Partner Partner Content CDC of Tampa helps reach Amercian dream of homeownership

Jacqueline Knoxx dreamed of owning a home, but thought that’s all it would be – a dream that doesn’t come true. 

The prospect seemed hopeless a few years back. Knoxx was a single mom who lost her job and then her apartment. She and her children were temporarily homeless. Today, Jacqueline and her husband have a home – a new three-bedroom, two-bath house they own in a revitalizing East Tampa neighborhood. 

“It feels beautiful to own a piece of America,” Knoxx says.

To make her dream of homeownership reality, she completed housing counseling with the Housing & Education Alliance, and that organization referred her to the Corporation to Develop Communities of Tampa (CDC of Tampa), which has been developing affordable housing options for 25 years. Through CDC of Tampa, she was able to purchase a newly-built home high-end finishes.

“The CDC was not just another agency,” Knoxx says. “I call it a lighthouse, a lighthouse in the community that guided me to reach and accomplish something I thought would never be. It became family for me. I still have an ongoing relationship with the people there who helped me through this process.”

As a first-time homeowner, she’s taking classes through CDC of Tampa’s Home Buyer Club, learning about maintenance,  home insurance, property taxes, budgeting, and building generational wealth through estate planning. Now, Knoxx and her husband are putting money away in their savings instead of living paycheck to paycheck. 

“With the assistance the CDC provided, I’m doing better as a homeowner than I was as a renter,” she says. 

Grateful for the help, Knoxx is paying it forward. She helped arrange for the CDC of Tampa to offer Saturday sessions of its free Home Matters classes at her church, Ministry of Spirit and Truth International. Those classes meet the needs and schedules of working families who can’t make classes during the week, she says.

Growing community need

The CDC of Tampa has been developing affordable housing for more than 30 years as part of its mission to provide community members opportunities to build successful futures and to revitalize East Tampa. The community nonprofit has built apartments, single-family homes, and, more recently, townhomes, to help stabilize and improve lives.

The need for affordable and attainable housing spiked in the early 2020s as the Tampa Bay region’s COVID-era population boom drove up home prices and rents. The 2026 Regional Competitiveness Report, an annual comparison of Tampa Bay to 19 peer metropolitan areas in 60 economic and quality-of-life measures, shows some improvement. But Bay Area households are still spending an average of nearly 39.7 percent of their income on housing costs and more than 53.3 percent on combined transportation and housing costs. That places Tampa Bay area near the bottom of the rankings for those measures of affordability, according to the annual report that the Tampa Bay Partnership puts out in conjunction with Community Foundation Tampa and United Way Suncoast.   

“It’s so difficult right now,” says CDC of Tampa President and CEO Ernest Coney Jr. “In Tampa, the median sales price is seven times the household income. It used to be three times. That was the measurement we used. When you talk about affordability, so many household incomes are getting further and further away from being able to afford the American dream. That’s why we wanted to step in and create products that average, everyday working people can afford.”

Meeting the need

The CDC of Tampa has responded to the growing community need with a wave of affordable and attainable housing construction. On a weekday afternoon in February, Vice President of Real Estate Development Vanessa B. McCleary gives an impromptu driving tour of recently completed and ongoing residential development projects in East Tampa. 

There’s the just-finished Gardens at Diana Point North, a community of 24 three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom, nearly 1,750-square-foot townhouses.  It was originally planned as rental townhomes like the neighboring first phase of Gardens at Diana Point. Then the residents in that complex started inquiring about purchasing their units. CDC of Tampa’s financing agreement for the property didn’t allow it. But McCleary says they changed plans and made phase two CDC of Tampa’s first community of townhomes for purchase. Creating homeownership opportunities creates opportunities to build “generational wealth,” McCleary says. 

The townhomes have two walk-in closets in the master bedroom, stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and, soft-close wood cabinets.  McCleary says they offer the opportunity to own a  luxury townhome at an unbelievable price. They are for sale at $325,000 to buyers whose household earnings are 80 percent or less of the area median income. 

“Those are working families, teachers, nurses, starting firefighters and police,” McCleary says. “This is attainable housing Tampa’s workforce  can afford.”

Buyers will receive $50,000 in down payment assistance from the CDC of Tampa, making the effective price $275,000. There’s the possibility of securing an additional $25,000 through state funding, and many lenders also offer assistance.  It’s a great location for families, McCleary says, next to an elementary school and two parks, and near the Boys & Girls Club. 

On a lot in a nearby residential neighborhood, CDC of Tampa is using emerging technology and construction techniques to build the Tampa Bay area’s first 3D-printed home at 4426 Lurline Circle. At the construction site, Acquisitions and Special Projects Manager Will Crawford explains the process.

“Really, it’s pretty similar to regular construction,” he says. “The only difference, especially with what we’re doing, is that we’re printing the exterior walls layer by layer instead of doing block. We’re going layer by layer, section by section, and everything meets Florida building codes.”

Crawford says the 3D printer also offers an additional workforce development opportunity for students in CDC of Tampa’s construction training program. He says he’s putting together a curriculum. 

During construction, the benefits of the 3D printer come through reduced labor costs. There’s a three-person crew at the 3D-printed home site and a 10-person crew putting up block walls at a home under construction in Knoll Pine Way, an affordable housing community of 18 single-family homes that the CDC of Tampa is developing nearby. Four of those homes will also be built with a 3D printer. Construction activity on the traditional block homes is going full-bore. Like Gardens at Diana Point, the community of Knoll Pine is for buyers with household earnings at or below 80 percent of the area median income.

“Our true heart and passion is homeownership,” Coney says. “When you think about the ability to have assets or wealth, it’s usually one of two ways – either own your home or own your own business.”

Crucial funding, looking ahead

McCleary says Hillsborough County government has provided crucial funding for these affordable housing projects. The County Commission used money from its allotment of federal affordable housing funds to provide a  $4.2 million grant for Gardens at Diana Point North and a $500,000 grant for the purchase of the 3D construction printer.  

The county donated land valued at $1.2 million for Knoll Pine and contributed $2.4 million in funding. Looking ahead, CDC of Tampa has a county grant for an affordable housing project in the East Orient area that’s in pre-development. The organization will also develop Heroes Landing, a small 16-home subdivision for disabled veterans in Seffner. 

For more information, go to CDC of Tampa housing