Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc.,
is a statewide partnership of residents, private business and government working together to promote strong neighborhoods as the foundation of a healthy and vibrant community. We accomplish this through a resident-centered program of neighborhood revitalization, leadership development, and the development of affordable housing and homeownership opportunities.

Description:
Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) is a statewide non-profit partnership committed to promoting strong neighborhoods through a resident-centered program of neighborhood revitalization, leadership development, and the development of affordable housing and homeownership opportunities.

NHS joins over 240 non-profit housing organizations across the country with similar missions in what is called the National NeighborWorks® Network.

History:
Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) is a statewide partnership of residents, private business and government working together to promote strong neighborhoods as the foundation of a healthy and vibrant community.

NHS was incorporated in 1982 as a private, non-profit organization. Joining over 230 non-profit housing developers across the country with similar missions in what is called the National NeighborWorks® Network, NHS serves as a catalyst to regenerate neighborhood pride and confidence and helps develop self-reliance in the people and neighborhoods it assists.

Boise’s Vista Neighborhood was the original area targeted for revitalization. With a three person staff and a volunteer Board of Directors, Vista Neighborhood Housing Services opened its doors in August 1982.
In four years, NHS made hundreds of energy conservation and housing rehabilitation loans to non-bankable but credit worthy families in the Vista Neighborhood. In addition, Paint Your Heart Out had its beginning; a half million dollars of streets, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks were installed; and problem properties were replaced with new homes. NHS strived to help the neighborhood achieve self-reliance through leadership development, neighborhood advocacy, homeownership promotion, a neighborhood newsletter, crime watch, animal control, zoning enforcement, self-help workshops, and the development of effective solutions to social issues. In the summer of 1986, because of the accomplishments of the NHS, the Vista Neighborhood celebrated the achievement of substantial self-reliance. Today, it is incorporated with its own Board of Directors and has a neighborhood plan in place.

In 1986, NHS moved across town and focused its resources on the Veterans Park Neighborhood. This area was much larger and had similar, but different, needs. NHS continued its targeted approach to revitalization in the new neighborhood. Housing rehabilitation and energy loans, paint and clean up, leadership development, and finding effective solutions to neighborhood problems are strategies NHS continues to employ. In 2003, NHS selected Park Davis, a subneighborhood of Veterans Park, as its new target neighborhood.

In 1987, NHS tackled the problems of Boise’s homeless families through the creation of its Homeward Bound Program and the purchase of 30 homes scattered throughout Boise. The largest long-term, scattered-site, supportive housing program in Boise, Homeward Bound serves homeless families with children. Through the provision of safe, decent housing, direct social services and referrals to existing community resources, we have assisted over 300 families. More than 80% of these families successfully completed the program, achieving self-sufficiency and reintegrating into the community as productive, involved, tax paying residents. Homeward Bound was nationally recognized in the March and October 1989 issues of Better Homes and Gardens, in 1998 and 2004 with Excellence in Affordable Housing Awards from the Metropolitan Life/Enterprise Foundation, in 2000 with a national HUD “Best of the Best” Best Practices award, and in 2004 with a STAR Award (Solutions Through Alternative Remedies: Practical Models to Help End Homelessness. The program has expanded its services to include a “New Americans” component, assisting immigrants and refugees to resettle and stabilize their lives.

In Veterans Park the strategies NHS employed in Vista were augmented by a new strategy: helping families purchase homes to prevent them from becoming absentee owned or vacant and abandoned. In 1989 eight Boise lending institutions committed $1.7 million in first mortgage loans per year to achieve this end. In 1992, NHS, in partnership with nine area lenders, expanded its Homeownership Program city-wide, providing below market rate funds to the working poor of our community. Since then, NHS has expanded the loan pool to Ada and Canyon counties and closed over 525 loans totaling more than $50 million.

In 1998, NHS was certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) by the U.S. Treasury Department. Partner lenders invested capital in the form of grants and equity investments to establish a revolving CDFI fund to be used statewide as low interest second mortgages in tandem with partner lenders’ first mortgage products. Grants were matched by the Treasury Department. In 1999, NHS was awarded $370,000 by NeighborWorks® America from $25 million appropriated by Congress to be used to create new homeowners across the nation. Capital from the CDFI and NeighborWorks® America grants allow NHS to continue reaching out to underserved markets throughout Idaho. These affordable loan products are an important tool for our statewide expansion efforts. Since beginning our statewide lending program in 1999, we have made loans in 38 of Idaho’s 44 counties, leveraging over $58 million mortgage dollars.

In 1995, NHS implemented a Home Buyer Education program. Over 10,000 customers have been served by this Program. Monthly education seminars result in informed homeowners who are more stable, secure, and dedicated to owning and maintaining a home. Pre- and post-purchase/foreclosure prevention counseling is also provided. NHS is a founding partner of Idaho Partners for Home Buyer Education’s Finally Home!, which provides standardized home buyer education statewide.
As Boise experienced remarkable growth, housing costs escalated, raising the cost of purchasing or renting a home out of reach of many of Boise’s low and moderate income residents and forcing others into homelessness. To help ease Boise’s affordable housing crisis, we began developing affordable homes, both single site and multi-family communities. NHS developments include: 37 in-fill houses in the Vista Neighborhood; Quince Cove and Balsam Cove mini-subdivisions; Davis Park (41 units), NorthWest Pointe (77 units), Stewart Avenue (16 units) and Gateway Crossing (72 units, Nampa); MelloDee Thornton Mobile Home Park (65 units); Mystic Cove affordable homeownership subdivision in Garden City (66 units), and townhomes for transitional supportive housing in the Park Davis neighborhood (3 units). Current developments include 20 homeownership units for workforce housing in downtown Boise; 6 homeownership units in Nampa; and 40 affordable units in New Meadows.
NHS employs a full-time Director of Asset Management and Resident Services to oversee management and maintainance of NHS rental properties. In northern Idaho, NHS serves as the general partner and property manager of Lake Wood Ranch, an 80 unit senior housing apartment complex in Coeur d’Alene.

NHS community projects such as Paint The TownTM and Rake Up BoiseTM have served over 13,000 senior and disabled residents throughout the Treasure Valley.

Contact people:

Amy Lindley, Resource Development Specialist, (208) 343-4065 x117, (email) Tom Lay, Executive Director, (208) 343-4065, (email) Bea Black, Director Of Asset Management, (208) 343-4065 x101, (email)

Office fax number: (208) 343-4963

Address:

1401 Shoreline Drive Boise, ID 83702 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.nhsid.org