NHSSF has supported residents on their path to prosperity in our Center for Homeownership and Financial Wellbeing for over 40 years. As a NeighborWorks America® homeownership center and HUD-approved housing counseling agency, NHSSF offers prospective first-time homebuyers a variety of educational classes and workshops to prepare them to successfully secure financing to purchase a home. We believe homeownership assists families in building wealth, facilitates intergenerational financial stability and leads to economic inclusion.

We believe homeownership assists families in building wealth, facilitates intergenerational financial stability and leads to economic inclusion.

We design our programs with sensitivity to issues unique to South Florida, such as the impact of climate change and the need to assist families before and after natural disasters.

We have strong relationships with local and national financial lenders, real estate services providers, community leaders and government officials. Over 80% of our clients are low- to moderate-income individuals. By serving this market segment we have been able to provide wealth building opportunities for families and stabilize and revitalize communities thru homebuyer education, foreclosure prevention, loss mitigation, and housing production.

Over 80% of our clients are low- to moderate-income individuals. By serving this market segment we have been able to provide wealth building opportunities for families and stabilize and revitalize communities thru homebuyer education, foreclosure prevention, loss mitigation, and housing production.

Our proven educational system combined with one-on-one counseling makes the dream of homeownership a reality. We individualize services for each client depending on need, and offer services in English, Spanish, and Haitian creole. Services provided by our Center for Homeownership and Financial Wellbeing include:

• Homebuyer Orientation Seminars
• Homebuyer Certificate Workshops
• Financial Fitness Training
• One-on-one Counseling
• Post-purchase Seminars
• Foreclosure Prevention Clinics

We work closely with clients to help them understand the homebuying process and become confident consumers with the skills necessary to navigate a difficult and competitive housing market.

We work closely with clients to help them understand the homebuying process and become confident consumers with the skills necessary to navigate a difficult and competitive housing market.

The results show reductions in debt and improvements in savings, credit scores, and earnings so that families are on a path to prosperity.

The last two years have been hard on the housing market for LMI residents. The pandemic has set in the open a longstanding problem across South Florida: When 60% of the working population in the urban area of Miami is housing cost-burdened, when the affordable housing stock available has fallen rapidly below 50% -under crescent pressure from foreign residents looking to work remotely and moving to South Florida in the past 2 years-, and when the climate change and sea-level rise increases the pressure over many of Miami’s historic neighborhoods, the scarcity of affordable houses now is simply dramatic.

Nonetheless, our NHSSF Lending Department continued service prospect homebuyers with affordable and responsible loan products, as well as current homeowners with great refinance opportunities.

Even when all of the other pieces fall into place, South Florida families must still be able to find housing at the right price point. Because current local housing prices are so out of sync with local incomes, that housing is hard to find. On the other hand, for the past 40 years, we have served Miami-Dade and Broward families from our offices located in one of the culturally eminent neighborhoods in Miami: Little Havana. These headquarters have grown old and we found ourselves in a position to imagine a project that could address both the current lack of affordable housing and our need to renovate our primary service location.

In 2019 we launched an RFP looking after proposals from qualified developers with the technical experience and capacity to build a mixed-income workforce/affordable housing development on land currently owned by us. In August 2021, we finally announced that Volunteers of America National Services was selected to partner with us on a senior affordable residential housing project to be known as Freedom Pointe.

The project is slated to be completed in 2024 and will consist of 75 units for seniors, the property will be green-oriented and will include supportive services to residents as well as a ‘health hub’ in the building. VOANS intends to implement its Aging with Options program so that residents can safely remain in place as long as possible. Additionally, the fourth floor will include outdoor amenities such as a walking path, garden and patio area.

The proposed project will include the demolition of the existing building at 300 NW 12th Ave., Miami, FL 33128, and new construction of mixed-use affordable housing for seniors, as well as office development, as we plan to maintain our headquarters in the newly developed building.

In 2021 we experienced first-hand the power of coming together and building better communities. Whereas we invited fellow agencies and partners to discuss and learn about Shared Equity Housing Models to innovatively face the lack of affordable housing across South Florida, or we led a team of Overtown residents to participate in the Community Leadership Institute training provided by NeighborWorks America after a 2020 pandemic hiatus.

In those, and other community building actions NHSSF was involved throughout this year, we were reminded of the power that comes from strengthening relationships with our nonprofit partner, government allies and local residents towards a shared goal of improving the financial and social wellbeing of all of us.

NHSSF was founded by committed local community members in 1978 as a response to disinvestment and redlining practices that were impacting a small neighborhood in north central Miami. Since then, we have evolved into a comprehensive community development organization, a certified community development finance institution (CDFI), and HUD certified Housing Counseling Agency, providing homeownership support, financial literacy, lending services, housing development and neighborhood stabilization to thousands of families in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

For more than 40 years, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida has filled a crucial gap in the housing market by working with families who need access to financial education and capital. We work in close partnership with private lenders and government agencies, providing specialized expertise in housing strategies and programs, the many different housing markets throughout South Florida, and different types of home loans that work best for low-wealth families.

Building on this expertise, we have a vision for working across sectors to achieve a better, more resilient version of our community, one in which a safe place to call home is available to all residents and our neighborhoods maintain the vibrant racial and cultural diversity that makes our region unlike anywhere else in the world. We are working to advance prosperity for all South Floridians through Homebuyer Education & Counseling, Lending, Real Estate Development, and Community Transformation.

Financial Summary

Every year, NHSSF undergoes a third-party financial audit by a public accounting firm. The external, independent auditor provides a full review of the corporation's financial statements in accordance with formal industry standards. It is in the best interest of the communities we serve as well as our fiscal responsibility to the many stakeholders we partner with, to make public the results of NHSSF 2020 audit. Below you can find a summary of the inspection.

To request the complete audit report, please send an email to kimh@nhssf.org.