New Undertakings at LISC

I was just informed that I will be working on a project that is part of LISC Phoenix’s Sustainable Home Ownership program. Part of what the Sustainable Home Ownership program does is connect qualified home buyers with foreclosed property information and down payment assistance as needed to make the purchase affordable. The also offer a lease-to-own program, which leases properties for up to three years to families that need an extended period of time to clean up their credit and stabilize their income so that they will qualify for homeownership and down payment assistance.

Part of what I am going to be doing is collecting target maps for NSP jurisdictions (Neighborhood Stabilization Programs established for the purpose of stabilizing communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment). Then I will be doing research on the employers who are located in those target zip codes. This will eventually turn into a program that coordinates out reach to the employees of these businesses so that so they can purchase foreclosed property close to work. This program will work at achieving Sustainable communities by reducing vehicle trip miles of employees. I can’t wait to get started!

Fall-o-Ween

I love the fall and find myself missing home more and more during the last three months of the year. I miss seeing the seasons change. While they change in Phoenix, they are very subtle. I miss the fall colors, leaves on the ground, and the snow! To help get in the fall spirit I had a get together at my house! Thanks for the fun guys, and making fall feel a little more like home!

Carving Pumpkins!

The Masterpieces

Starting from the Foundation, Up

I met with LISC Phoenix's executive director, Teresa Brice, this past week. It was more of a review and discussion of what I have been doing for LISC up to this point. It was such a good meeting, I feel so fortunate to work with people who are passionate about what they do, the staff at LISC is great! I discussed with Teresa what my long term goals were and picked her brain for ideas. Ideally I would love to open my own organization that deals with affordable housing, so Teresa helped me create an outline of what I need to start doing. Teresa herself has an organization in Mesa that she started several years ago that deals with affordable housing, the woman has her foot in almost every door! She was able to give me contact information to further assist me in making my goals a reality. Hopefully this is the start to building a great foundation. I just cannot thank everyone at LISC enough for being an inspirational guide in my life!

This cartoon paints the sometimes unfortunate reality of affordable housing

Unofficially official

It has been a while since I have posted! Just wanted to update you all! LISC National officially submitted the Pathways Out of Poverty Grant the 29th of September. It has been an eye opener to see the various stages of the grant writing process unfold, from the proposal, partnerships, funding, right down to the budget. Now it is just a waiting game, and then implementation will start in January. We will probably not hear whether or not we got the grant until the end of December, so stay tuned. Between now and then I am hopefully going to start working within one of LISC’s affordable housing programs.