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A hub has opened in Houston’s historic Third Ward to combat health and housing disparities. Urban Public Health and Housing On Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2025, Texas Southern University unveiled a new Institute, Urban Public Health and Housing, which resides in the W.R. Banks Child Development Center, according to a news release . The 6,000-square-foot hub will address public health, affordable housing, and community wellness. It was also a focus area for the late Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who secured a $2 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration for the initiative, the Houston Chronicle reports. She wanted Third Ward to be the “example to impoverished communities around the nation.” “It’s a reinvestment in the future of urban public health, housing, and community empowerment,” said Michelle John, Texas Southern’s vice president for research and innovation, according to the outlet. The hub will offer conference and workforce training rooms,...
Former NBA player Alonzo Mourning is paying it forward. Mourning had a solid run in the league, playing for four teams across 16 years and racking $147.5 million in career earnings, according to Spotrac. The Chesapeake, VA, native overcame the odds. He was born to teenage parents and spent a portion of his life in foster care, including being taken in by Fannie Threet, a retired teacher who lived in a middle-class neighborhood, CBN reports. Threet fostered 49 kids in her lifetime and taught him valuable lessons that he now carries today, Mourning said on “The OGs” podcast hosted by former Miami Heat teammates Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller. “She was a very giving person. So, she instilled all of those qualities in me through my tenure with her,” he explained. Today, Mourning, who spent a portion of his playing career with the Miami Heat, is giving back to communities through a $37.4 million affordable housing project called Astoria on 9th in Bradenton, FL. The project was launched...
What used to be a cluster of forgotten lots in the uptown section of Harrisburg, PA, is now a fully realized vision of hope and housing, thanks to NFL veteran and hometown son LeSean “Shady” McCoy. The former Philadelphia Eagles star returned to his old neighborhood not to bask in past glory but to plant seeds for the future, according to PennLive. On North Sixth Street, 41 brand-new affordable housing units now stand where blight once lived, anchored by a community center and a sense of pride that can be felt in the air. JMB Gardens, the $16.7 million project, is named after McCoy’s late grandparents, James and Maryann Branch. At the June 24 ribbon-cutting ceremony, McCoy described the initiative as a response to the conditions he witnessed growing up. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LeSean McCoy (@shadymccoy) “In some of these areas, it was drug-infested. It was abandoned buildings,” he said via WGAL. “Now, the purpose is bringing $17 million affordable housing. So,...
Atlanta, GA, will continue to be a city of opportunity, according to Mayor Andre Dickens. Affordable Housing Dickens assumed his post as mayor in 2022, and since then he has implemented various plans to the benefit of the city, including providing affordable housing. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Atlanta’s first rapid housing initiative launched in January 2024 in south downtown on city-owned property. It featured 40 shipping containers that were turned into private living quarters, with the one room including a bed, bathroom, and kitchenette. The initiative encompasses a city-wide goal to establish 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030, which will benefit the unsheltered, senior citizens, families with children, school teachers, and young adults who are not earning a large salary, and other populations. Already, 11,000 affordable housing units have been built. These efforts have also been supported by a $50 million bond proposed by Dickens in 2024, along with $10 million the...
About 7.4 million Americans who depend on social security benefits through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program will see two payments hit their accounts in May. It’s not extra money, but it is a significant shift to understand. The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) calendar is the reason for the double deposit, with June’s payment arriving early because the first of the month falls on a Sunday. According to USA Today, the first payment is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, and the second will follow on Friday, May 30. Even though two payments will land in the same month, beneficiaries need to know that the second check is an advance for June. Knowing how and why this happens can help millions who rely on social security benefits plan ahead and avoid gaps in their income. Why Two SSI Payments Are Coming In May Every so often, the SSA’s calendar shifts when regular payment dates fall on weekends or holidays. Instead of delaying deposits, the agency sends payments early....
Udonis Haslem understood the power of collaboration as an NBA player, and he is carrying those learning lessons to improve underserved communities. The Miami, FL, native entered the league as a free agent in 2003 and remained with the Miami Heat throughout his 20-year career. He won three national championship rings and would be seen as a well-respected veteran on the team, even leading former players LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh — known as the Big 3— to take pay cuts to keep him on the Miami Heat roster in 2010, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “When I talk about LeBron James and Dwayne Wade and being a part of that process, that’s one thing that I was able to understand, it’s that even though we were friends, we respect people for who they are and what they are. You know what I mean?” Haslem said on the “Black Tech Green Money” podcast. “ And LeBron, Dwyane, they already respect me for who I was and what I was. They were Southeast guys. I was a Miami guy. They were...
An affordable housing project is making its way to Portland, OR’s Black community. The Williams & Russell project is looking to revive the Albina community, an area in North Portland that was once home to many Black families and Black businesses, until they were pushed out, KPTV-12 reports. The soon-to-be revitalized area was expected to make room for an expansion of Legacy Emanuel Hospital in the 1970s , however plans never materialized, KGW-8 mentions. “They came in and they demolished everything with the idea that this would be developed, and it just sat vacant for five decades,” Bryson Davis, president and board chair of Williams & Russell CDC, said per KGW-8. Righting the wrongs of the past, the Williams & Russell project is looking to create more than 100 affordable homes, consisting of townhomes and apartments, on a 1.7 acre lot on the corner of North Russell Street and North Williams Avenue. To be eligible for the apartments, which come in one-to-three bedroom options,...
A program working to “break the cycle of homelessness for good” in the Bay Area of California has launched, and Google is backing its mission. Google.org, the charitable arm of Google, is a funding partner for It All Adds Up (Bay Area Thriving Families Study), a pilot program that is providing 450 families in the Bay Area who have faced homelessness with guaranteed basic income for a year. Each family is given a randomized amount of either $1,000 a month for 12 months or $50 a month for 12 months, according to the program’s website. Its fellow funding partner is J-PAL North America, a regional office of the global research center Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab housed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bay Area families that receive services from Compass Family Services or Hamilton Families and are part of their rental subsidy/rapid re-housing programs qualify for the recurring cash payments as long as they are in the final three months of their housing subsidy....
There is very little pride like the one connected to the neighborhoods people are from. Whether you are from Los Angeles, CA, New York City, or across the waters in Lagos, Nigeria – many people have a unique sense of pride in the deep points of connection that they have with the places they call “home.” While every home is unique, what exists as a universal truth is some of the challenges that tend to exist in those communities. No place is without its share of issues, from disparities in communal resources to the lack of safe and affordable housing. It is at this intersection that Esusu finds its purpose. Esusu is an institution created to help bridge the wealth gap. A core part of the mission is to alleviate barriers families have to access housing. With the belief that “housing is a fundamental right, and we envision a world without delinquency, housing evictions, and ultimately, homelessness,” the organization is actively working with government and community partners to bring...
It’s about time the Black community got the affordable housing and spaces needed for us to grow and flourish! In a new announcement made in a press release, The Woodforest CEI-Boulos Opportunity fund shared the details for its $1.1 million equity investment in the Zero Energy North Avenue Affordable Housing project currently located in the “Black Arts District” within West Baltimore’s Penn North neighborhood. The high-impact commercial real estate Opportunity Zone fund was created by Woodforest National Bank and CEI-Boulos Capital Management to change the narrative when it comes to affordable housing. Thanks to the investment, the project to rehabilitate abandoned, historic townhouses will become the first multifamily, zero energy development in the city of Baltimore. It will also be the first mixed-use, zero energy development in the state of Maryland. “This project is a perfect example of using the OZ incentive and CRA investment to help make the vision community members had for...
Bishop T.D. Jakes has sent a message. According to the Saporta Report, the mega-church pastor’s real estate arm has submitted a reported “master plan” for affordable housing on what was formerly a military base for the Confederacy. In the T.D. Jakes Real Estate Ventures’ “master plan” submission, the affordable housing would be partnered with entertainment districts dedicated to the new communities in Fort McPherson, which is just outside of Atlanta, GA. The five-part plan will provide amenities and other resources that are not currently available in southern Atlanta. In the first part of the plan, the VA hospital and the bungalows surrounding the VA hospital will be updated. That’s followed by the second part of the plan, which is when the single-family subdivision, townhomes, apartment complexes, retail space and a K-8 school along the Campbellton Road corridor will begin construction — in other words, the affordable housing. That will be followed by commercial space, which T.D....
