In Mansfield, the dirt is moving on another new home community.  While that's hardly a reason for surprise in the fast-growing Tarrant County suburb, this one is — wait for it: affordable.

"Affordable homeownership is pretty much an oxymoron," said Gage Yager, the CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity. "It's hard to put those two [words] together. The prices are up so much in Fort Worth. It's over $330,000 for the median-priced home. And it takes over $100,000 salary just to buy a home!"

So it is in this space that Yager has worked for decades to make a difference for working families.

Supporting working families priced out of the market  

"It's the teachers at the schools," said Yager. "The bus driver. It's most of the people that work in our hospitals and care for our elderly. That's the essential workforce. And they're priced out."

Prices are also rising for the nonprofits that work to turn those renters into homeowners. For example, said Yager, the lots that Habit once purchased for $5,000 or so, jumped to more than $60,000 post-COVID.  They were forced to pivot, so now instead of buying "lots", they're buying land and turning it into launchpads.

"The slabs that we're pouring here?" said Yager. "That [foundation] turns into Cape Canaveral. That's a launch pad that stability settles down in. And those families go, 'I have a home. I own the home. I'm not chasing rent specials and moving all the time anymore.' And then they take the next step in their lives, which is really cool."

In Mansfield, the Trinity Habitat development is called Sayers Landing. Eventually, 22 single-family homes will be built in the community. 

Expanding affordable housing across North Texas

The "land" instead of "lots" approach is also leading to new communities in Cleburne and South Fort Worth.

"So we came in thinking it was just a regular interview," said Trinity Habitat for Humanity client Yvonne Thompson, "and we got word we were approved. I cried, my kids started crying. It was special."

Thompson is a working single mother of two. As part of Habitat's "sweat equity" requirement, she's helping to build her neighbors' new homes in South Fort Worth. Construction will begin on hers early next year. She said she'd grown frustrated and wondered if she'd always be a renter.  

"So seeing everyone have homes, it makes me want that, you know? But what am I doing wrong? Because why can't I get there? Why can't I save enough?" said Thompson. "So it's just a great, great feeling that there's hope out there for me."

Hope, education, support and low-interest loans that deliver purchasing power on working-class paychecks.

"If we can work together with love in our heart, with these hardworking families that have the umph to make it happen, because not everybody's got it," said Yager. "But those that do, God bless America, let's find them, put our arms around them and say, 'let's go and put them in a house.'"

"It's just a wonderful feeling," said Thompson. "And I still can't believe that this is true."