Fort Worth demolition crews tore down a Northside house Monday morning to make way for new home construction.
The city's housing development arm spent $600,000 to take over four foreclosed houses and raze them. New houses will be built in their place for low and moderate income families.
"We've had no new housing here for families. Young families, and older families too, want those modern day conveniences. They want to be part of this community," said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price.
A house in the 1400 block of Lee Avenue was the first to be demolished. Fort Worth's Housing Finance Corporation is paying for the new houses that will go up later this fall. The FWHFC will sell the new homes to households earning "at or below 120 percent of the area median income."
Price and other city officials were on hand to watch the demolition of the first house.
Price said with new development popping up in both downtown and the nearby Stockyards, investing in Northside was the right move the for the city.
"New housing is the cornerstone of bringing people back in. They want to live where it's clean, it's nice, it's convenient. This is a fabulous location near downtown and the rest of it," she said. "So to have new housing here is an anchor."
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Price said that the population of Northside has exploded in recent years, especially among Hispanic residents, but there hasn't been new construction to keep pace with the needs of moderate income households.
"This is just the perfect place to put housing in. And it's critically needed here, our Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, and we just haven't added any new housing," she said.
Construction on the new houses will begin this fall.
