Top 5 from 2015

The year 2016 is around the corner, making it the perfect time to look back on the milestones and successes that made 2015 a wonderful year for United Housing and our customers. These blog posts--in no particular order--represent some of the areas we will build upon next year.

Happy New Year!

1. Nadia Aguirre joined our staff and we will now have increased outreach capabilities for Spanish speakers.
2. Priscilla Reid became Lending Manager, ushering in a new direction towards lending in-house. She is pictured in the blog post with Sarah Williams, who took out the first Home RePAIR loan done completely in-house and funded by United Housing. 
3. United Housing & St. Therese teamed up to provide a home for women. More on St. Therese here.
4. UHI partnered with the folks at the Shelby County Trustee's office to bring the Neighbor to Neighbor fair to Frayser.
5. We became one of the first Memphis organizations to team up with ioby, a crowdfunding platform that focuses on community development-related projects. Thanks to matching funds, our ioby campaign successfully raised over $3000! More on ioby in Memphis here.

We hope you have enjoyed taking a look back with us through some of our most exciting and memorable stories of 2015. Each story here represents new hope for the people involved, as they proactively work to secure a stable home for themselves and their families. These and others are the kind of stories you can see when you join us in 2016. Happy New Year to you and yours! 

Homebuyer Profiles: Dionna Pruitt

Make a difference by giving to UHI this Giving Tuesday!

In Fiscal Years 2014 & 2015, UHI helped over 750 individuals and families become homeowners. Here is a story of one family who became homeowners during our administration of the Memphis Shelby County Helping Homebuyers Program:

Dionna Pruitt was already planning to buy the home she was leasing when her Loan Officer from Community Mortgage called her one afternoon; she felt the new downpayment assistance program, Memphis-Shelby County Helping Homebuyers Program (MSCHHP) would be perfect for Dionna. MSCHHP--a $15,000 down payment assistance loan--is forgivable after five years of residence. Dionna was then able to take the Homebuyer Education class at United Housing with Homebuyer Educator Kendra Love; she found the course to be “very informational” and enjoyable due to its discussion-based format.

Of her homebuying experience with MSCHHP, Pruitt says that the program “gave me the opportunity to start over and move forward quickly” with her four children after her divorce. She already knew her neighbors from living in the neighborhood for two years before purchasing the home in Southeast Memphis. The house is a perfect home for her and her three youngest children, with one son off at college and only coming home for visits. Dionna is very happy with the MSCHHP program and enjoys her “new” neighborhood; she takes part in neighborhood activities as a member of the neighborhood association.

 Give today and help more homeowners like the Pruitts!