BCL is proud to provide business coaching for 100 long-standing local businesses through the Austin Legacy Business Relief Grant program, supporting art and music venues, restaurants, bars, and theatres that have been in Austin for 20 or more years.

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Ruth and Arnold Guerra were born and raised in Gonzales, Texas, where they have opened hotels, restaurants, and built homes to meet their community’s needs. “We started with nothing,” Ruth said. Now, they have built over 100 homes in their community of 7,000 people.

I visited the Guerras and we drove around the town, as Ruth pointed out both homes she and her husband had worked on, as well as other neighborhoods of older homes in states of disrepair. Gonzales has not had new home construction in a long time. “Big builders are not going to come into this town,” Ruth said. In a previous subdivision, a builder constructed about 5 homes and then left town, the work unfinished. We drove past a 17-home affordable subdivision of 3-bedroom homes the Guerras built in 2009.

Now, they are building Angel Oaks, a 6-home development for median income families, featuring 3-bedroom ranch-style homes with yards. A longtime customer of BCL, having worked with us in the past for an SBA 504 loan, the Guerra family is now working with BCL’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Texas Community Builders for our new pre-development loan product.

The demand for median-priced new housing in Gonzales is apparent, as five of the Angel Oaks homes have already been purchased, just as groundbreaking has barely begun. Most of the buyers are people of color, and all are first-time homeowners. “People are getting out of renting and into their first homes,” Ruth said.

And as with their hotels, their construction business is a family venture. They’ve taught their two daughters skills in construction, management, and project administration. “In the big city, you get a job and you learn one thing,” Ruth said. She said her daughters are now prepared with a wide range of skills to take on all kinds of jobs.

“I’m really glad that Texas Community Builders is investing in small developers,” Ruth said. “I appreciate that they saw that we have projects that will benefit individuals that probably never would have been able to buy a home. Without Texas Community Builders, we would not have been able to do this project.”

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Junior Players, a non-profit that provides underserved kids with the opportunity to shine through summer and after-school arts programs in over 60 locations throughout North Texas, will be celebrating their 60th anniversary next year. In that time they have assisted thousands of children ages 5-18 from low-to-moderate income backgrounds to build their confidence, strengthen their social skills, learn to express themselves creatively, and transform their future.

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Patrick and Adriane Hodges were teachers in Virginia Beach that dabbled in home beer brewing, but it was when they attended a beer fest in 2017 that their lives took a different direction. Patrick saw the brewing setup of one of the craft brewers at the beer fest and noticed it was the same setup he had at his home. “I was using the same brewing setup to give my beer away to friends as this company was using to provide their product to paying customers,” said Patrick, “If they can do it, why can’t I?”

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