Read the article by NWMT Assistant Director, Kaia Peterson Read More
Registration is now open for the 2018 Montana Housing Partnership Conference: Forging Ahead Together. The conference will be taking place at the Copper King in Butte April 30 – May 2nd. Click here for more details.
NeighborWorks Montana, a statewide housing nonprofit organization, was awarded $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund. NeighborWorks Montana will use the money to expand a popular lending program and increase its impact on communities throughout the state.
The organization also will use the CDFI funds to support its 20+ Community Second and multifamily lending programs, to help purchase real estate for low-income housing developments and to help expand its Resident Owned Community programs. Read More
Beginning in January 2016, Maureen Rude of Helena will take over as executive director of the statewide housing organization NeighborWorks Montana.
NeighborWorks Montana is affiliated with The Home Center in Billings, a one-stop shop for renters, homebuyers and homeowners.
Rude has been with NeighborWorks Montana for nearly eight years. She was previously employed as director of the Montana Fannie Mae Partnership office and executive director of the Montana Board of Housing.
In 2000, in response to requests from around the state, the Great Falls organization created NeighborWorks Montana to offer secondary lending and homebuyer education and counseling throughout the state through a local partner network. Since 2000, NeighborWorks Montana has helped more than 5,000 families become homeowners, financed the homes of more than 1,000 families through multifamily loans and formation of manufactured housing cooperatives and worked with more than 7,000 families during the foreclosure crisis.
NeighborWorks Montana will receive $459,160 in grant money from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which awarded more than $50 million in housing counseling grants to hundreds of national, regional, and local organizations.
NeighborWorks Montana, a service provider for homebuyer education and services, was the only grant recipient in the state.
NeighborWorks will distribute the money with a partner network of 15 housing and counseling organizations across Montana.
According to Kaia Peterson, Assistant Director of NeighborWorks Montana, HUD provides core funding for housing education.
“Housing counseling and education helps people make good housing and financial decisions,” she said. “Clients who utilize these programs are more likely to successfully maintain their housing, and are less likely to default on their mortgage.”
HUD Secretary Ben Carson said the grants were smart investments in helping families find and keep their homes.
“Quite simply, knowledge is power,” he said. “We know that armed with the information they need, those who receive counseling services are far more successful in buying, renting, or avoiding foreclosure.”
The grants were announced July 6, 2017.