Main Street and the METRORail line in Midtown Houston
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Bread of Life opens Knowles-Rowland House, 31 apartments for Houstonians leaving homelessness

ByDana Kowalczyk

Main Street and the METRORail line in Midtown Houston. Photo: WhisperToMe via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

In 1992, Bread of Life had a church sanctuary on the edge of downtown and a hot meal to offer whoever walked in. This fall, the nonprofit founded by Pastors Rudy and Juanita Rasmus handed out apartment keys, named a new leader and started raising money for the next building.

The keys are for the Knowles-Rowland House, a 31-unit permanent supportive housing building at 2019 Crawford St. in Midtown that held its ribbon-cutting Oct. 13. Residents begin moving in Nov. 1.

“In 1992 all we had to offer was a hot meal in the sanctuary, and for a long while that was enough to keep somebody going one more day,” Rudy Rasmus said in the organization’s announcement of the opening. “Today we are handing over keys.”

A building on its third life

The site has history with the Knowles family. The original Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth opened there in 1999 with support from Tina Knowles, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Kelly Rowland and Mathew Knowles, and the family’s ties to St. John’s Downtown, the congregation the Rasmuses started alongside Bread of Life, run deep. For two decades the building served as a youth summer camp, a senior center and an overnight shelter. A fire in March 2021 ended that, and the shell was used to store disaster supplies until redevelopment started in 2023.

The new three-story building has 18,900 square feet and 31 single-room apartments, 16 of them designed for residents with mobility or sensory needs. Every unit is subsidized through HUD’s Project-Based Voucher program, administered by Housing Alliance HTX, and the address is a short walk from METRORail.

The $13.96 million cost was covered by a mix of public and private money, including more than $7 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds steered through Harris County, according to Commissioner Rodney Ellis, plus financing from B1 Bank, the AIC CEI-Boulos Opportunity Fund, Rice Management Company and a Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas grant through Home Bank.

The ceremony drew national attention when Knowles-Carter attended with her daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi, who helped cut the ribbon, as the Houston Business Journal reported. “This church was our foundation. I was baptized right here,” she said.

What residents get besides a lease

Supportive housing works only if the support shows up. On-site services will come from Temenos Community Development Corporation, a sister organization founded after Hurricane Katrina, whose staff will be in the building around the clock. The list includes case management, help enrolling in benefits, mental health counseling, substance use treatment, transportation, life skills training and food.

Madelyn Wages, Temenos’ director of operations, put the difference simply. “A shelter bed asks you to leave in the morning,” she said. “A lease does not, and that one difference is what makes everything else possible.”

Bread of Life’s reach goes well past one building. The organization served 52,491 people in 2025, the Defender reported, through programs in health access, housing and hunger relief, and it also works on disaster preparation, relief and recovery.

A handoff, and a food center

The opening also marked a leadership transition. Claudia Dixon has been named Bread of Life’s next chief executive, succeeding Rudy Rasmus, who has led the organization since its founding. Dixon is also fronting the next project: a campaign called Road to 35, which aims to raise $3.5 million from 3,500 donors by August 2027. The money is for the Rudy and Juanita Rasmus Food Distribution Center, which the organization hopes to open in the winter of 2028.

For Juanita Rasmus, the housing work is personal. “Rudy and I both came from families where our grandparents provided housing for those who would have been unhoused,” she said at the opening, thanking elected officials “for not forgetting the people that could have been me.”

More on the organization’s programs and the Road to 35 campaign is at breadoflifeinc.org.

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