The economy remains among the top concerns for Americans. As a result, the Trump administration and lawmakers from both parties are competing to show voters how their side is helping address the affordability issue. CBN News traveled to Texas to meet HUD Secretary Scott Turner and visit a faith-based transitional housing development.
Jericho Village is a new housing community in Wylie, Texas. It got its start when Reverend Janet Collinsworth saw a huge need for providing housing and transitional services to single women, moms and their children.
She explains, “When our women come to us. One of our biggest deficits is that they don’t have a support system, They don’t have social capital. If they did, they would be with their families. And so, in that, we designed Jericho intentionally to build community.”
Collinsworth’s vision for helping homeless women started 13 years ago when she saw so many women and children living in poverty in one of the richest counties in Texas. That’s when God called her to leave her successful career as a forensic auditor to minister to people in need. That led to the development of the Agape Resource & Assistance Center in Plano, and now Jericho Village. Each community provides transitional housing and wraparound services, offering innovative solutions to homelessness and homelessness prevention.
LaTosha Splane is the Project Manager for Jericho Village. She is there to help empower every woman through a whole person approach: mind, body, and soul.
Splane says, “We have empowerment services also for budget, for financial coaching, health and wellness. We have counseling as a part of that. And really the most important piece of all of this is our workforce development. It helps them get the skills that they need, whether going to college or a certified vocational path.”
Collinsworth adds, “We’ve had Jeremiah 29:11 as our north star. Well, 90 percent of our women are abuse survivors and trafficking survivors. We focus on helping them to not look back but to look forward.”
The program helps moms like Caroline, a graduate from Agape, turn their lives around.
“My story starts, unfortunately, with addiction. At the tail end of my active addiction, I got pregnant with my son, Henry; had a CPS case straight out of the hospital. It was definitely the lowest point and the hardest time in my life. When I came to Agape, it was the support that was missing in my life. Janet and everybody here just came with the resources. They gave me solutions,” she says.
Agape and Jericho Village captured the attention of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner. He wants HUD to partner with faith organizations to establish Opportunity Zones. There are 350,000 faith-based organizations in America. Turner is calling all of them to action, including churches.
“A lot of times, churches have a large plot of land, and sometimes they don’t know what to do with the land. And so, we want to partner with our faith-based entities, in particular churches, and say, ‘Hey, how can we utilize this to be a blessing in our community?’ In particular, in an Opportunity Zone,” says Turner.
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He acknowledges there is a lot of work to do. He is confident that Opportunity Zones are a great platform for building better and stronger communities. But, he explains, “It’s all hands on deck. You need private sector, you need public sector, you need community partners; we need faith-based communities as we see here with Agape and Jericho Village.”
The Mayor of Wylie, Matthew Porter, believes this is an example of faith in action. “We are called to take care of the least of those who are the least among us. When you’re blessed with the position like I have, and I feel I was called to it, and a project like this, to bring it into Wylie, opens the door to so many people who are in need, but it does so in a way that it’s sustainable and it’s uplifting for those individuals and for the community.”
And Caroline is a real-life example of how the empowerment services of Agape and Jericho are working. “I now have a career. I got married. We bought a house, so we’re homeowners now. I never thought, in my wildest dreams, that would happen,” she says.
It’s why Agape and Jericho Village are staying focused on Jeremiah 29:11, which states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
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