McAllen housing nonprofit receives $2.9 in federal funding
McALLEN – A local non-profit charged with placing low-income families into new, affordable homes received the largest grant in its history last week – a $2.9 million federal award it says will allow them to purchase more foreclosed and abandoned properties in Hidalgo County.
With this new money, Affordable Homes of South Texas will have approximately $7 million to buy up such houses and rehabilitate them for low-income residents, said Executive Director Robert “Bobby” Calvillo.
The organization received $1.9 million in an earlier round of federal funding last year.
“There’s still 400 to 500 properties in the (foreclosure) listings every month,” Calvillo said. “It’s unfortunate, but there are entire subdivisions that are vacant.”
The 33-year-old housing organization acts as a land developer, builder and mortgage company. They also provide in-house home buyer education to all of their clients.
The nonprofit is required to help families at 120 percent of the median area income — approximately $42,000 for a family of four in Hidalgo County — buy the houses bought and rehabilitated with the federal money.
And it should not have trouble finding those families, said Calvillo. The wave of foreclosures in the county has not abated in the past several months.
“We are directly addressing the reason for the slump in the housing market,” said Martin Medina, the organization’s grant manager. “The (Rio Grande) Valley had a whole slew of predatory lenders that displaced many families.”
The funding announced last week is part of a $2 billion national effort by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to combat the negative effects of abandoned homes to surrounding neighborhoods.
Calvillo’s organization received its piece as part of a consortium of national Latino housing nonprofits in eight states and the District of Columbia, including Chicanos Por la Causa and the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders.
“Vacant homes have a debilitating effect on neighborhoods and often lead to reduced property values, blight and neighborhood decay,” HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan said during last week’s announcement. “This additional $2 billion in (federal stimulus) funding will help stabilize hard hit communities by turning vacant homes from eyesores into community assets.”
Calvillo used the new Las Vistas Subdivision at South Stewart and Ridge Roads in San Juan as an example of that transition. Before his group acquired the 30 acres of land in July and began to develop it into a community of 154 homes, the property had been abandoned and had grown into an eyesore after being foreclosed on.
San Juan police often had to patrol it late at night, Calvillo told The Monitor after his organization opened its first home there in November.
“It is an opportune time for nonprofits, if they can acquire the capital, to acquire properties to make them available for affordable housing currently and on down the road,” said Jim Gaines, a research analyst with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
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Nick Pipitone covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.
