 8 TDHCA Governing Board meeting, Chairman Leo Vasquez III announced that it would be his last, handing the gavel to Vice Chair Kenny Marchant after nine years on the Board. Governor Abbott first appointed Vasquez in 2017, named him Chairman in November 2020, and reappointed him in March 2024. He came to the Board with a long record of public service, including as Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector, Chairman of the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation, and a two-time appointee to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice.
His tenure spanned some of the most demanding years in TDHCA’s history. He joined months before Hurricane Harvey and became Chairman in the middle of the pandemic, when he and Executive Director Bobby Wilkinson led the agency through more than $4.6 billion in new federal funding. The Texas Rent Relief Program became the first in the nation to distribute $1 billion and went on to provide $2.2 billion to 323,000 households, and by late 2023 TDHCA’s pandemic programs had reached nearly 6 million Texans.
As that funding peaked, construction costs and interest rates climbed, and the Board carried the tax credit program through the shock. It approved a 2022 supplemental allocation of 9% credits for 2019 and 2020 developments facing cost increases and worked through a steady stream of force majeure requests to keep deals on track. Now, as the pandemic programs wind down, the Board has guided the agency back to a smaller budget and toward a 2027 QAP roughly a quarter shorter than the last.
All of that work came through monthly meetings that routinely run four or five hours across awards, amendments, waivers, and public comment. Vasquez presided over those long days with a firm hand and a ready joke, kept them orderly, and made sure every Board member was heard before a vote. Nine years on the Board gave him a command of a program shaped by federal rules, state law, and a QAP that changes every year.
Knowing the program that well also meant knowing its limits. At his first meeting after being reappointed in 2024, he told the room, “We could build every unit that gets applied for every year. We could double that number and we still wouldn’t be doing enough.” He added that “we’re definitely paddling upstream, but… we are making a difference.”
That perspective shaped how he treated the people doing the work. At the July 23, 2026 meeting, just before the Board voted on this year’s 9% awards, he paused the agenda to thank TDHCA staff, telling them, “Y’all go way beyond just being pencil pushers and box checkers. Y’all are making a real difference in everything that’s helping thousands upon thousands of Texans.” He then turned to the industry, congratulated TAAHP on its summer conference, and spoke about how the development community had changed during his nine years on the Board. Watch his full remarks here.
Chairman Vasquez has been a steady and accessible partner to TAAHP and its members, and the industry will feel the loss of his knowledge and leadership. TAAHP thanks him for his service to Texas and to the families who live in TDHCA-supported housing, and we look forward to working with Vice Chair Marchant and the full Board.