Spring Branch to get affordable housing

Nonprofit Women’s Home also plans help for children as well as heath services

As principal of Treasure Forest Elementary School, 7635 Amelia Road in Spring Branch, Blanca Reyes gets an up-close look at the effects poverty has on families.

She estimates that 97 percent of her 634 pupil population come from economically disadvantaged families.

Many of her pupils do not have permanent housing. They often do not have access to food. And, they usually do not have access to after-school care or activities. Their parents, she said, often work two and three jobs, and most cannot afford health care for themselves or their children.

“I have kids that are homeless, and they have temporary arrangements with other families,” Reyes said. “They don’t have consistency and that hinders their education because they aren’t ready to come to learn. When I see them walkin, I don’t care if they are late. I am glad they are here.”

She hopes that a new housing community being built nearby, however, may help many families break free of the poverty cycle many find themselves stuck in.

The Women’s Home, a Houston-based nonprofit, recently broke ground June 4 on an 84-unit apartment complex that will provide affordable

two- and three-bedroom housing for chronically homeless and low-income women and children.

The complex also will have on-site case managers.

The $17 million project is located at 7625 Hammerly Boulevard near Jacquelyn Drive.

Construction could be completed by early fall 2016.

The nonprofit also will soon start construction on a $10 million WholeLife Service Center to provide after-school and summer activities for children. These will be coordinated by the YMCA.

It also will house a health clinic to be managed by Spring Branch Community Health Center as well as adult education and training programs.

The WholeLife center will be within walking distance from the new affordable housing complex, and will be next door to another affordable housing complex The Women’s Home operates for those struggling with addictions.

The Center will not only provide services to women and families living in the affordable housing complexes, it will offer services for the surrounding Spring Branch community.

Providing stable living arrangements and afterschool activities, Reyes said, goes hand-in-hand with the school’s work, which she said is to implement the best teaching practices that could lead to a student closing the education and poverty gap for themselves and their families.

“Our community needs a lift up to break the cycle of poverty,” Reyes said. “Our kids need role models and need people to believe in them.”

According to a study conducted by The Women’s Home in 2013, Hispanics primarily began moving to the Spring Branch area in the 1980s.

Many of the elementary schools in the Spring Branch Independent School District mostly consist of Hispanic pupil populations.

The area is made up of mixed housing options, including high-density apartments.

The part of Spring Branch where The Women’s Home is building the housing complex has a heavy concentration of lower-income apartment buildings.

According to the nonprofit’s study of the neighborhood, the complexes often compete for tenants by offering low move-in costs or a free month’s rent.

And according to school officials, the unintended consequence is high rates of pupil mobility.

Add to that a shortage of affordable housing throughout Houston and the only option many women and families have is homelessness.

The Houston area is estimated to have one of the highest numbers of homeless nationwide, according to The Women’s Home.

And when it comes to being homeless in the United States, families make up roughly 1/3 of that population. A majority of them, said The Women’s Home, are single women, many of whom are mothers with a history of domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse.

Paula Paust, executive director of The Women’s Home, said the complex will provide women and their families with a fresh start.

“We as a community have decided we are not going to turn our backs on those who are most vulnerable and will help these women build more complete lives for themselves and their children,” Paust said.

The Women’s Home has been working to provide women access to housing as well as emotional, financial, physical, social, spiritual and vocational programs since 1957.

The nonprofit operates an addiction treatment and transitional housing program.

It also owns Jane Cizik Garden Place, an 87-unit permanent housing complex offering clients assistance with addiction, mental illness, past abuse and job skill training. The complex is located near the site of the housing complex under construction.

Cathy Bradley, 45, has lived at Jane Cizik Garden Place for almost five years.

A recovering drug addict, she said The Women’s Home changed her life. She has been sober for nine years.

Since graduating the nonprofit’s 18-month addiction treatment center, Bradley obtained her cosmetology license, received a teaching position and qualified for a one-bedroom home at Jane Cizik Garden Place, and joined a local church. Most important to her, Bradley said her ex-husband also now permits their two children to spend the night with her on a monthly basis.

“I’m feeling an independence I’ve never felt before, an empowerment,” Bradley said. “I’m holding my head up high.”

She won’t live at the new complex The Women’s Home is building, however, Bradley said she knows how important access to affordable housing and programs the WholeLife Service Center will provide are to people.

“Being in a community setting like Jane Cizik Garden Place, you find that so many people are willing to help guide us women through this process of taking care of ourselves, getting checkups and the consistency of self-care,” she said. “This new housing and WholeLife center is really important and it blows me away that The Women’s Home will have that to offer.”