However, the single mother said it is hard to not look into the future.
“Affordable housing—there is no such thing,” Brown said. “I’m already scared about what I’m going to do when I leave here. I know Grace will have my back, but it is still scary. As a single parent, you throw in day care costs, food and rent costs; you don’t know what you are going to do.”
Grace along with the Grapevine Housing Authority are two entities that help lower-income families find a way to stay in the community. However, there are limitations, officials said.
The Grapevine Housing Authority participates in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s public housing program. It operates 98 housing units built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and is independent from the city of Grapevine. There are no HUD housing projects in Colleyville or Southlake.
On Jan. 13, 2022, the housing authority opened its waiting list to individuals and families in need of housing. On Jan. 15, only 36 hours after opening, the housing authority’s Executive Director Jane Everett said the group received over 4,000 applications. There are no plans to reopen the list, she said, and there are only a few openings throughout a year.
There are only 98 total apartments eligible for low-income housing. That number will not change due to a federal law created in 1998 that halted construction of public housing stock in 1999.
“There needs to be more affordable housing,” Everett said. “There needs to be more of that [government assistance] out there to help these people.”
The need for housing and rental assistance is not only in Grapevine. The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition reported from Jan. 1-May 31, there was a 14% increase in homelessness.
Helping hand
The Grapevine Housing Authority manages one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. Within those units, the authority has elderly and disabled units as well as handicap units.
HUD determines eligibility for low-income housing by assessing median income of a specific area, she said. The HUD metropolitan area of Fort Worth and Arlington that covers Tarrant County has a median family income of $97,700, according to HUD data. A family of four must make $29,200 or less to be “very low income,” and $48,700 to be “low income” to meet HUD requirements.
For a housing authority home, Everett said no more than 30% of income—whether it be from social security, disability or wages—is put toward rent. Capping rent gives families disposable income to put toward utilities, food, clothing and other necessities, she said.
“The whole point is we’re trying to help low-income folks,” Everett said. “We really are trying to find those folks that are below the mark that need the help.”
Grace Interim Executive Director Stacy Pacholick said it is less costly in the long run to make sure families don’t become homeless. She said the need for housing assistance outweighs the resources the nonprofit has. Fewer agencies offer rental assistance now in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
During fiscal year 2021-22, Grace provided rental assistance to 366 households, according to the nonprofit.
Grace Transitional Housing Manager Martisha Smith said the average pay for many of the families who need help is between $14-$17 per hour.
“Affordable housing in Grapevine is a big problem for many,” Smith said.
Knowing the need
For now, Grace’s housing will give Brown a chance to get back on her feet financially, she said.
Homelessness was avoided by getting into a program in Colleyville, which gave her a place to stay while pregnant. That turned into Grace helping out, and getting Brown and her son, who is now 6 months old, into a stable living situation.
Brown said she loves living in Grapevine and hopes she is able to find a place in the city when her two years of transitional housing is up.
“It’s a good community to raise your kid, but it’s just almost too expensive to do that,” she said.
The high price of rent concerns Grapevine City Council Member Duff O’Dell who has been a Grace volunteer since 1985 and is the council liaison for the Housing Authority Advisory Board. With Grapevine’s status as a hospitality town, she is worried service employees who only make minimum wage are not able to live in the city.
“If [employees] don’t have a way to get to work and they don’t have a place to live that they can afford, they have to move somewhere else,” O’Dell said. “At some point we’re going to have to go, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t have enough workers.’ ... That continues to be a concern because affordable housing is just not as prevalent as it used to be.”
O’Dell said she hears from seniors that they’re going to be homeless and don’t know what to do because rent is so expensive. In one instance, a senior who moved into a housing unit was happy to finally have a place to live and still be able to afford food and her medication.
“Thank goodness for Grace and other entities like Grace to fill in the gaps with food and some other things, but it is just getting tougher and tougher,” O’Dell said.
Grace relies on help from the community to provide funding for the transitional housing program. Financial contributions are an option as well as the donation station and resale stores in Grapevine and Euless, which provide a third of the annual budget for the program at Grace, according to Pacholick.
“Another way to help is close to our hearts—volunteers,” Smith said. “Most of our programs rely on the generous people power provided by our local individuals and group volunteers.”
