HOUSTON—Next month a housing development in the Sunnyside community of Houston will celebrate its second phase of construction and its potential impact in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
South Acres Ranch is marketed as a “high-end housing development for low-income Houstonians.” The gated community of 128 four-bedroom, single-family homes is located on Scott Street, south of Airport Road. It features amenities unusual to Sunnyside: a community center, six playgrounds, a multi-level pool, ponds and fountains at the gated entries, and a covered bus depot area for school children waiting for the bus.
“I like the openness,” said Linda Pepper, 62, of her newly rented home that costs her less than $1,000 a month.
“Affordable housing that’s very nice,” said the recent St. Louis transplant. “I never, never expected to find a rental property like this. Never in all my life.”
Financed partly with federal tax credits, South Acres Ranch provides single-family homes, without a government-subsidized look or feel to the property.
Resident Kina Jefferson says this will be home until she can buy a house of her own.
“It feels like a sense of a family home in a neighborhood. I just love the feel,” she said.
“It brings a great deal of excitement when they move in,” said developer Barry Kahn of Hettig-Kahn Development Corp. “And having an opportunity of bringing their friends over and saying this is my house.”
“It’s given the bank an opportunity to showcase what we call investing for good,” said John Yochum of Capitol One Bank.
“The good” includes quality and secure housing for families making roughly $40,000 or less a year. Streets in the gated complex were purposely named after noted community leaders. The homes are across from Houston’s Kipp Academy. And South Acres Ranch management offers onsite tutoring for children and financial literacy classes for adults at the community center.
Hettig-Kahn developed the property, along with Capital One Bank, the City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department and the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
