A major international developer has partnered with a Dallas nonprofit to break ground on an affordable workforce housing project Monday.
“Mill City 50” is named for the number of units and location in the South Dallas Mill City neighborhood.
The company building it, Good Urban Development, is a joint venture between nonprofit Urban Specialists and developer Matthews Southwest.
This project will help address the estimated need for 33,000 affordable housing units in Dallas for low- and moderate-income workers in a city where housing is increasingly expensive.
Community leaders who attended the groundbreaking ceremony said the involvement of developer Jack Matthews and his company will greatly facilitate affordable housing.
Matthews Southwest built the Dallas Omni Convention Center Hotel and other landmarks. The company won the contract to build the new Dallas Convention Center in September.
“This is what happens when you get a community partner,” Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said.
The project aims to provide high-quality housing at low prices without raising taxes for people already living in the neighborhood.
Matthews said he's involved in this rather than anything else he could do because it's really important.
“It's important for the existing neighborhoods. It's important for the people who are moving here. It's important for the city long term. You're coming into the area and the existing people in that community are If we can prove that we can lift up the region without hurting it, then the world will be a better place. That's what we're trying to do here. That's a big step forward.” said Matthews.
This is a big step forward, since the vacant lots in the neighborhood require the same roads, sidewalks and water and sewer infrastructure that other Dallas neighborhoods received years ago.
“This really shows the legacy of racism. A lack of equity,” said former Dallas City Council member Diane Ragsdale.
She currently runs the nonprofit Inner City Community Development Corporation. The company has been working for years to provide affordable housing in the same south Dallas area, facing the same challenges of infrastructure and financing.
“We recognize that we cannot do everything on our own. We need a partnership to help us, because we have been so neglected for so many years,” she said. said.
Currently, the city of Ragsdale is also working with the Dallas Housing Coalition. The coalition is another group fighting for more funding from the 2024 Dallas Public Improvement Bond referendum to help accomplish similar projects to address the massive shortage of workforce housing. .
“We need to do everything we can to make sure we provide affordable housing, because without that, it leads to homelessness,” Ragsdale said.
The architect responsible for the renderings of the new Mill City 50 homes is one of three African American women leading the project.
In a city where the median home price in September 2023 was $480,000, home prices will range from $209,000 to $271,000, according to the website Realtor.com.
Anton Lackey, a former gang member and prison inmate, is currently the president of Urban Specialists. He grew up in Mill City.
“The whole purpose is to bring families back to this community,” he said. “If you bring people back, they will patronize businesses and create the thriving communities they once had.”
The group purchased the building, which was a dilapidated store adjacent to a new residential area, and turned it into a coffee house and gathering place for residents.
“It reinstills that pride in the community,” Lackey said.
The City of Dallas donated $3 million to help pay for roads and utilities. Dallas County invested her $2.5 million to help reduce housing costs.
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said Inwood Bank is also a partner in helping former tenants become homeowners with a trusted lender.
“So these people will not only own their own home, but they will also not be getting ripped off every month in the process,” Lewis-Jenkins said.
The first eight new homes are expected to be completed in early 2024.
