More support for Proud Ground homeowners: home repair IDA SHARING THE FUTURE Plus, welcome Yesika! And, more Neighborhood Stabilization Program Photo by Jeff Kennel Svaboda Court Grand Opening More than 100 partners and supporters help celebrate the opening of Proud Ground’s LEED for Homes Platinum development, which will be part of this year’s Build it Green Tour Keynote speaker Commissioner Fish’s warm and Thank you to our project partners: Adrian gracious remarks perfectly captured the spirit of Dominican Sisters; AKS Engineering; Cityhouse this important day, and really summed up Proud Builders; The Collins Foundation; Community Ground’s mission & goal—for this project, and for Frameworks Self-help Homeownership all of our work: promote Opportunity Program; Earth housing choice for hard “Today we celebrate 3 key values: Advantage; Enterprise promoting housing choice, sustainability, working families priced Community Partners; Home and equity & opportunity.” out of today’s market. Depot Foundation; Institute Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish at the for Community Economics; So many other partners Svaboda Court grand opening. Al Jubitz/Homeownership and friends were in LLC; Lundin Cole Architects; attendance and helped Partners for the Common Good; Portland Housing make this day possible. Our sincerest thanks to all Bureau; Religious Communities Investment Fund; who helped us welcome Svaboda Court with a Sisters of Charity, Seton Enablement Fund. truly grand Grand Opening. NEWSLETTER FALL 2012 What’s Inside 2011 Annual Report Welcome Yesika! Bank of America volunteers ♥ yard work More support for Proud Ground homeowners: home repair IDA Plus, welcome Yesika! And, more Neighborhood Stabilization Program CASA of Oregon & Proud Ground team up to help homeowners tackle repair & maintenance jobs We are just thrilled about our newest partnership with CASA of Oregon. Thanks to CASA and its Valley Individual Development Account (VIDA) Program, Proud Ground homeowners will soon have access to matching funds to help with major home repair and maintenance jobs. This program is still in development, so stay tuned for timeline and details. Welcome new Community Outreach Coordinator Yesika Arévalo Yesika discovered her passion to help families reach the dream of homeownership after witnessing the hard work of her parents in buying their first home more than ten years ago. Since then she has acquired extensive experience developing and implementing outreach plans. For the past seven years Yesika has worked on behalf of families from all walks of life who have the dream of homeownership. Her experience includes working with first-time homebuyers through NEDCOs’ pre-purchase programs and financial literacy classes. She is a certified homeownership counselor by the NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education & Counseling. We are thrilled to have Yesika with us! Yesika in action at the July Native American Youth & Family Center annual Housing-to-Homeownership Fair Neighborhood Stabilization Program 3 will help five families realize the dream of homeownership Proud Ground and valued partner Native American Youth & Family Center have been awarded more funds through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. NSP is a federal program administered by the Portland Housing Bureau; funds are used to purchase and renovate empty, foreclosed homes, which are then sold affordably to low/moderate-income, first-time home buyers. So far, the Proud Ground-NAYA partnership has been awarded enough NSP funds to serve 16 new home buyers. 4 quick & easy things you can do for Proud Ground 1. 2. 3. 4. Like us on Facebook & like our posts! Just Google “Proud Ground Facebook” and you’ll find us. Then like us! Follow and ReTweet us on Twitter: twitter.com/proudground Send us that donation you’ve been meaning to send: proudground.org/donate No heirs? Or heirs are all set? Consider including Proud Ground in your estate plans. OK, so this isn’t quick & easy, but here’s a place to get started: proudground.org/donate/legacy Game changers Meet our first Beaverton home buyers: The Rodrigues family Three weeks ago, Merriam-Webster added about 100 new words for 2012 to the dictionary. Perhaps you’ve have had an aha moment, suffered an earworm or witnessed a game changer. Also among these additions to our lexicon was a word that still affects 80,000 Oregonians— underwater. Thanks to funding provided by the City of Beaverton and Community Frameworks’ Selfhelp Homeownership Opportunity Program, Greg and Patty Rodrigues, and daughters Kayla and Chloe, are happy new residents of Beaverton’s Five Oaks neighborhood. Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle is pleased about the decision to work with Proud Ground’s program, photo by Jeff Kennel Greg earns a decent living working for Vestas American Wind Technology; he and Patty can qualify for a mortgage, but not one for $195,000 (the market-rate value of their new home). Their $132,000 mortgage, however, is just right. “This is a great thing for us. This isn’t just an investment, it’s a home. Now we look forward to getting to know our neighbors and building new friendships in the area. We also want to be proactive in our community, not just reactive. By being homeowners, we will be better able to do this.” -Greg Rodrigues “We are very excited to partner with Proud Ground to increase affordable homeownership opportunities in our community,” said Mayor Doyle. “The city’s investment in a property will result in affordable homeownership for multiple families for decades to come.” Patty is excited about their new neighborhood and schools, “I enjoy volunteering in Kayla’s and Chloe’s classrooms, and I plan to do the same at the girls’ new school. When we were house-hunting, we liked what we saw in Beaverton. Good schools, and lots of nature & parks.” Nine-year-old Kayla can’t wait to live in their new house, “We even have a bonus room!” she exclaims. As for six-year-old Chloe, “I get my own room! I am very, very, very, very excited!” There are efforts in place and afoot to help the homeowners faced with foreclosure or a home in which they owe more than it’s worth. Oregon Homeownership Stabilization Initiative is helping unemployed neighbors keep their home. Our state-wide mediation program began in July to give homeowners a chance to sit down with a lender to work out a solution. Our own Senator Merkley is championing a promising proposal for underwater mortgages that could be piloted right here. We feel fortunate that Proud Ground families haven’t faced as many challenges in keeping their homes. Nationally, our model has a foreclosure rate seven times lower than the national average. And locally, we haven’t lost a single Proud Ground home to foreclosure. We believe it’s at least in part because our families have access to coaching, education and ongoing support. Prices that are affordable, and homes that are built to last help, too. We’re pretty sure that fixed-rate, fixed-payment mortgages are also part of the equation. But we know that for many of our families, owning a home—well, that’s a game changer. NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO. 2455 PROUD GROUND Photo by jeffkennel.com 5288 N INTERSTATE AVE. PORTLAND, OREGON 97217 www.proudground.org 503.493.0293 Photo by jeffkennel.com Proud Ground is Board - Elaine Albrich, Chair; Stoel Rives LLP | John Marshall, Treasurer; Portland Housing Bureau | Jen Matheson, Secretary; NAYA Family Center | Susan Brown, Umpqua Bank Devin Culbertson, Enterprise Community Investment | Frank Dadulla, Portland Public Schools | Michelle Holder, New Seasons Markets | Randy Murgo, PacifiCorp | Shoshanah Oppenheim, Portland Bureau of Transportation One-third of Proud Ground board members are Proud Ground homeowners Advisory Board - Adam Davis, Partner, Davis, Hibbits & Midghall, Inc. | Tom Kelly, President, Neil Kelly Remodeling | Neal Sacon, Attorney, Portland Family of Funds | Damin Tarlow, Gerding Edlen Affiliations are listed for informational purposes only Staff - Jesse Beason, Executive Director | Kathy Armstrong, Deputy Director | Katie Ullrich, Homeownership Program Manager | Yesika Arévalo, Community Outreach Coordinator Angela Fuji, Program Assistant | Steve Whitson, Project Manager | Dianne Topp, Fiscal Manager Bank of America volunteers with Proud Ground’s Steve Whitson after a summer work party. Go team! Newsletter printing generously donated by Fidelity National Title
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