Our
History
In 1998,
after a decade of serving the neighborhoods of East Dallas, the
leadership team of Central Dallas Ministries became convinced
that increasing the supply of affordable housing was a necessary part
of its mission. Two main reasons lead toward the creation of our
affordable housing program, Central Dallas Community Development
Corporation (CDCDC) in 2002.
First, the lack of decent, affordable housing made all of Central
Dallas Ministries’ service programs less effective. People who cannot
afford good homes will sacrifice things such as food, medicine and
clothing to pay the rent; this worsens the problems that our programs
are trying to solve.
Second,
Central Dallas Ministries saw an increasing tendency towards economic
segregation in the neighborhoods where we lived and worked. While many
East Dallas neighborhoods are rapidly gentrifying, most South Dallas
neighborhoods remain poor and some are getting poorer.
We believe that all people — especially our low-income
neighbors — do best when they are part of a diverse, vibrant
neighborhood.
