Low income, Housing Tax Credits Awarded!

Friday afternoon at about 3:15 p.m., after a lengthy and interesting meeting, the Board of Governors of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) voted unanimously to award the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation $12 million in tax credits by means of a "forward commitment." Simply put, this means that our allocation of credits will count against the tax credit funding available for projects in our region in 2007.

From the standpoint of the mission of Central Dallas Ministries and the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation the award means that we can go forward with efforts to develop City Walk @ Akard in Downtown Dallas!

Special thanks go to John Greenan, Executive Director of the CDCDC and one of the founding partners of our public interest law firm, Legal Action Works. John and his great team have worked tirelessly on this project, while continuing their hard work on several others.

We are also extremely thankful for all of the friends of the Dallas community who stepped up to speak out on behalf of the project. Yesterday was no exception. City Council Member and Mayoral candidate, Gary Griffith appeared and testified before the Board on our behalf.

Dr. Jim Walton, CDM Board Member and the champion of public health and health equity for the entire community and for our ministry, also stood to make a moving statement on behalf of the project. I think the Board of the TDHCA was most impressed when Dr. Jim told them that he and his wife, Dr. Rhonda Walton intend to take one of the market rate units and move to Downtown.
For the feel for the kind of community support we had for the project, go to our websites at www.CentralDallasMinistires. org or to www.CentralDallasCDC.org and read the many letters posted there, including one from First Lady Laura Bush.

Yesterday was a time of real celebration!

When you consider where we were when we started working to realize our vision, you have to say the decision yesterday was amazing, even miraculous!

Now the real and harder work begins--State underwriting, syndication, completing architectural plans, bidding the construction, refining our management strategy for the building and raising more funding.

Remember us.

More later.