500 Affordable Homes Built, 500 More Planned in Central Houston

(photo by Cole Klein Builders)

Imagine new single-family homes with price tags below $200,000 and senior housing with rent as low as $300 a month plus on-site access to health care. Then add in some affordable townhomes, duplexes, and apartments within walking distance of public transportation and nearby jobs. If you think this sounds like one of those planned mixed developments out in the suburbs, you are wrong. It is part of the Midtown Redevelopment Authority’s (MRA) unique affordable housing initiative in Houston’s inner city, and all of it is available now or in the not-too-distant future to qualifying low- and moderate-income families with annual earnings of around $78,000 or less.

So Much Progress Already Achieved

To date, MRA and its partner organizations have built 525 units of affordable housing in Third Ward, Midtown, and the Greater OST/South Union. The projects already completed include:

• 348 multi-family apartments 
• 89 single-family homes 
• 58 single-room units 
• 30 duplexes 

The newest project to open is the Law Harrington Senior Living Center, the largest LGBTQ-friendly senior housing complex in the nation. MRA donated a $5 million, 2.87-acre lot it owned at 2222 Cleburne near Highway 288 as the site for the project. The complex features 112 one- and two-bedroom apartments with full kitchens and patios, onsite social services managed by the Montrose Center, and a geriatric primary care clinic provided by Legacy Community Health. Rents are on a sliding scale based on income. 

“How many places in America do they have a place like this?” 74-year-old Dina Montalbo was quoted as saying in a news article marking the opening of the project. “Oh my God, everything about this place is fantastic!”

500 Planned – More is Coming Soon

• There are another 76 single-family homes under construction by various private and nonprofit developers who are working with MRA. 
• 20 affordably priced apartments will be included as part of the citywide Affordable Housing Operations Center (AHOC) on Emancipation Avenue in Third Ward. The AHOC will serve as a home base for a broad group of organizations engaged in all aspects of affordable housing. At present, there is no centrally located public facility that houses all these groups together in one building.

Stay tuned to learn about the additional affordable homes that are coming soon.