Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland came home to Houston on Tuesday — not for a concert, but to help hand people a new start. The Destiny’s Child sisters joined Tina Knowles at St. John’s Downtown for the ribbon cutting of the Knowles-Rowland House, a 31-unit permanent supportive housing development in Midtown for people exiting chronic homelessness.
The project, nearly $14 million in total, transforms the former Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth at 2019 Crawford Street. Blue Ivy Carter and Rumi Carter helped cut the ribbon alongside their mom, making it three generations of the family on hand for the moment.
This ground is personal. The original center was built in 1999, funded from Destiny’s Child’s earliest success, and for more than two decades it served Houston as a youth summer camp, a senior community center, and an overnight shelter for people experiencing homelessness. Hurricane Harvey damaged the building in 2017, and a fire in March 2021 ended that chapter. Redevelopment began in 2023, led by Bread of Life, Inc., the nonprofit arm of St. John’s Downtown — the same church where Beyoncé was baptized. “This church was our foundation,” she said during the ceremony.
The new three-story building includes 16 units designed for residents with mobility or sensory impairments. Through Temenos Community Development Corporation, residents will have on-site access to case management, mental health counseling, substance use treatment, life skills training, and nutrition assistance — the kind of wrap-around support that turns an apartment into a stable home.
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