Today John Greenan, Executive Director of the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation and I will be in Austin to testify before the meeting of the Governing Board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
We have submitted an application to receive a $12 million allocation of low income, housing tax credits from the State of Texas to be used in underwriting a substantial portion of the cost of our renovation and development of downtown affordable housing in our City Walk @ Akard project here in Dallas.
Accompanying us will be Mike Rawlings, appointed the "homeless czar" for the City of Dallas by Mayor Laura Miller.
We will read letters of support into the meeting record from Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price and Ann Lott, President and CEO for the Dallas Housing Authority.
The level of community support for our project has been gratifying and
growing.We plan to develop 200 high-quality, affordable apartments for low-income, working people in the 15-story building that has been vacant for almost 15 years.
Fifty of these units will be reserved for formerly homeless persons. Nine of the units will be offered at market rate. We also plan for some light retail on the ground floor and approximately 35-40 Central Dallas Ministries' staff members will office in the building daily.
The building also contains a 300-seat auditorium that we will restore for use by arts, music, dance and theater groups, as well as faith communities and groups who reside in the building.
We are optimistic about our chances to receive the tax credit allocation.
The final decision will be handed down on Friday, July 28, 2006. We will be back at the Capitol on that important day as well.
If you think of it along the way, remember us today.
Dallas really needs this development.
May the Texas leadership have the wisdom to allocate these funds to this project. I am praying that you are given more resources than are required for this development in Dallas.
ReplyDeleteMoreover I hope the future residents' lives will be changed and that they will in turn help others by building a strong community among themselves.
I just had to say one more time May God bless you and the work you do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your encouragement, everyone! We had a great session with the Governing Board and are feeling cautiously optimistic at this point. Continue to remember us and the project.
ReplyDeleteJustin, if you are at Lipscomb or if you can get there, go by and talk to Prof Mark Black. He has big dreams for Nashville.
I remember that Angela Hunt went to Houston to check out their version of a City Walk type project and was sold on it. I am as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's only right one of these projects gets approved for every 20 of the others it's only fair.