Affordable housing under construction

People who want to rebuild and save their neighborhoods, and who want to make these neighborhoods viable again, are coming together with the same old-fashioned, barn-raising ideals that this country was built on.

— Local Initiatives Support Corporation

As many Houstonians moved from the inner city to the suburbs, poorer residents remained behind in abandoned, decaying neighborhoods. Within the past ten years, nonprofit community development corporations (CDCs)—often created by local residents—have transformed distressed neighborhoods throughout Houston into healthy communities by offering affordable housing, financial counseling and job skills training, and by establishing schools, medical facilities, financial institutions, stores and community centers. Other organizations have aided CDC efforts by creating public art programs, parks and green spaces, and contributing legal and financial services, particularly to develop affordable housing for low-income urban residents.

In south Texas colonias, where hundreds of thousands of people live in poverty, residents usually don’t qualify for loans from conventional sources. Their businesses lack cash to operate effectively, and home owners often live without adequate plumbing and electricity. Nonprofit organizations have stepped in to assist small-business owners with training and capital, and to provide homeowners with loans so they can improve the substandard housing conditions that exist throughout the colonias.

To help renew neighborhoods and develop affordable housing, Houston Endowment has supported:

. ACCION Texas Inc.

. Bay Area Habitat for Humanity

. CDC Association of Greater Houston

. Community Resource Group, Inc.

. Covenant Community Capital Corporation

. Freedmen’s Town Association, Inc.

. Legal Aid of Central Texas

. Local Initiatives Support Corporation

. National Rural Development & Finance Corporation

. Project Row Houses

. Row House Community Development Corporation

. Texas Low Income Housing Information Service

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