{"id":472884,"date":"2026-10-22T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472884\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T02:08:11","slug":"dallas-community-revitalization-joppa-residents-celebrate-habitat-for-humanitys-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472884\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Community Revitalization: Joppa residents celebrate Habitat for Humanity&#8217;s impact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Gloria Williams found joy in seeing her hard work grow. She showed WFAA her garden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;All of this is from Joppa Momma&#8217;s Farm. That&#8217;s ginger,&#8221; said Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Twenty-one years ago, she was uprooted from her home in New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Look out the window with the flashlight, and all you can see is the water, the light on the water waving,&#8221; said Williams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hurricane Katrina forced Williams to come to Dallas. After the storm, her family went back home, but she stayed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;One day, I opened a newspaper, and it was an ad in the paper Habitat Homes. So, I applied, and here I am,&#8221; said Williams. &#8220;It was rural when I first got here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">For the past 19 years, she&#8217;s lived in Joppa in a home built by the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/dallasareahabitat.org\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.<\/a> The historic Joppa neighborhood is a Freedman&#8217;s Town located in southeast Dallas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We were able to be here and make it without anyone,&#8221; said Williams. &#8220;Habitat has made our life easy and we appreciate it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Over the past two decades, they&#8217;ve built over 150 homes in Joppa.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s been a major change since I&#8217;ve been here in five years,&#8221; said Edward Boyd, Kingdom Builders Church Senior Pastor. &#8220;You&#8217;re kind of seeing the community come alive\u2026 So, rebuilding the images really helps change the morale in the community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Each day this week, Habitat for Humanity has been returning to the homes built to provide repairs and to repaint.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Once upon a time like this, it you know, we were forgotten. But to be resurrected like the Lord. Amen. You know, it&#8217;s just a blessing,&#8221; said Boyd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It&#8217;s a blessing that keeps giving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;A whole bunch of people now can afford a home,&#8221; said Williams. &#8220;It makes you want to help others and do the same thing and that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s about. I&#8217;m glad that you were here to help us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rock the Block ends on Saturday with a Block Party for the entire community. It takes place at South Central Park in Joppa from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gloria Williams found joy in seeing her hard work grow. She showed WFAA her garden. &#8220;All of this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-472884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472884","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=472884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}