Education & Affordable Housing
Four faith-based community development corporations are helping the city of Houston rebuild the Fourth Ward, just west of Downtown, through housing projects and the complete development of the historic community.
Once a thriving and diverse 40-block community nicknamed Houston’s Harlem, Fourth Ward is now reduced to an 18-block residential section – Freedmen’s Town. Although it’s a national historic landmark, Freedman’s Town is not protected from the real estate development occurring in the inner loop.
“What we have is downtown moving into the Fourth Ward,” said Rev. Elmo Johnson, president of Uplift Fourth Ward Inc.
Since 1998, Uplift Fourth Ward Inc., Miracle of Hope Inc., Antioch Project Reach Inc. and Fourth Ward Community Coalition Inc. have worked with the city of Houston’s Housing and Community Development Department to build and finance 160 low to moderate-income homes.
The Fourth Ward area is home to the highest priced land in the city, according to Rev. Nathan Blocker, executive director of Miracle of Hope, Inc., the first community development corporation (CDC) to build in the neighborhood. Despite market value, Blocker says corporations like his are not permitted to sell a home for more than $92,000.
The housing program is designed to give homeownership to people in the low to moderate-income bracket who make 30 to 80 percent of the average median income for the Houston area based on family size. Families that qualify for homes built by a CDC are usually in the 50 to 80 percent median income bracket, which for a family of four is between $30,00 and $48,000.
Through subsidies offered by the city’s single family mortgage assistance program, prospective homeowners can buy a three bedroom, two bathroom house built by a CDC for as little as $74,000 after closing costs. At $780 a month for mortgage, new homeowners can build equity for the same amount they were spending on apartment rent.
To limit the displacement of lower-income families, the Housing Authority of the City of Houston built the 100-unit Victory Apartments in the heart of the Fourth Ward. Forty houses and tenements were also built by HACH in the shotgun style of the 1930s to preserve Freedmen’s Town’s roots.
Federal programs like HOPE VI and low-income housing tax credits from the National Equity Fund are funding the row houses and the $9 million Victory Apartments.
The historically black Fourth Ward has become a Hispanic neighborhood, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The proportion of black residents in the community fell to 37 percent from 60 percent in 1990. Hispanics now make up 54 percent of the Fourth Ward population.
Redevelopment has made the community even more Hispanic, said Johnson, pastor of Rose of Sharon Baptist Church in Fourth Ward.
“It’s great. It’s a cross section of what Houston is made up of. It’s not all black. It’s not all Hispanic. It’s not all white. It’s a cross section. And that’s great. That’s what you want – a melting pot. I mean you want that. That’s the way heaven gonna look like,” Johnson said.
All four faith-based CDCs are committed to building homes in the community, but the ministries are also committed to ridding the neighborhood of drugs, prostitution and violence. The Fourth Ward began to lose prominence in the 1920s, and by the 1980s it was known for its dilapidated houses and crime.
“A lot of people can just put houses up, but there’s a whole different monster that exists after the houses are here,” Blocker said.
In a recent triumph, a coalition of CDCs tore down a dilapidated drug house at the corner of Bailey and Saulnier. What once harbored a crack house will be the home of a 20-unit, single-room occupancy apartment complex for senior citizens.
“In about five or six, maybe 10 years, Fourth Ward gonna be a different place because there will be a lot of new housing out here – a lot of developing is going on now. I’m glad that the Lord allowed me to play a part in the development, so we can keep some of our senior citizens out here. Now, we don’t want the drugs, but we want to keep our senior citizens out here,” Johnson said.
“It’s one reality that I can attest to is that if the community would have stayed like it was, it would have been a tragedy, you know,” Blocker said. “Dope infested, houses falling down, prostitution, crime all in the area. I think that even though it may have been a change that affected some residents greater than others, it was a change that was needed for this community. Now, that’s not to say that it’s done because it’s not. We still see some drug activity in the community. We still see crime in the community, but it’s a whole lot better than what it was at this point. There’s still a lot that needs to be done, but there has been a tremendous change in this community.”
The city is currently way into the Fourth Ward designating certain lots as off-limits to major real estate developers while the CDCs are building.
Already, the developers are here. Pricey nouveau tin homes, built by Urban Lofts, stand next to the low-income Victory Apartments complex. Midtown and Downtown are pushing their way into the Fourth Ward.
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