Rural Housing and Economic Development 1999 Grants

PROJECT SUMMARY: TEXAS

ACCION Texas, Inc., in San Antonio, TX, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $600,000. This program will serve Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Willacy, Dimmit, Kinney, LaSalle, Maverick, Uvalde, Val Verde, Webb, Zapata, and Zavala Counties in the Rio Grande Valley. ACCION Texas provides loans to individual entrepreneurs and microbusinesses in low-income communities. ACCION Texas will use the grant to increase its current lending capacity in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and to expand lending programs to the Middle Rio Grande Valley. ACCION Texas is coordinating resources available through Chase Bank of Texas, Frost National Bank, the Southwestern Bell Foundation, the Levi Strauss Foundation, the Shield Ayers Foundation, the SBC Foundation, and CDFI. In-kind leveraging resources total $2,770,534 in support of this program. ACCION Texas has established partnerships with non-profit organizations, universities, local businesses, and chambers of commerce in each of its five lending sites. The area to be targeted with this RHED grant includes 1,200 colonias and 60 small towns.

Contact Person: Janie Barrera
Grantee Address: 109 N. San Saba, San Antonio, TX 78207
Phone Number: (210)226-3664

The Center for Economic Opportunities, Inc., in San Juan, TX, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $500,000. The applicant is planning to establish a micro-industry incubator project to buy land and construct an industrial building to be leased to minority small and expanding businesses in the Colonias. The applicant will also provide financial assistance through a micro-loan fund as well as training and technical assistance. This program will serve Rural Hidalgo County, Texas. In kind leveraging and financing resources total $146,810 in support of this program. Key participants include: the Rural Development & Finance Corporation, the South Texas Community College, The Wireless InterNet, Inc., and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.

Contact Person: Mr. Arturo Ramirez, CEO
Grantee Address: P.O. Box 45, San Juan, TX 78589
Phone Number: (956) 702-7300

Amigos Del Valle, INC., in Mission, TX, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $600,000. The applicant will use the grant for activities related to the construction and financing of single family affordable homes. Activities include establishing a loan loss reserve, a reserve to bridge any gaps in monthly payments for seasonal farmworkers, funds for loan servicing and grant administration, and subsidy funds for qualifying families. This program will serve Cameron, Willacy, Hidalgo, and Starr counties in Texas. In-kind leveraging and financing resources total $6,928,000 in support of this program. Key participants include: the Community Development Corp. of Brownsville, Proyecto Azteca, the Housing Assistance Council, and the Greater Brownsville Community Development Corp.

Contact Person: Amancio Chapa Jr.
Grantee Address: 1116 N. Conway, Mission, TX 78572
Phone Number: (956) 581-9494

Rio Valle Rainbow, Inc., in El Paso, TX, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $44,960 for the Timely, Integrated Resources Energized Project (TIGRE). This project is a Colonia-based Self-Help Housing and Economic development leadership plan designed to provide leadership for improved Colonia housing. Subsequent to leadership training, three small housing and economic development pilot projects will be undertaken by the six potential leaders. The applicant plans on obtaining materials for 20 home projects, creating a small, volunteer, used-materials center and conducting small business-carpentry/masonry workshops. The applicant is contributing $5,050 to the overall project.

Contact Person: Andres Mares
Grantee Address: 3501 Morehead Ave., El Paso, TX 79930
Phone Number: (915) 565-2041

El Paso Collaborative for Community and Economic Development, in El Paso, TX, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $200,000. The seed support funds will help establish the El Paso Community Design Center under auspices of the El Paso Collaborative for Community and Economic Development which will administer the grant on behalf of its partnership with El Paso County and nonprofit housing CDCs that serve colonia residents. The Design Center will function as a planning, architectural, financial and technical partner to facilitate resident-based housing initiatives in the Colonias. This grant will complement a grant of $182,000 from the City of El Paso's Empowerment Zone budget. The three-year objectives of the project are to increase the number of new or upgraded housing units for low-income residents of the Colonias.

Contact Person: Angie Briones-Sosa
Grantee Address: 221 N Kansas, Suite 1212, El Paso, TX, 79901
Phone Number: 915-532-7788

The Community Resource Group, Inc., in Fayetteville, AR, will receive a Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $467,500 to improve housing conditions in seventeen Colonias in Starr County, TX. The applicant is the court-appointed temporary receiver of the Colonias. There are two components to the project. The first phase is the provision of low-cost financing which will allow the owners of 16 Colonias homes to rehabilitate their houses at affordable terms. In the second phase 22 new homes will replace structures which cannot be rehabilitated. The USDA RECD 502 program will be used to supply buyers with a mortgage in the amount of $40,000 for a term of 33 years at 3% interest. As each replacement home is sold, the mortgage proceeds received from the sale will be used to construct an additional replacement home. Key participants include: USDA, the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Ford Foundation.

Contact Person: Henry Neil
Grantee Address: 38 West Trenton, P.O. Box 1543, Fayetteville, AR 72702-1543
Phone Number: 512-251-8230

Community Resource Group in Fayetteville, AR, will receive an additional Rural Housing and Economic Development Grant in the amount of $222,000 for Starr County, TX. The seed support funds will support one stage of a coordinated seven stage program combining private and public funds to correct title problems and improve housing conditions in 17 Colonias in Starr County. The Colonias residents own their properties by contract, which prevents them from obtaining private or public funding to improve their seriously substandard housing conditions. Specifically, the seed grant will test an approach whereby Colonia residents will "trade-in" their current property (because small size of site does not permit a new home to be constructed prior to the demolition of the existing home) for equity credit for the net value of the traded land, to be used toward the purchase of a new home on a different site. In addition, the program will test several methods of construction of new homes to determine which best meets the needs in Starr County. CRG projects that this seed grant will rehabilitate 16 homes and construct an additional 37 homes.

Contact Person: John Squires
Grantee Address: PO Box 1543, Fayetteville, AR
Phone Number: (501) 443-2700

Content Archived: January 20, 2009