LA HABRA : Partnership Earns Housing Award
La Habra Neighborhood Housing Services Inc. and Quaker City Federal Savings & Loan will be honored with a national Social Compact Outstanding Community Investment Award for creating affordable housing in La Habra and Whittier.
With the award comes national recognition and a $5,000 grant, underwritten by State Farm Insurance companies, to be used by the NHS/Quaker partnership to make more affordable housing available to low-income residents.
NHS officials said they will receive the award Wednesday because of a project in Whittier and other projects in La Habra that impressed Social Compact, an affiliation of chief executives of 270 financial service institutions nationwide who are committed to investing in the country’s poorest neighborhoods.
Glenn Hayes, executive director of NHS, said the Whittier project involved spending more than $1.8 million to buy and refurbish five vacant properties in a crime-ridden, overcrowded neighborhood.
The homes would have been demolished if NHS had not stepped in. It then offered the homes to low-income first-time homeowners. Quaker City Federal offered low-interest loans for the purchases of the homes.
“These partnerships offer outstanding models for saving neighborhoods and homes,” said Henry Cisneros, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
