Fall 2012 - Proud Ground

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
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Like us on Facebook & like our posts! Just Google “Proud Ground Facebook” and you’ll find us. Then like us!
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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