As the cost of buying a home continues to rise in Central Oregon, with home prices and interest rates increasing, the combined efforts of many programs working together to provide homeownership opportunities is more important now than ever before. Recently, four PATHWorks participants put in the hard work to make their homeownership dream a reality when they purchased their first home in Redmond through Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity (BRHFH), utilizing Housing Works Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership program, and the savings received from the VIDA matched savings program for their down-payment and closing costs.

Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity is dedicated to providing affordable homeownership opportunities for low- to moderate-income families and individuals in Bend and Redmond.

The Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) homeownership program allows families assisted under the HCV rental program to use their voucher to buy a home and receive assistance in meeting homeownership expenses.

The Valley Individual Development Account (VIDA) is a matched savings program that enables families with limited financial resources to save for their home purchase down payment and closing costs and builds assets.

The partnerships between these three programs provided the means and opportunities for individuals and families to purchase a home to call their own. Read about two of their stories below and the other two will be included in our next newsletter in January 2023!

"It was Christmas in July" in 2012 when Linda was selected for the Housing Choice Voucher program. She was a single mom working part-time in retail competing for hours at work while trying to balance work and her kids' schedules simultaneously. She was behind on bills, picking and choosing which bills to pay and which not to pay each month since she couldn't afford them all. When Linda found out she was selected for the voucher and would receive rental assistance, she felt relieved. She felt hope for her future knowing she had some assistance to lift the pressure off her to get caught up. First things first, she had to find a new place to live because she knew where she was living at the time, her unit would not have passed the HUD HQS inspection requirement.

Once Linda and her kids were settled in their new home, Linda had a sense of security that her kids could come home and knew they would be okay. Shortly after, Linda suffered an injury and was out of work for some time. Around this same time, Linda's kids were old enough and moved out on their own. With no job and no income, Linda joined the PATHWorks program in 2016 looking for resources, support, tools, and assistance to help her reach her goals.

Linda needed income first and foremost to start working towards accomplishing any of her goals. She started working at Grocery Outlet and quickly moved up to a management position. Through her increase in income and rent increase, she started earning escrow savings as a PATHWorks participant. She was able to purchase a reliable vehicle with an interim escrow withdrawal as the program allows. Now that she had income, she wrote and followed a written budget to help her decrease her debt and increase her savings. This led to her credit score increasing.

In the fall of 2017, Linda decided to move to Arizona to be closer to her family. She was eligible to graduate PATHWorks and was able to use her escrow savings to support her move.

Linda moved back to Central Oregon in the Spring of 2019 and rejoined the PATHWorks program. Second time around, Linda continued pursuing her goals and had her sights set on homeownership as her ultimate goal. She was working full-time at Walmart at the time and decided to apply to COCC because there were better benefits, hours, and higher wages available. She was hired and started working full-time at COCC as a custodian in August 2019.

Over the next couple of years, Linda continued to work on her budget, paying down debt, and increasing her credit score and savings. A homeownership opportunity presented itself when BRHFH opened its application period at the beginning of 2021. Since Linda had been working on improving her finances, she felt ready to pursue her homeownership goal and applied. Linda was selected and started the process to purchase a townhome in Redmond. She also started a VIDA savings account to help her fund the down payment and closing costs and joined the Housing Choice Voucher homeownership program as is required to receive a mortgage subsidy to support her homeownership goal and be prepared to purchase the BRHFH home. As part of these programs requirements, Linda had to complete regular budgets, attend classes (including financial and homeownership) and complete her sweat equity hours for BRHFH.

Linda put in the hard work, time and dedication to accomplish all of the required tasks. Linda graduated from the PATHWorks program in May 2022 and closed on her new home the following month in June. Through this process, Linda said these programs helped her in so many ways. They stretched her and helped her realize she is a stronger person than she thought she was. She overcame fears of not being able to do a budget, not wanting to look at finances, to having to do these things and learned she could by being provided the support and being held accountable to get them done. She said knowing that she got through all of this, she achieved her goal of homeownership, her confidence has increased and she now knows she can do whatever she puts her mind to.

This is the beginning of a new journey for Linda. The next step, working towards earning her GED! Linda belongs to Choctaw Nation based out of Oklahoma and is receiving support to help her continue to reach all her goals and what she sets her mind to.

Congratulations Linda and keep up the momentum!

Cyndy started receiving the Housing Choice Voucher rental assistance 6 years ago in September 2016. In August 2022, she became a first-time homeowner! This path was not easy for her, and her goals felt out of reach. Though there were many times that Cyndy did not believe in herself, and she wanted to give up, she didn’t. She continued to pursue her goals and just took the small steps one at a time to lead her to purchase her home.

When she started receiving the voucher, Cyndy was a single mom of a teenage son struggling to make ends meet by working part-time at Dollar Tree. She immediately signed up for the PATHWorks program to work towards her goals of improving her finances, preparing for homeownership, and utilizing her Culinary and Associate of Applied Science (AAS) degree to open her own food truck business.

Cyndy suffers from chronic pain. Due to injuries from a recent vehicle accident and a bad fall at that time, Cyndy felt limited in her physical and mental abilities to move forward in pursuit of her goals. She decided to take matters into her own hands and started getting the medical assistance needed to help her towards recovery and she continues to this day for ongoing improvement.

Shortly after starting PATHWorks, Cyndy looked for a new job. She was hired as a caregiver part-time and has been working in this field ever since. With the increase in income, Cyndy started earning escrow savings. After reviewing a copy of her credit report and debt analysis, she created a debt payoff plan using her budget that she routinely updated as needed. As she paid down her debt, she was approved for more credit and managed her credit responsibly which led to her credit score increase.

Cyndy had her sights set on owning her own food truck but decided she wanted to pursue homeownership since she wanted stability first. With her income, savings, and credit score increasing and debt decreasing, this dream was starting to be more within Cyndy’s grasp and she started believing in herself a little more. So, she applied for the VIDA matched savings program as the next step. Shortly after opening her VIDA savings account in April 2021, Habitat for Humanity opened its application period and Cyndy applied and was approved! Around this same time, she got a second job to help her continue to increase her income and savings, and decrease her debts. Once she felt caught up in her finances, she was able to quit the second job and use her income from her first job, the Housing Choice Voucher Homeownership Program, and Social Security income to secure the income needed to fully qualify for the Habitat for Humanity program. Cyndy worked hard and with the support of the team involved in all these programs, Cyndy completed all the program requirements such as financial education and a first-time homebuyers education course through NeighborImpact (Central Oregon's HUD Certified Housing Counseling Agency), budgets, sweat equity hours, and more!

Cyndy shows how taking small steps one at a time can lead to being prepared when opportunities present themselves. She now has a home to call her own with a spare room, and a room for her now adult son to visit his home away from home. Cyndy stated this about her journey "Pain changes the way you think about yourself. You compare yourself to others that don't have pain and you begin to feel less and less about yourself. The support from my son, the PATHWorks program, and others gave me the encouragement and the strength to continue and persevere. The program to save and increase my credit score only happened because of the faith everyone had in me to do it which helped me with my self-esteem and therefore I pushed forward to accomplish those dreams and goals."

Congratulations Cyndy on purchasing your home! Next stop, food truck business owner!

Check out the Stories of Transformation video below to hear more about Linda's story as well as others in the PATHWorks program.

Is the PATHWorks program for you? Check out the Housing Works PATHWorks video to learn more.

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