Community Partners & The Housing Partnership Story

14 Jul Community Partners & The Housing Partnership Story

Thank you for visiting our blog and your interest in what we do. I want to tell you the story of the Housing Partnership, the clients we serve and how vital connecting with other is to our success.

The housing Partnership is a nonprofit whose mission is to strengthen communities by creating lasting and responsible homeownership through education and financial coaching. We have been in existence for over 23 years yet people still don’t know we exist – we seem to be the best kept secret – even though we are changing lives on a daily basis.

We are mission driven and strive to bring people into their first homes and keep them in their homes through the services we offer.  We are a strong organization with a great track record of homeownership with over 1000 families purchasing homes and less than 1 % foreclosures rates. We have a great new staff that lives with a passion for helping their fellow neighbor and making a difference.

As the Executive Director I am so proud of what the organization has accomplished in the last 24 months.  We provide homebuyer education to over 230 families a year and provide one-on-one foreclosure counseling to over 200 families on a year.  The partnership has successfully assisted over 150 families in purchasing their first homes. All of them attended our home buyer education workshops and completed an average of 5 hours of one-on-one financial coaching sessions.  Our foreclosure counselor has worked with over 150 families and is now setting up satellite offices in Sussex County to meet their growing Foreclosure rate! We believe in our mission and go all-out to assist as many people as possible.

But all of our successes would not be possible without our community partners who are all part of the Partnership stories. These partners are our neighbors in the communities of social service, and homeownership. Through them, we are able to make dreams come true and keep roofs over our clients’ heads.  They are our connectors, the ones who tell our story, the Partnership’s mission and make the connection to those that may have never heard of us.

Yesterday we had a client named V come to our office and tell us how excited she is to finally own a home.  V is a single mother of two who has gone through a horrible divorce. She is living with her parents, who have retired want to sell their house where V and her children are residing.  Knowing this V reached out to a realtor to help her buy or rent a home for her family.   However, the realtor realized very quickly V would have a very hard time finding a home she could afford with her part time income.  Luckily, the realtor attended one of the Housing Partnership’s Realtor Banker Breakfasts and referred her to us because she knew we could assist V find a stable home for her family.

Thanks to our partnership with Morris Township, V was just selected for a 3 bedroom income restricted home and should be closing in August.  As she told us her story and how excited her 10 and 7 year olds were to have their own rooms – something they lost after the divorce – I realized the enormous value of our community partners – and the connections we make.

This story really shows how one suggestion from a realtor changed the lives of an entire family.  V and her children can have a place to call their own and her parents can sell their home and finally retire.  How important that suggestion was to the happiness and wellbeing of an entire family! So if you are inspired in any way by this story, I invite you to share what we offer with your clients, friends or even family members. Just a mentioning our name, our website, our Facebook page, it all makes a difference. As we continue to spread the word and tell the Housing Partnership’s story we are making a positive impact on a lot of people! THANK YOU!