IHO Welcomes a Strong 2024!
This year has already started with a bang! Our Santa Ana project, The Living EmPower House, was listed in Decentralized Grid Magazine as number one on the 10 Intriguing Distributed Energy Projects to Watch in 2024 by energychangemakers.com.
In the summer months, IHO will open three new housing communities in three Southern California counties including: The Aspire in Riverside that will house transitional age youth (TAY); Pacific Wind in Carlsbad, one of IHO’s first mixed-income, mixed-population communities designed for low-income working families and individuals; and Serenity in South Los Angeles, financed with Proposition HHH funds, that will provide homes to low-income and formerly homeless seniors. Information on grand opening events for these communities will be available soon.
We are also welcoming a new slate of Board of Directors and Advisors. Watch our social channels to learn more about them. Thank you so much to our 2023 Board and Advisors for all of their hard work and commitment this past year.
On behalf of the entire board and staff, we look forward to celebrating these milestones and sharing more on our impact and innovation!
Financial Fitness and Path to Home Ownership Programs Change Lives
Watching the life-changing progression of residents who take part in IHO’s 1:1 Financial Coaching and Homeowner Education programs underscores the importance of IHO’s holistic approach to housing and services.
These programs, in partnership with our incredible partners JP Morgan Chase, Lincoln Financial, and dedicated volunteers, help residents create financial goals, increase income, build savings, repair credit, and understand how they can create generational wealth for themselves and their families. IHO has already witnessed amazing transformations as residents succeed in paying down debt, learn to maneuver the complexities of planning for the future, and become first-time homeowners.
Contact Brenda Walters if you want to volunteer or donate to support our resident empowerment programs.
IHO Spotlights
When Pacific Wind’s 93 apartments open this year it will mark the end of a more than 10-year process to bring affordable homes for low-Income working families and individuals to Carlsbad. The campus replaces a neighborhood of duplexes with new garden-style, walk-up buildings and incorporates two newly renovated duplexes. Combined this will create a mixed-income, mixed population community for the Historic Barrio neighborhood.
We are thrilled to share that the De Paz Family realized their dream of first-time homeownership thanks to the family’s perseverance and commitment to IHO’s Financial Fitness and Career Development workshops. One of the first families to move into our Parc Derian Apartments in Irvine in 2018, the parents upgraded to higher-paying jobs, paid off credit card debt, and purchased their first home just before the holidays! They credit IHO’s suite of resident empowerment programs over the last five years, coupled with childcare and dinner, for allowing them the freedom to participate and grow. They now share their journey with others so they can also become empowered in reaching their dreams. The De Paz Family personifies IHO’s goal to equip residents to, “Move in, Move up, Move forward, and Reach back.” Thank you and Congratulations!
Shelterforce, recently published a feature story on the love-hate relationship developers have with LIHTC, titled “The Only Tool in the Box: What It Means That LIHTC Dominates Affordable Housing.” IHO CEO Rochelle Mills was asked to share her experience in the article adding to the voices that illustrated the LIHTC relationship in affordable housing.
To celebrate the close of 2023, IHO held a Holiday Open House in gratitude for our board, staff, partners, colleagues, and friends. The event featured welcome remarks from IHO Board Vice Chair Elizabeth Trombley; pipeline updates from Interim Chief Real Estate Investment Officer Dr. Frederick White, and impact stories from Community Impact Manager Brend Walters. A highlight was an illuminating and emotional interview between IHO Board Director LaShanda Maze and former IHO resident and new homeowner Brooke De Paz. IHO also welcomed Santa Ana Councilmember Jesse Lopez and Senator Tom Umberg who presented a commendation to IHO President & CEO Rochelle Mills. View our highlight video
Learn more. Volunteer. Donate. Visit www.ihocommunities.org