From CEO to minister: A call to help is changing women\u2019s lives at a Plano shelter<\/a><\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
These \u201cwraparound services\u201d will launch fully in the fall, Collinsworth said, although residents are already working with on-site case managers.<\/p>\n
Collinsworth said the model ensures communities welcome residents across the workforce to live in the cities they serve\u00a0\u2014 from teachers to firefighters and police officers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven with the economic vitality of our area, we still have people that are hurting and in need of services,\u201d said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, who has applauded Collinsworth\u2019s work. \u201cIt\u2019s even more necessary now, as we continue to grow in population.\u201d<\/p>\n
The median rent in Texas is around $1,400, and it\u2019s more than $1,860 in Collin County, according to 2023 U.S. Census data. That year, nearly 40% of residents in the county put more than a third of their income toward rent.<\/p>\n
![\"Jericho]()
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Jericho Village, an affordable housing project, celebrated their grand opening, in Wylie, Texas, Thursday, June 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Housing costs have increased steadily. In 2021, the median rent in the county was around $1,560, and in 2016, it was roughly $1,250.<\/p>\n
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The village doesn\u2019t just provide housing that\u2019s affordable but seeks to offer a solution for a \u201csevere lack of attainable housing,\u201d Collinsworth said, by giving applicants a second chance; whereas at other properties, past evictions and other barriers in background checks can make it hard to find a place to live.<\/p>\n
\u201cAffordability is not the only thing that keeps some of our community from being able to rent,\u201d Collinsworth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The project is an initiative of Agape Resource & Assistance Center, the Plano nonprofit Collinsworth founded to help women, moms and their children facing situational homelessness. Several families from Agape\u2019s program are expected to live in or have already moved into Jericho Village.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When giving tours of the village, Collinsworth says she often hears remarks like \u201cI never would have expected anything like this,\u201d or \u201cThis doesn\u2019t look like affordable housing.\u201d The goal, she said, was a dignified, comfortable place residents could be proud of.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"President]()
<\/p>\n
President and CEO Janet\u00a0Collinsworth speaks at Jericho Village, an affordable housing project, as they celebrated their grand opening, in Wylie, Texas, Thursday, June 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Anja Schlein\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
The seven years and millions of dollars in funding the project took are all worth it to see families find a new home, she said. Hundreds of guests celebrated the opening with tours, food trucks, face painting and a ribbon-cutting at the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cThese last couple of weeks have really been affirming and very emotional as we watch our villagers move in and just see all the smiles,\u201d Collinsworth said. \u201cThis is why we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The faith-based project has been applauded by officials like U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner and U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney. Local leaders such as Wylie Mayor Mattew Porter have also supported the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Related: How\u00a0Wylie is addressing Collin County\u2019s affordable housing crisis<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cJericho Village opens the doors for so many, providing sustainable, wraparound support for individuals and our entire community,\u201d Porter said in a statement. \u201cWe are excited to welcome Jericho Village and its residents to Wylie.\u201d<\/p>\n
The community has been happy to help throughout the process and during residents\u2019 move-in. When some residents arrived without furniture, community partners helped furnish their new homes, Collinsworth said. The wooden beams of the property were prayed over, and messages of hope and encouragement are written under the fresh coats of paint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Collinsworth hopes the model, and its commitment to stabilizing families and making housing attainable, is duplicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJericho should not be the one and only,\u201d she said. \u201cWe should have multiple Jericho Villages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Email\u00a0tips on all things Collin County to lilly.kersh@dallasnews.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keoni Hudson poses for a portrait inside her kitchen in Jericho Village, an affordable housing project, in Wylie,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161,95358,89145,88338,124926,90037,100098],"class_list":["post-350629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-tp-homelessness","tag-tp-affordable-housing","tag-tp-collin-county","tag-tp-domestic-violence","tag-tp-residential-real-estate","tag-tp-wylie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}