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Paul and Shantequa Ingram know firsthand how hard it can be to become a homeowner in Fort Worth. Like many millennial couples, they’re used to renting apartments while the dream of owning a home remains just out of reach.But on Friday, that dream took one step closer to becoming a reality. Paul, 34, and Shantequa, 32, celebrated the dedication of their soon-to-be new home in the Historic Rosedale Park neighborhood in east Fort Worth. Their home will be the first built as part of Trinity Habitat for Humanity’s Opal Lee 100 Legacy Homes Initiative. Designed to provide “housing and hope” to working families in Fort Worth, the initiative is named after Opal Lee, a civil rights activist widely known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth.” Last summer, Lee celebrated Trinity Habitat for Humanity’s work to build her a house at the site of her childhood home in Fort Worth’s Historic Southside neighborhood. The nonprofit organization is currently on a mission to build 100 affordable houses to expand homeownership opportunities for low-income families across the city. The Ingrams will be the first couple to benefit from the program, after construction on their house concludes later this year. They expect to move into the home by Christmas. Shantequa and Paul, parents to four young children, described the house as a dream come true during a board-cutting ceremony with construction volunteers, Lee and leaders from Trinity Habitat for Humanity and Frost Bank Fort Worth, which funded the roughly $120,000 project. “It’s such a real big blessing when you’re going through life and bills (are) right on your back,” Paul told the crowd. “Nowadays, it’s pretty hard to accomplish those family dreams, having a family … and a house, and making those dreams come true.” He added that he is the first person in his family to own a house. He experienced homelessness early into the couple’s parenthood and slept in his car until the family could afford an apartment, where they have lived for about five years. “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee, left, gifts a children’s book about Juneteenth to Shantequa and Paul Ingram during a Trinity Habitat for Humanity ceremony to celebrate construction of their new home April 25, 2025. (Cecilia Lenzen | Fort Worth Report)Christine Panagopoulos, chief operating officer of Trinity Habitat for Humanity, described the program as a “hand up, not a hand out” to help families like the Ingrams. Beneficiaries must earn less than 80% of the area’s median income, prove their employment and demonstrate that they’re able to afford mortgage payments. They must also complete 200 hours of “sweat equity,” or volunteer work, and take classes on financial literacy, budgeting and responsible homeownership, Panagopoulos said. “This is the beginning of their future,” Ingram said after the ceremony. “It’s no longer about surviving … this is about thriving.” Shantequa said the program helps not only her and Paul find financial stability. It sets their children up for future success and helps ensure they won’t have to experience the housing challenges their parents did. “It means everything because I’ve always wanted something I can leave to my kids,” Shantequa said. “This is what that means. We get to own it, and if anything happens to us, it’s theirs.” “Grandmother of Juneteenth” Opal Lee hands out fliers promoting her annual Walk for Freedom commemorating Juneteenth during a Trinity Habitat for Humanity ceremony April 25, 2025. (Cecilia Lenzen | Fort Worth Report)Lee, a founding member of Trinity Habitat for Humanity’s board of directors, said she’s “delighted” with the organization’s work to empower working families in Fort Worth. “People who work all their lives and never seem to get any farther than the daily, they don’t get an opportunity to save (money),” Lee told the Report after the ceremony. “For Habitat to come in and help them and show them how they can manage it, it’s overwhelming.” This is the second affordable housing development named after Lee that she has celebrated this month. She also commemorated the opening of The Opal, an apartment complex designed to provide workforce housing to Fort Worth’s growing population in the north, earlier in April. Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.