'It's stability for the community': Pocket neighborhood coming soon to North Waco

MCLENNAN COUNTY, Texas — In a couple of years, a plot of land in North Waco is going to look a little different — Grassroots Waco and the city have teamed up to create a Housing Development project.

• A plot of land in between Sanger Avenue, Fort Avenue, 17^th and 18^th Street will be known as Renaissance at Sanger Heights.
• 25 homes will be built over the course of six years — 14 established for low-income families, and 11 will be sold at market rate.
• Decades ago, this neighborhood used to be the home to Sanger Avenue Grade school — they plan to use the remaining bricks from whats left of the school in the porch steps of each home to honor the schools legacy.
• They plan to break ground in September with infrastructure work, and start building homes by summer 2025.

BROADCAST SCRIPT:

“I’ve been here for 22 years, and it’s been a vacant lot since I’ve been here,” Mike Stone said.

But not for long, soon this spot in between Sanger Avenue, Fort Avenue, 17^th and 18^th Street will known as Renaissance at Sanger Heights.

“Here are the carpenter style houses that we have, kind of a cottage-type thing,” he said.

Grassroots Waco has taken on the project from the city — Stone, Executive Director of Grassroots Waco, says it’ll be a set of 25 homes with 14 established for low-income families, and 11 will be sold at market rate.

“People will be able to walk in through the front door or they’ll be able to pull the garage into the back,” he said.

Stone says they’re incorporating ideas from other big cities, like Austin, so this neighborhood might look a little different from yours.

“This green space in the middle will help set it apart — there’s not many interior facing city blocks like this,” he said.

The City of Waco says a portion of the funding comes from the new affordable housing project from the American Rescue Plan Act.

The rest will be loans — the plan is to build a few houses at a time, have them sold, then build more.

“We want everybody to become a homeowner, and home ownership allows for people to have long term wealth — and to share their wealth with their heirs, and it’s stability for the community,” Stone said.