If home is where the heart is, it will soon have a stronger beat through a new Herbert Homes project on the city’s northside.
On April 6, 2023, Mayor Tishaura Jones joined business and faith-based leaders for the groundbreaking of an affordable housing project that is part of her pledge to help strengthen economic development opportunities in areas that have been ignored for decades.
Pastor Andre Alexander’s Tabernacle Community Development Corporation and Habitat for Humanity will construct duplexes and homes in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhoods, which Alexander says, “will transform the community for the better.”
“When families can buy and stay in their homes, we build community,” said Jones. “And housing instability is a root cause of crime that holds our city back from its fullest potential. So, projects like this will directly help to reduce crime in the city of St. Louis.”
Neal Richardson, St. Louis Development Corporation president and CEO, was at the groundbreaking and hailed the positive impact the new residences could have on the neighborhood.
“We are also creating jobs for people that live within this community and also creating the opportunity for minority-owned businesses to be able to grow and scale and have a track record of them building quality housing in our community,” he said.
Richardson noted that the project is not an island within the city limits. Habitat for Humanity St. Louis is constructing comparable homes in parts of Gravois Park, Dutchtown, Hyde Park and Old North St. Louis.
The Jeff-Vander-Lou development plan calls for 26 homes, and most buyers will be families earning less than 80% of the area median income.
This will include 15 newly constructed homes and 11 rehabs mostly concentrated on the 3600 block of Hebert Street.
“This is the culmination of six years of hard work of building, planning,” Alexander.
“Really, it’s just the beginning, you celebrate getting to this point, but now we’ve got to go build the stuff, right?”
Alexander estimates that more than 100 people will reside in the homes once they are completed.
“Every family size is different,” he said.
“But the homes that are being built are three bedroom, two-and-a-half bath. The homes we are rehabbing, about half of them are three-bedroom, another half are four-bedroom.”
He said buyers do not have to be members of his church or development with the Tabernacle organization.
“I want to emphasize that you don’t have to be a member of our church or be a family that we currently serve in our nonprofit,” he said. “If you have interest in a home, we’re willing and ready to work with you.”
Jones said the project, and others like it, can help break “a horrible cycle.”
“Developers couldn’t build homes because banks would lend money for mortgages and home Improvements due to lack of comparable appraisals,” she said.
“Without an appraisal you can’t get a loan and if you can’t get a loan, you can’t build wealth that begins to end today.”
The homes are expected to be completed by the summer of 2024.
Marcia Fudge, U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, said last week it is essential for her agency to work with local governments, community organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure that these initiatives effectively address the specific needs of Black communities.
HUD is addressing the crisis in minority home ownership with initiatives including expanding access to down payment assistance programs, increasing affordable housing options, and combating discriminatory lending practices.
What we are saying at HUD and the Biden-Harris administration is that we can assist you with down payment assistance, we can assist you by staying in your homes, like giving you longer mortgages, we can make sure that we treat you fairly throughout that lending process,” Fudge said.
“We also have resources that we have put out tons of money. We send out community development block grant money, which many of them use. We send home money to communities to help them build housing, as well as we look at a broader picture and understand the significance of the problems.
“We know that when we invest in housing, we invest in people. When we invest in people, we make people feel good. When we make people feel good, we inspire them to do good, and I believe good things happen to good people.”
