BEAUMONT - By Megan Dillard - A current theme during today's Beaumont City Council meeting was rebuilding and restoring parts of the city.
The council approved a contract to construct a dozen new homes for families who need financial assistance.
A Beaumont non-profit group says projects like these are about more than just building houses.
Dr. Airon Reynolds is the pastor of Borden Chapel Baptist Church in north Beaumont.
He also works with the Helbig Community Development Corporation.
He says his vision of helping others is a part of both roles.
"While I'm praying for people to experience the abundance that Christ has made available, I have to be a part of the answer of that prayer if I'm going to pray it."
Answers he says come in the form of rebuilding a community he loves.
"Helbig used to be a very populated area, but because of the degraded homes and how young people are growing up, they're moving out."
Reynolds says the Helbig CDC is working with the city of Beaumont to bring people back to the north end.
"The monies that were approved by the city of Beaumont today helps us to make those homes affordable for those that are in the low income bracket."
Tuesday afternoon, city council approved a contract with the development group to build a dozen new homes that are affordable for people with low to medium incomes.
"Beaumont is a very old city, it has a very old housing stock and a lot of areas so the idea is to try and identify the houses that need to come down but reconstruct ones that are decent, safe, and affordable. It's how we redevelop the city."
Redevelopment through homes like this one in the 2200 block of Angelina.
Reynolds says the homes are built with quality; features like glass doors, light fixtures, and raised roofs.
"That raises a person's self-esteem, it causes people to come back into our community rather than we lose people because they're going where they can actually get a better way of life."
The group starts construction on this lot off Kingswood Monday and hopes to break ground on the neighboring lot in a couple of weeks.
There are also plans to build more than thirty homes on this seven acres off Maida, including the dozen homes discussed in today's city council meeting.
Reynolds says it's not about building houses, it's about building lives.
"That's our objective. We're going to make the quality of life in the Helbig area, as well as across Beaumont, reasonable for people to live."
For more information on this program, call the Helbig Community Development Corporation at 409-892-2456.
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