Fourth Ward initiative aims to revitalize Freedmen’s Town with affordable housing – Houston Public Media

A newly created Fourth Ward investment initiative aims to revitalize Freedmen’s Town by preserving cultural landmarks and promoting economic mobility.

The first step will be to create 16 affordable housing units in space occupied by historic homes. Zion Escobar is the CEO of the Freedmen’s Town Community Investment Initiative and said low-income households earning less than 80 percent of the area median income could pay nearly $400 a month for rent on these units.

“Our hope is that every rent payment made by residents becomes a deposit towards owning the same property,” she said.

Escobar added that she is waiting for a contractual guarantee before ownership is a possibility for tenants. The entire property will be placed in the Houston Community Land Trust, and Escobar said that for 99 years the property is deed restricted to remain affordable.

Freedmen’s Town, just west of downtown, was considered Houston’s Black Wall Street in the 1930s and was popular for its restaurants and jazz clubs. According to Houston History Magazine, the construction of I-45 contributed in part to the city’s decline. The Fourth Ward is the only area built by freedmen in the United States after the Civil War.

Charonda Johnson is the vice president of the Freedmen’s Town Association. She said other efforts in the past have often contributed to gentrification.

“I often say that I have lived through ten failed master plans for this community,” she said. “…the community was not focused on these master plans. And in my community, people came here to tell us what we needed and to tell us what direction they thought our community should take, instead of just listening to us.

Neal Dikeman is Managing Partner of Old Growth Ventures, a local company specializing in restoring vintage neighborhoods in the Houston area. He explained that the previous owner of the property lived there in the 1980s.

“They were pretty excited. Just to see me walk through the door and say, hey, someone actually cares. They didn’t buy these things to turn them into parking,” he said. “They wanted (the houses) to be saved. They lived there. It’s their house.