Program areas at Neighborgood Partners
Loan Fund: NeighborGood Partners is certified by the Treasury Department as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and as such has a Loan Fund which lends primarily to nonprofit borrowers on the Delmarva Peninsula for the purposes of affordable housing, community facilities and economic development. Loan purposes are typically predevelopment, acquisition, and/or construction for single-family and multi-family housing, neighborhood revitalization and community-based facilities, as well as working capital. Loans are underwritten by staff and approved by the Loan Fund Committee of the board. NeighborGood Partners, as a short-term lender, seeks investments and loan participations for capital to lend. Activity includes 18 new loans, totaling $7.16 million with 51 loans being serviced overall.
Self-Help Housing Technical and Management Assistance: NeighborGood Partners provides technical and management assistance (T&MA) to local self-help housing grantees in a 21 state region of the northeast and north central of the United States through a contract with USDA's Rural Housing Service. Staff training, quarterly review meetings, newsletters, application preparation and reviews, progress monitoring, problem solving, and other support is provided to self-help housing grantees to build or repair 50-75 homes a year using participant family sweat equity. Families are low and very low income typically using the RD 502 mortgage program for building materials and the families provide the labor. NeighborGood Partners acts as an intermediary providing the support services to the grantees who in turn oversee and assist the participating families in building their homes. Activity included management and technical support to 10 self-help grantees and 61 houses were built.
Homeownership: NeighborGood Partners is a HUD-certified Housing Counseling Agency and as such provide comprehensive homeownership counseling and education services to low and moderate income households in Delaware. With trained and certified counselors, NeighborGood Partners provides a full-service "Preparing for Homeownership" curriculum in group and individual sessions geared towards assisting renter households to become mortgage-ready as first-time homebuyers. Households participate, become informed consumers, and work to become eligible for access to sound mortgage products. Activity includes 438 households counseled and 237 households achieving homeownership.