A year of transformation, a year of growth,
a year of connecting more closely with the communities we serve.

Dear Friends,

2017 was a transformational year for us at NeighborWorks Home Partners. We launched noteworthy new programs. We welcomed great new staff on board. We helped hundreds of families buy, fix and keep their homes. (And we got a new home too!)

A hallmark of the year was the launch of new initiatives to help expand and support homeownership in the Twin Cities. We expanded our down payment program with the introduction of Project Reinvest, making down payment assistance available to more homebuyers.  Our Homeownership Readiness financial capabilities program helps families get started on their homeownership journey by focusing on credit and mortgage readiness. And we expanded our partnerships, working in conjunction with several organizations to provide community lending and single family housing development programs in North Minneapolis.

The end result of this work was our most impactful year in our almost 40 year history.  In the last year alone, we helped 371 families achieve their dream of buying a home – more than 1 a day. We also helped 54 families maintain their current housing – more than 1 a week. Overall, our work resulted in over $65,000,000 of direct investment into the community. Not bad for a staff of 16.

Oh, and as I mentioned – we moved into a new home of our own this year.  In 2017, we combined our two St. Paul locations into one, expanding our services at our Frogtown location in the heart of St. Paul, just two blocks from a Green Line stop. We now also staff an office in North Minneapolis. While we have always been available to help homebuyers throughout the Twin Cities, we now offer more choices to meet customer needs on both sides of the Mississippi.

Quite a year, indeed. None of this would have been possible without the support from our partners, funders, neighbors, friends and all of you!  Thank you!

Jason Peterson
Chief Executive Officer

Tamara Johnson is a woman with a story to tell.  And you can tell from the light in her eyes, and the smile that blooms across her face, that the story you’re about to hear is a fairy tale.  It has all the elements: an innocent beginning, true love, bravery in the face of a threatening villain, and, of course, the happily ever after.

Tamara and Richard grew up in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, and their lives were intertwined from the beginning.  As toddlers, they both attended the same daycare at Univac, where their mothers worked, but they were too young to have memories of it. Later, when Tamara was a tween, she was riding in a car and saw Richard on the street. She told her aunt, “I’m going to marry that boy!”   And she was right.

The young couple purchased a home in the neighborhood and made it all theirs.  It was a place to raise their family and invite friends and neighbors for birthday parties and barbecues.  They welcomed three sons, and later a daughter through foster care and adoption. The home was open to all.

Richard, a carpenter, had a knack for major home improvements that were sometimes a surprise to his wife.  She came home one day to find the floor missing in the kitchen, where he was re-routing the basement staircase to change the traffic flow on the first level. These were no ordinary DIYs!

Life seemed idyllic until one morning when the Johnsons discovered graffiti on the side of their family van. When the police came to take a look, the officer nodded toward their growing boys and said that gang members in the neighborhood were probably targeting them, possibly for recruitment.  This changed everything.

Within weeks, the Johnsons had packed up their belongings and left their beloved neighborhood, moving to an apartment in the suburbs where they prayed that their boys would be out of the reach of gang members. And again, Tamara was right.  Her children thrived and were safe.  Though it was painful to leave the house they had worked so hard to make their own, she knew that home was more than a building – it was where her family was.

With her children raised, and now blessed with grandchildren, Tamara and Richard felt a call to come back to the city where they had their roots. They’d held on to their first home for several years but had eventually let it go, and now were starting over on homeownership.

They found an adorable bungalow in Frogtown, not far from their childhood homes and just a few blocks from where their son now has a popular barbershop. It was just the kind of home that Richard would love – something that needed just a little attention, where he could use his carpentry skills to make it shine. And it was affordable, too. But they would need a down payment to make it theirs.

NeighborWorks Home Partners was able to give them the boost they needed with a down payment through the NeighborhoodLIFT program, and their happily ever after is happening now, just down the road from our main office.

And the story isn’t over. Tamara stops by from time to time with her grandchildren in tow, just to say hello. On one of her visits she learned about our home improvement options and is now in the process of getting her windows replaced to remove a lead poisoning hazard and putting a new roof on the house.  It’s an honor for us at NeighborWorks Home Partners to know that we’ve helped this family achieve their dream again, building a place of celebration for future generations.

Josh became a homeowner last year with the help of a down payment through our NeighborhoodLIFT program. Here is his story in his own words:

“I had been thinking about looking to buy a home for a few months. My finances were in order, my credit had gotten better. I was tired of renting, and started thinking that I, too, could own my own home. My parents paid off their mortgage in 2009, and have been great examples to me in homeownership.

“I found a home that inspired me to connect with a real estate agent. My agent connected me with a loan officer, who from our first conversation, encouraged me to apply for down payment assistance with the NeighborhoodLIFTProgram. He added that because it was such a popular program, funds don’t often become available; he told me to be vigilant and once I had an accepted offer, to apply.

“I knew walking into the first house my agent set an appointment at that I had found “the one”: a 1917 bungalow with hardwood floors, amazing character, and the perfect yard for entertaining. It felt like home and my agent even commented on how my face lit up when I walked in.  I’m also now in a community that I’m excited to be a part of, and have neighbors I’m grateful to call friends.

“When I knew I found “the one”, with the help of my amazing loan officer, applied for NeighborhoodLIFT [The staff at NeighborWorks Home Partners] were instrumental in my getting the funding for my down payment; I doubt without their advocacy, patience, and support, or without NeighborhoodLIFT, I’d be in my 1917 bungalow today. They helped me, made the process super easy to understand, and continued to be a resource for me as I entered my second month as a homeowner. I am grateful for the help I was given, from my agent and loan officer, to the Neighborhood Lift Program.”

Working to New Strengths

In the Community

Support