Dear Neighbors,
Here's an updated list of community food distribution events occurring across Miami-Dade County on May 22nd and May 23rd.
Take care, and stay safe!
President's Message
April 15, 2020
The past four weeks have been filled with news of COVID-19 and its impact on businesses small and large. To meet the needs of our clients we quickly moved our services and programs online. We knew our clients would need different services so we reached out to our clients via a survey. We learned that many NHSSF clients had lost jobs and income and were unsure if they could pay rent or mortgages. NHSSF responded by facilitating clients to request forbearances and offering our mortgage holders forbearance agreements.
Managing through hard financial times is not new to low wealth communities and even here in South Florida, we have learned to manage through natural disasters and its culminating effects on the job market, but it is unprecedented to do this while also fearing we may contract a deadly virus. It is wrenching to watch the world’s economy come to a standstill. Collectively, we will have to dig deep into personal reserves of resiliency to manage through this crisis. I believe we will. Like the communities we serve, NHSSF has proven to be strong, flexible, and resourceful in aligning our services to meet the needs during this difficult time. We responding nimbly and focused on continuing to provide tri-lingual homebuyer services and financial literacy programming.
List of Services
- Covid Foreclosure Prevention webinars
- Managing Personal Finances webinars
- One on One Counseling for Homeowners
- One on One Counseling for Renters
- 8 Hour Homebuyer Certification Workshop
- PHCD Housing Counseling and Financial Fitness Counseling
- Financial Capability Coaching
- Construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing
- Homebuyer Loans
- Residential Refinance Loans
- Referral and Linkages to Covid Relief
A Letter from the CEO
I can remember being very nervous many many years ago, when I had just one year left on my relocation package from Chicago to Washington DC to use the $3000 closing cost benefit and I simply wasn’t ready to buy. I had not saved money for down payment or even identified a good neighborhood. I didn’t want to lose the $3000 closing cost benefit which was a lot of money back then. As a young professional living in DC, I had maybe one friend who already owned a home. Even after living in Chicago, I was still dumbfounded by the idea that my first place would cost at least 3 times what my parents paid for their home. And it would not be as nice or as big as the homes in my hometown of Milwaukee. I was not working in affordable housing or non-profits at the time and I had big aspirations for a large home, in a great neighborhood, with good schools.
Fast forward decades later, my vocation is to enable this dream of homeownership for thousands of people as a community development practitioner. Personally and professionally, it has been rewarding to see people push back their fears to start and complete their journey of homeownership.
