Affordable homes construction completed

Affordable homes construction completed Main Photo

22 May 2022


News, Housing

 Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

In the market for a new place to live affordably, Seguin resident Joe Rodriguez and his wife Mary stumbled upon a find of a lifetime about three years ago.

Now, the Rodriguez family lives comfortably in their recently-built home in south Seguin thanks to some help from federal and state governmental entities. The Rodriguezes live in a rent-controlled house built as part of the Texas General Land Office’s disaster recovery efforts following Hurricane Harvey.

“You feel at home when you’re here,” Joe Rodriguez said. “I tell my wife we’re blessed, we got a beautiful home. … We’re blessed.”

Representatives of the Texas General Land Office gathered fore a delayed ribbon cutting with Rodriguez and others at The Oaks at Seguin, the eight-unit, multi-family rental development project where Rodriguez lives.

The Texas General Land Office used $1.75 million of $588 million in Community Development Block Grant for Disaster Recovery funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to construct The Oaks at Seguin, said Brittany Eck, Texas General Land Office director of communications, community development and revitalization.

The agencies used the money to help rehabilitate, reconstruct and construct 81 multi-family rental housing developments affected in 2017 by Hurricane Harvey, she said. Nearly 6,000 rental homes are being rebuilt or constructed to replenish affordable housing affected by the storm, Eck said.

About half of the projects are complete, including The Oaks at Seguin, she said.

“These are (eight) of them, and funds we have used guarantee these will be affordable housing for 20 years,” she said.

Low- to moderate-income families qualify to live in the residences in Seguin, Eck said. To qualify, they have to earn 80% or less than the area median family income.

As property manager, Charina Allen Beasley said it is her job to ensure residents continue to qualify. Allen Beasley works for ABC Affordable Housing Services, property management company for The Oaks at Seguin.

Construction of The Oaks started in 2019 and the first lessee moved in some time in 2020, she said.

“We’re coming up on year three; they’ve been living here two years,” Allen Beasley said. “We interact with the residents at The Oaks at Seguin.”

Her company also handles maintenance and management concerns at the property, she said.

In his time living at The Oaks, Rodriguez said he has spent his retirement occasionally helping ABC Affordable Housing Services make minor repairs of his and his neighbors’ homes. He has gotten to know everyone in the subdivision and many others in the neighborhood, he said.

They help each other out, are friendly and appreciate their new homes, Rodriguez said.

“It’s a beautiful home,” he said. “Everybody — I know them all — they all say the same thing. ‘It’s a beautiful home.’”

He and his wife were in the market for a new home years ago when they drove by The Oaks at Seguin under construction, Rodriguez said. They needed somewhere to rent and somewhere affordable as he had just retired, he said.

His wife liked what they saw so they stopped, talked to some folks and fell in love. They applied and were accepted to move in, Rodriguez said.

Since then, they’ve made a lovely home out of the house they rent and made friends in the neighborhood they call home, he said.

“I enjoy it here. It’s a great neighborhood, quiet, safe,” Rodriguez said. “We know everyone. Knowing your neighbors makes for a good community.

“You feel at home.”

The couple has had a great experience living in the house. They are more than appreciative for finding the house and being qualified to live there, Rodriguez said.

“The word is ‘blessing,’” he said. “That’s the word I use, ‘blessing.’”

View article on SeguinGazette.com