Affordable townhomes set for South Dallas Mill City neighborhood

The first thing that South Dallas resident Latatashia Drake will do when she owns her first home in Mill City is pray.

Shortly after that, she will pinch herself to make sure that it isn’t a dream and cry tears of joy. Drake, who will be a first generation homeowner, wants the solitude, structure and freedom of owning her own home.

“The freedom that I can sit on the porch and I can be me, and just the smell of a new home,” Drake, 46, said.

The Innercity Community Development Corporation, a South Dallas nonprofit, has been working with South Dallas residents like Drake to expand homeownership and is now building eight townhomes off Spring Ave., across from its office in the Mill City neighborhood.

“I’ve always wanted a home,” Drake said. “All my life, I have just been renting and the thing with renting is you never really have your own. And I refuse to keep making a landlord rich.”

Mill City, a neighborhood in South Dallas has seen both blight and development over the last few decades. ICDC, founded by former City Council member Diane Ragsdale in 1986, has built an office with a dental clinic, a Prism Health North Texas’s South Dallas Health Center, and hundreds of single-family homes in South Dallas.

The townhome project was expected to cost $2 million before the pandemic. However, Lane said they have to reassess to take into consideration rising costs. The homes themselves are aimed to cost potential buyers around $200,000.

The multi-story townhomes will be between 1,300 and 1,400 square-feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a garage.

“They look good,” Lane said. “They fit in the existing architecture of the neighborhood. They preserve the history of the neighborhood…We design with quality in mind.”

Lane said the townhomes are a solution they came up with to take advantage of space and increase density.

“We’re trying to be very creative in how we create ownership opportunities, because for us at ICDC, that’s really our goal,” Lane said.

They will be friendly for seniors because the primary bedroom will be on the first floor. Lane said about 40% of the inquiries the corporation is getting about ownership are from people over the age of 55 who have never owned a home.

Drake has been disabled since her college years when she hurt her leg, and now mobility is difficult. Having a home that accommodates her is a priority.

“They make it convenient for me,” she said. “… The houses, they’re accommodating. They don’t discriminate.”

Drake will be the first person in her family to ever own a home, a fact that she is proud of. To her, ownership means that she made it and she can show her son that creating a better life is possible. Drake said that she is ready to own her own home.

“I strive for nothing but the best. And it seems like by me being 46, I’ve been striving a little bit too long,” Drake said.