Over the last two years, we had an “NHSSF Emergency Relief Program for Housing Stabilization” in place thanks to the support from the Community Foundation of Broward. We were preparing the closing report when we received a call for help. Ms. Aguilar fell behind on her mortgage payments and sought financial assistance. After the due application process, in a couple of days, we responded to her request and sent her way the rest of the funding to stabilize her dire housing situation. Here is her dramatic story that we share with you to raise awareness of the efficacy of these programs aimed to help those in need.

“On December 2, 2020, I had a fire in my apartment due to an air fryer explosion. Everyone in the building was taken out without suffering any damage. Only my apartment was affected, mainly the kitchen that was totally destroyed, with the fridge and stove melted and cabinets totally damaged. At the time, I tried to find help from various government agencies without any success.

Since I don’t have any insurance coverage for the apartment’s interior, my place as of today remains uninhabitable due to a lack of financial resources to repair it. And with the impossibility of having the apartment repaired, I’m living at a friend’s house, where I am also contributing to the monthly expenses. Since I live under a limited disability salary due to my present health condition, I could not continue sending the monthly payment towards my mortgage. So, after many months of being unable to pay it, it was sent to foreclosure.

That’s when I started crying out to God for resources because I couldn’t take any risk of losing the only roof I had lived on.

I started looking for other government websites that help with mortgages when I came across the Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida’s website.

I had the divine blessing of being assisted by Mr. Gordillo. With extreme kindness and compassion, he wrote down my information and promised to speak to the person responsible for the department that helps with mortgages problems. According to the information provided, the program had already been closed down, but to his understanding, maybe there was a small balance left.

On the following Monday, to my surprise, Mr. Gordillo called me, instructing me to reach out Ms. Granja. With all her dedication and willingness to help me, she collected all my information and approved the resource that I needed for my late mortgage payments, saving my only home from going to foreclosure. Hallelujah!!

Today, thanks to the Almighty Father and NHSSF, I have my mortgage on time. And with the part-time job that He had provided me right after this miracle event, I will be able to keep the payments on time and hopefully soon, be able to fix it and move back to my little place.

I am very grateful to everyone who contributed to making this miracle happen in my life. May God continue to bless the lives of each one of you and raise more and more resources to help people in extreme need, as it was in my case.”

B.Aguilar

The Emergency Relief for Housing Stabilization program started on March 1st, 2021. With renewed funding from the Community Foundation of Broward, this second push of the rental and mortgage assistance program started right after the pandemic, we’ve been able to help over 90 Broward residents in total, providing them with additional housing counseling to ensure that they can remain in their current housing.

The following Fund has provided support for this grant at the Community Foundation of Broward:

Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Fund.

Unrestricted grant of $500,000 will enable NHSSF to address racial inequities in housing and wealth building across African American and Latinx communities

December 14, 2021

City of Miami – Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) was selected by the Citi Foundation as a recipient of the Community Progress Makers initiative, which supports visionary organizations across the U.S. that are working to connect low-income communities and communities of color to greater social and economic opportunity. As a Community Progress Maker, NHSSF will receive a multi-year, unrestricted grant of $500,000 and access to technical assistance and a supportive learning community from 2022 – 2023.

Through Citi Foundation’s support, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida will expand services that address racial inequities in housing and wealth building, combat gentrification of historically African American and Latinx Neighborhoods, and support communities in ongoing, resident-driven neighborhood revitalization throughout the area with a focus on Black Homeownership, progressive lending, and equitable development. For nonprofits like NHSSF having unrestricted grant support has always been critical and useful to fulfilling our mission. However, there is a sense of urgency for those of us in the public and not-for-profit sectors to address inequities through systemic change. Therefore, Citi Foundation’s investment will help Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida to be more flexible, nimbler and to maintain the focus on identifying innovative approaches to our service delivery.

NHSSF will undertake the following strategies in the grant period:

1. Expansion of the WOW (With Ownership Wealth) initiative, adding Homebuyer Clubs and Peer Learning Platform with a goal to increase our Black homeownership rate by 5% each year over 4 years;
2. Ramp up NHSSF Financial Capacity program to work intensively through financial coaching for persons who require 3 or more months of coaching, education, and training; Increase credit scores to 640, increase savings by 15%, and decrease personal debt by 35%;
3. Continue growing NHSSF CDFI and deploying recently allocated funds for Down Payment Assistance to families at or below 80% of AMI;
4. Offer solar resiliency and energy efficiency loans to LMI homeowners so that families may withstand the property damage and family displacement due to climate change, natural disasters, and extreme weather events. These lending programs will benefit homeowners by allowing them the benefits from cost saving green measures, increased property values and thereby the ability to build home equity.

“Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida is honored to be among the 50 organizations around the nation in the latest expansion of the Citi Foundation’s Community Progress Makers initiative. With this unrestricted grant, NHSSF continues to work to shorten the distance between low wealth residents and economic opportunity.  We have ambitious goals and deliverables for 2022, and the Citi Foundation’s recognition and generosity along with the peer learning exchanges will set the foundation for NHSSF to deliver empowering services to the South Florida communities we serve. On behalf of the NHSSF Board and Staff, we thank and salute the Citi Foundation,“ said Kimberly T. Henderson, President & CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida.

The newest cohort of Community Progress Makers includes 50 leading nonprofit organizations selected through a competitive Request for Proposals process, with a strong track record of supporting underserved communities across six U.S. cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. The Citi Foundation will provide a supportive learning community through which grantees can connect to share best practices and strengthen their work as social change agents. Technical assistance will also be provided by the Urban Institute to help measure the cohort’s impact and progress.

“Six years ago, the Citi Foundation launched Community Progress Makers with a vision of empowering community leaders to grow their transformative impact through unrestricted, trust-based funding,” said Brandee McHale, Head of Community Investing and Development and President of the Citi Foundation. “This kind of approach and support is more important than ever as the U.S. continues to address the root causes and impacts of income and wealth inequality. Through the Community Progress Makers initiative, these social innovators and advocates can continue to look for new ways of addressing long-standing societal challenges at scale.”

From 2015 to 2019, the Citi Foundation has provided $40 million in multi-year, unrestricted funding to 72 Community Progress Makers, helping to place over 45,000 people in affordable housing, train over 33,000 people for employment, save over $10 million in energy costs, and expand over 12,000 small businesses.

Miami organizations listed in 2021 Community Progress Makers are:

• aire ventures
• Community Justice Project
• Health Foundation of South Florida
• Miami Workers Center
• Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida
• Solar and Energy Loan Fund, Inc. (SELF)
• YWCA of Greater Miami Dade

For more information about Community Progress Makers, please visit: www.citifoundation.com/cpm

About NHSSF

Established in 1978, NHSFF is a certified Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) and an accredited community development nonprofit serving South Florida residents for over 40 years. NHSSF is committed to advance prosperity for all South Floridians through Lending, Real Estate Sales, Housing Development, Home Buyer Education & Counseling, and Community Transformation. NHSSF is also a chartered member of the NeighborWorks® America. In this capacity, we are part of a nationwide network of over 240 chartered community development organizations and one of the twenty that serve Florida residents. NHSSF provides its full spectrum of homeownership services in English, Creole, and Spanish to assist potential homebuyers in reaching their homeownership goals. For more information, visit www.nhssf.org.

About the Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation works to promote economic progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically vibrant communities. The Citi Foundation’s “More than Philanthropy” approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information, visit www.citifoundation.com.

Contact
Juan C. Gordillo | (786) 237-2122 | juang@nhssf.org