After seven years of planning and pivoting, a community partnership of builders, developers and elected officials broke ground Monday on a workforce housing project that will bring more than 50 single-family homes to South Dallas’ Mill City.

Nonprofit Urban Specialists and developer Matthews Southwest’s joint venture, Good Urban Development, aims to bring life to the neighborhood, about half of whose lots sit vacant during a time when demand for affordable housing has soared.

“I’m overjoyed,” said project leader Shannon Brown-Key, who announced Monday her new title of president for Good Urban Development. “This was a passion project for me. I’m an apartment dweller. I’ve been waiting for affordable housing for me and my family.”

The Mill City 50 project — in addition to 50 traditional, two-story homes — will bring a community coffee shop, a food delivery station, workspace and a ghost kitchen. Homes will range in size from 1,400 to 2,000 square feet and feature three bedrooms, a one-car garage and individual fenced backyards.

Residents who make between 60% and 120% of the area median income are eligible to buy a home for an estimated $209,000 to $271,000. The first 10 are scheduled to come on the market in early 2024.

Families of four earning $71,200 per year qualify for the homes and a $40,000 drawdown on the home price.

Brown-Key, architect Jeannette Brown-Sneed and builder Stacie Stewart — all women of color — are spearheading the project. Brown-Sneed, the project’s architect with Simply Custom, was the first Black woman to be a project manager for the city of Dallas architect team.

“We definitely want to honor her and give her flowers because she’s done a wonderful job to even be able to push women into the forefront of this male-dominated industry,” Brown-Key said.

Stewart, the CEO of Building With Integrity, is a self-taught builder with more than 20 years of experience in the industry.

The city of Dallas awarded $3 million and Dallas County awarded $2.5 million toward the project. The project’s financial partner, Inwood Bank, has down payment assistance programs for buyers.

Habitat for Humanity sold the land to Good Urban Development and will offer an affordable housing seminar and Mill City 50 housing options to their 400 affordable housing program clients.

Building homes in South Dallas without robust infrastructure and secure financing is tough, said Jack Matthews, president of Matthews Southwest, a joint partner on the project.

But the most critical challenge is making sure current residents of Mill City aren’t victims of gentrification.

“You don’t want to hurt the existing neighbors,” Matthews said. “A $60,000 house becomes a $180,000 house just by building nice housing around it.”

Matthews has tried twice — and nearly succeeded in the last legislative session — in helping pass a bill that would allow certain homeowners’ school district taxes to remain frozen for a period of time, thereby shielding current residents from being priced out of their homes.

“The trick is to bring back the neighborhood and take care of the people that are already here,” Matthews said.

Antong Lucky, president of Urban Specialists, told an animated crowd that this area of what he calls East Dallas is finally getting the attention it deserves after decades of getting left out of investments and conversations.

“We don’t want to gentrify,” Lucky said. “We want to make sure that the legacy residents of this community can stay here, like my mother. We didn’t say let’s build some mega mansions. We say, ‘Let’s build some homes so that the people in this community can stay in this community.’”