Sixteen years ago, Rebecca Morton decided she wanted to own a home. She enrolled in a program with the Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) that let her apportion some of her rent towards the escrow.
Eighteen months later, in 1994, Morton purchased a three-bedroom home in the Venable neighborhood, where she still lives. “It felt really good,” says Morton. “I had to just step back that night, I didn’t have any curtains up or anything, and I just thought: this is my home.”
Last night, at a gala at the Key Recreation Center, PHA celebrated its record and previewed ambitious goals for the next 25 years.
Over the past 25 years, PHA, which is funded by government and private monies, has helped close to 500 clients, like Morton, become home owners. Ten percent of those received helped in the last year alone.
PHA Executive Director Stu Armstrong laid out even bigger plans: assist 1,500 additional first-time homebuyers; build or preserve 1,000 affordable rental-housing units; and obtain $250 million in financing for affordable housing. “It’s a very achievable goal,” he said. “We want to challenge the greater community to continue to support affordable housing and to think at a larger scale of what can be achieved.”
PHA celebrated its quarter-century anniversary with city officials, clients, staff and friends of affordable housing.