Invested in the neighborhood
Society 23 is latest of Black-led real estate projects aimed at affordability, inequities
The light was beginning to turn golden over a field in Acres Homes as a circle of people began to form. Children, parents and grandparents linked hands. A woman in a red shirt with the number 23 emblazoned across the front began with a prayer.
“Because of You, our investors are able to invest in projects that will redevelop communities and provide quality affordable housing opportunities,” said Matasha Laquinn. “We ask You to bless the land we’re standing on, as well as the other project lots and future project sites.”
LaQuinn, recently named one of the Houston Black Real Estate Association’s top agents, is embarking on a new project — an investment club called Society 23. The club aims to help everyday people invest in real estate, especially in historically Black neighborhoods.
With Society 23, LaQuinn joins a small but growing number of Black entrepreneurs looking to create ways for minorities to have a say in how gentrifying neighborhoods are developed — and to build generational wealth while doing so. In Fifth Ward, developer Christopher Senegal is using crowdfunding to take on projects including the purchase of 18 homes with the promise to keep rents from rising. In Third Ward, the real estate broker Jason T. Hyman has created the DT3M Fund, short for Do the Things That Matter, in which small investors can put money into building duplexes, single-family homes and retail in the neighborhood.
Kevin Riles, interim director of Prairie View A&M University’s master’s program in community development, said he’s seen an increasing the number of such groups, which he broadly refers to as the buy-the-block movement. Buy the Block is
the name of a Black-owned crowdfunding platform used by entrepreneurs, often Black real estate developers, to raise money from small investors in exchange for ownership stakes.
“The assassination and murder of George Floyd has caused African Americans to look at a lot of things,” he said. “Obviously police brutality. Obviously inequity. And in inequity, people consider economic justice a part of social justice.”
The wealth gap between white and Black families has remained stubbornly constant throughout the decades. Wealth encompasses more than just income; it includes homes, businesses, stock holdings and other assets that can be passed down to generations to give them a head start.
For example, students from wealthy families need to borrow less to pay for college, meaning they are able to save for homes and retirement sooner than those burdened with student loan payments. Wealthier parents can also help children get started building their own assets; about one-third of firsttime homebuyers get help with down payments from family and friends, according to the National Association of Realtors.
For every $100 dollars of wealth a typical white family owns, a Black family only has $10, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Riles said buy-the-block groups offer a way to address historical barriers faced by the Black community to accumulating wealth, including redlining and subprime loans that have eroded opportunities for homeownership, one of the principal ways families build assets. “These funds you see popping up are attempts to correct the record,” he said.
Society 23 started when LaQuinn was helping a veteran find a home in Houston in April of 2020. Aaron Michael wanted to buy a duplex in Sunnyside so that he could live in and rent out a property at the same time. That, he figured, would help him build wealth — he could use the rent to help cover his mortgage, and put the money he saved as a result into other real estate investments with the help of Society 23. He also believed the endeavor could set an example for others in his family to build wealth through similar investments .
“Probably everyone I know — we haven’t come from generational wealth,” Michael said. “I see myself as a pioneer… If I step out (and succeed with real estate investments), I can be a clear-cut example.”
But LaQuinn and Michael were having difficulty finding a duplex in good condition within his price range. “That’s when the lightbulb went off,” LaQuinn said.
She asked Michael what he’d think about building a duplex instead of purchasing an existing one, and when she found out he was onboard, she reached out to friends about starting an investment club for the funds to construct one. The duplex, which is almost complete, is under contract with Michael for $320,000.
Society 23 was born, the word “society” referring to a group of people working for a common purpose and the number “23” borrowed from the Bible’s Psalm 23. LaQuinn said she found the famous psalm, which begins “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” comforting as she and her investors took on the risks of new developments.
Members of the investment club can contribute funds toward the construction of a particular project. Upon the project’s sale, profits are distributed proportionally among the investors. The minimum investment is $1,000. So far, the club’s 55 investors have raised $462,000.
Society 23 partners local chapters of the prestigious Black sororities Delta Sigma Theta and Alpha Kappa Alpha to offer classes about investing. Society 23 also partners with sponsors to offer $1,200 scholarships for people pursuing their real estate licenses and grants for first-time homebuyers who need help covering down payments and closing costs.
“The mission is to teach minorities how to build wealth,” LaQuinn said. “Not only how, but really the importance of building wealth and preserving our communities.”
Before choosing to invest in commercial real estate, said Riles, the A&M expert, people should find an expert who can determine whether the financial figures make sense. At the very least, he recommended, speak with a commercial real estate professional who is familiar with investment brokerage and not involved in the project.
Society 23 works to redevelop communities by taking on projects LaQuinn believes neighborhoods need. Its second project, in Acres Homes, is building 29 homes Society 23 plans to sell for $250,000 to $265,000 a piece — a price LaQuinn says would be affordable to first-time homebuyers participating in the city’s Homebuyer Assistance Program. The program provides up to $30,000 in down payment assistance to low-income households. The median home sales price in the Houston region is $310,000.
Society 23 investors and construction loans are financing the project, estimated to be worth about $8 million. The first homes are projected to be ready for move-in this February.
Shad Bogany, an agent with Better Homes and Gardens, recommends that new investors look into a group’s track record — particularly if they’re driven to invest by the ideal of improving the community. Private investment, he said, is only a piece of the puzzle.
“It will take a complete effort — government and funds and private investors and strong schools — to turn a community around,” he said.
But LaQuinn believed she had to start somewhere. “You do have professionals and different people who want to live here,” she said of the project in Acres Homes, “but they don’t have quality properties to choose from.”
On a recent Thursday, she went out to help prepare the development site for Society 23 to bless with a prayer circle. Dragonflies circled overhead and butterflies flitted among the grasses. LaQuinn’s grandmother, Jackie Cooper, had also come to see the site. Cooper has been recognized for her contributions to minority access to the real estate industry, having fought in the 1990s for Black real estate agents in Houston to have access to the business of large corporations, such as the government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which hire real estate agents to sell foreclosed homes.
“I think it’s super,” Cooper said as she looked out at the land from the car. “It’s important because it lets smaller investors invest in projects they normally couldn’t invest in.”