Morris County Residents Celebrate Community During NeighborWorks Week

Beginning on June 6th, New Jersey residents are invited to join in a series of four free Zoom workshops hosted by The Housing Partnership, kicking off a weeklong celebration of neighborhood revitalization activities nationally recognized as NeighborWorks Week. During NeighborWorks Week (June 5-12), The Housing Partnership and other NeighborWorks nonprofit organizations across the country will highlight neighborhood change and awareness and host a number of events that educate, train and enlighten. The events demonstrate the value of neighbors helping neighbors. 

The Housing Partnership will host free Zoom workshops that provide important information to homeowners, landlords, and tenants on topics important to them and their finances during the Covid pandemic. These topics include forbearance and foreclosure prevention options and tenant rights in New Jersey. In addition to this, one of the workshops will be in Spanish. The Housing Partnership’s Executive Director, Jessica Padilla-Gonzales, said, “Even through the pandemic, we stayed strong on our goals of help people to become homeowners and to keep our communities in stable housing situations. This year, despite Covid, we were able to pivot our services to the virtual space and reach more clients than we ever have. We had over 400 families complete our Homebuyer Education Course and 146 families buy their first homes, the highest number we have ever helped. We also developed a new rental counseling program to help distressed tenants and provided foreclosure counseling to over 100 new families. Housing insecurity has spiked to high levels since the Covid pandemic hit but The Housing Partnership leaned on their decades of experience in helping to keep people in their homes. Barbara Orfini, a client which The Housing Partnership helped to avoid foreclosure on her home has this to say: "None of us are losers - we are survivors with the help of others. And, without this help, it never would have happened. I’m in my home of 34 years; I promised my children I’d keep them in my home. That’s where we are and that’s where we plan on staying." The Housing Partnership is part of the national NeighborWorks network, an affiliation of nearly 250 nonprofit organizations located in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In fiscal year 2020, the NeighborWorks network provided more than 438,600 housing and counseling services; owned and managed 179,900 rental homes; and created 43,810 jobs. The NeighborWorks network was founded and is supported by NeighborWorks America, which creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives, and strengthen their communities. Since 1992, the Housing Partnership, located in Dover, New Jersey, has been the resource for homebuyer education and programs in Northern NJ. They have changed lives and communities through education, free counseling services, and special financial programs. Their workshops and one-on-one counseling, offered in both English and Spanish, have been the first step for over 1,000 families in their homeownership journeys and they’ve helped many more through their affordable housing, down payment assistance, and foreclosure prevention programs. You can find more information on their website: https://www.housingpartnershipnj.org/ or they can be reached via email at [email protected] or phone at (973) 659-9222.