Gage Yager hopes to transform a south Fort Worth neighborhood with affordable townhomes now being built near the Medical District.
The CEO of Trinity Habitat for Humanity said Allen Village, a cluster of three-bedroom townhomes, was designed to reinvigorate three streets near JPS Health Network.
Fifteen townhomes are complete at the corner of St. Louis and West Allen avenues, across the street from a JPS parking garage and with a view of downtown Fort Worth. Other townhomes — giving Allen Village a total of 36 — will be built nearby on Galveston Avenue and South Main Street off Allen.
The project is Habitat’s first multifamily-housing development, aimed at moving families into an older neighborhood just south of the hospital. The townhomes are near hospitals, parks, schools and a recreation center east of the Rosemont Area neighborhood.
“South Main is there and so is Magnolia (Avenue) with all the cool restaurants and bars and coffee shops,” Yager said.
Two people completed their townhome purchases on July 31, a spokesperson for Trinity Habitat for Humanity said.
Trinity Habitat for Humanity has 10 North Texas developments in the pipeline for construction, including more than 200 single-family homes in Cleburne, Mansfield and Weatherford. The organization recently purchased 26 acres for new homes in Forest Hill.
“We don’t do much on infill lots anymore the way we did with Hillside and Morningside neighborhoods of east Fort Worth,” said Yager, an Arlington Heights High grad and former real estate agent whose Christian faith led him to Trinity Habitat for Humanity in 1996. “We go wherever we can afford to go and make it happen to the best of our ability.”
Trinity Habitat recently built 143 new homes in the Hillside and Morningside neighborhoods and rehabilitated another 75 structures there. In the Como neighborhood on the west side, 110 new homes were constructed and 98 were rehabbed. Carver Heights East, between Interstate 820 and Lake Arlington, has 50 new homes and 16 rehabbed ones.
Yager said once the organization builds or rehabs homes in blighted neighborhoods, private investors usually follow and continue neighborhood redevelopment with new in-fill homes.
The organization previously purchased lots in east Fort Worth for $5,000 to $10,000 each, but tracts in that area can now run up to $80,000 a piece. The area around the townhome development is ripe for redevelopment, he said.
“It’s an upward socioeconomic diversification within the neighborhood, which is a good thing,” he said.
The Allen Village townhomes are under construction by Trinity Habitat of Humanity just south of JPS Health Network hospital in Fort Worth July 25, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Trinity Habitat-built homes, however, “need to fit within the context of a neighborhood,” Yager said.
“We want to be good neighbors and good citizens in whichever city we’re (building) in,” he said. “We want a product that’s going to have a good tax base to it and build up the neighborhood and help the families and help the surrounding businesses. You want to think holistically and not selfishly.”
And the more families who are homeowners in a neighborhood, the more property values increase and crime decreases in an area, Yager said.
Ownership is based on Trinity Habitat’s criteria that includes homeowner education classes for budgeting and sweat equity involvement, which means the owners help to build their homes. Prices start at about $180,000 to $238,000 for a 1,263-square-foot townhome with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a two-car garage.
One block over on Galveston Avenue, site work has started next to the former location of Chadra Mezza & Grill as well as on South Main Street in the shadow of 100-year-old grain elevators.
The Allen Village townhomes feature two-car garages accessible through a rear alleyway. The complex under construction is just south of JPS Health Network hospital in Fort Worth. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Although Allen Townhomes is Trinity Habitat’s first multifamily complex, that doesn’t mean the organization will stop building single family homes.
“You do what makes sense based on what you buy,” Yager said. “This area lends itself naturally to something that is more dense.”
As Trinity Habitat for Humanity transforms neighborhoods, Yager said he hopes to improve the lives of residents and neighborhoods.
Homeownership, he said, can do that.
“It’s the stabilizing force. It’s the foundation. It’s really a launch pad,” Yager said. “Because it’s home ownership, it’s Cape Canaveral. From that solid foundation they can afford, they blast off into space and thrive.”
Eric E. Garcia is a senior business reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at eric.garcia@fortworthreport.org.
News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Related
Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.
Republish This Story
Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details.