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2019 Second Quarter Report

Dear Friends:

Good jobs, housing, education, healthcare and financial services are essential tools when it comes to building stable families and prosperous communities. However, across the Deep South region served by HOPE, access to these tools is often limited, or nonexistent. Coupled with the alarming expansion of opportunity gaps in persistent poverty areas, and among people of color, HOPE’s work has never been more important.

For a quarter of a century we have deployed capital to address these gaps, while advocating for policies and practices that help people climb the economic ladder.  We were both humbled and emboldened when the National Housing Conference, which has been defending the American Home since 1931, honored HOPE for “pioneering work in our most underserved communities.”

With your support, we are making a difference. This quarter’s report highlights several examples of our continuing efforts to ensure that more people are equipped to support their families and communities.

Thank you for being our partner in this important and ongoing work.

Sincerely,

Bill Bynum, CEO, HOPE

Revitalizing Communities through Renovation

Ominah had lived in her community for 40 years, and as it deteriorated she wanted to move her daughters to a better place, but couldn’t afford to. Then, HOPE came into her neighborhood. HOPE financed the renovation of 32 housing units, working closely with Midtown Partners and Gulf Coast Housing Partnership to bring life into the community. It was for this kind of work that HOPE was recently recognized by the National Housing Conference with its 2019 Housing Visionary Award. “Hope Enterprise Corporation exemplifies the values of the National Housing Conference, believing that everyone in America should have equal opportunity to live in a quality, affordable home in a thriving community,” said David M. Dworkin, president and CEO of NHC. HOPE has financed more than 6,000 homes and affordable housing units across its five-state footprint in the Deep South, allowing families like Ominah’s to live in thriving neighborhoods.

 

The Door to Opportunity

Marcos was underbanked for several months after arriving in the U.S. “Other banks required a Social Security number and when I came, I was awaiting my legal status. HOPE was an option for me,” he said. HOPE’s efforts to expand financial access in the immigrant community includes using alternative forms of identification, including individual taxpayer identification numbers that are assigned to immigrant residents. In addition to conducting his banking transactions with HOPE, Marcos is also a partner. He previously collaborated with Latino Memphis, a nonprofit that provides advancement opportunities to the Hispanic community by offering financial mentoring to families. Now, he’s doing similar work at Freedom Preparatory Academy, where he’s introducing HOPE to families served by the school.

 

A Convenient Financial Partner

HOPE’s newest branch is not only a convenient stop along Cynthia’s daily route to work; she says it is also the place where financial partners consider more than her credit score when she’s applying for a loan. A bank once rejected her application because of a temporary mark on her credit history. “I really like the fact that the credit union takes into account your ability to pay,” she says, referring to lending practices that factor on-time payment of household bills, along with credit scores, when necessary. Jackson has a checking account, consumer loan and a credit card with HOPE. The longtime school safety coordinator says she stops by HOPE’s new McGehee Road branch because “when I walk into the credit union they greet me by name. A lot of banks don’t do that. The special attention makes me feel important.”

 


2nd Quarter News

60 Town Leaders Come Together to Build Community Development Capacity

Sixty Mississippi leaders came together in Greenville, Miss., to work toward a common goal – improving conditions in their towns and neighborhoods. They were participants in the 2nd Annual Community Leadership Institute, hosted by HOPE and NeighborWorks America.  The group, which included elected and nonelected leaders, and community development practitioners, underwent training designed to learn new strategies, and how to access resources to fund local projects. NeighborWorks instructor Peg Barringer drew the connection between community development and economic development – how investment in communities attracts industry. Small towns wrestle with decreasing tax revenue, limited private investment, and stretched municipal staffs. As a result, they struggle to advance community development priorities. The institute is part of HOPE’s Small Towns Partnership, a program designed to help towns undertake strategic development planning and implement projects that improve the quality of life.

 

HOPE Celebrates Silver Anniversary in the Natural State

In June, HOPE continued to celebrate a quarter century of strengthening communities, building assets and improving lives during a gathering in Arkansas, the state where HOPE made our first commercial loan in 1994. HOPE’s Board of Directors hosted a reception at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock that included long-time supporters, and a new group of prospective partners. Highlights from the evening included remarks from former U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Federico Salas, a HOPE member who shared the story of how HOPE provided the capital he needed to rebuild his business that was an economic generator in Little Rock’s Hispanic community.  Lincoln told the audience that HOPE works to “empower people. … HOPE really does matter for all of us in Arkansas.”  The reception was sponsored by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, one of HOPE’s earliest and consistent partners.

 

Download 2019 2nd Quarterly Report.