FORUM DRONE: Tabernacle CDC’s Transformational Hebert Street Homes

Date Posted: July 2, 2024

Posted In: Discussion, Drone, Projects,

This week Forum drone pilot Louis Kelly of Drone Eagle LLC shows recently completed homes and others under construction in the Hebert Homes project.

Hebert Homes is transforming the 3600 and 3700 blocks of Hebert Street in the City’s JeffVanderLou neighborhood.

It is a project of Tabernacle Community Development. Tabernacle CDC is a faith-based non-profit which provides wraparound health, financial, mental health, legal and other services to the area’s residence from its headquarters at 3801 Ashland,  two blocks from the Hebert Street site.

The current project includes 15 newly constructed homes and 11 rehabs mostly concentrated on the 3600 block of Hebert Street. Work began in April of 2023 and the first homes are now coming online.

“This is the culmination of six years of hard work of building, planning,” Pastor Andre Alexander, president of the development corporation, said at the time of groundbreaking.

Pastor Alexander began his working career as an electrical engineer and construction project manager. He holds a bachelors in engineering and math from University of Missouri — Columbia, an MBA from Webster University and a Masters of Theological Studies from Covenant. He counseled youth and veterans prior to founding Covenant in 2014.

The Hebert Street development is estimated to benefit a little more than 100 people once completed. The three bedroom, two-and-a-half bath homes, which cost about $300K to build, are being subsidized by ARPA funds, tax credits, and private donations to sell in the range of $160K. Tabernacle is also rehabbing homes in the area for sale.

Twenty-two of the new homes will be designated for families who are ready to buy a home and make below 80% of the area median income, $75,900 for a family of four. Alexander said they’ll be open for anyone who’s ready to move into homeownership in the neighborhood.