As a partner with JRD & Associates, Inc., FirstPic, Inc. was awarded a contract in 2007 to provide technical assistance to public housing agencies (PHAs), financial institutions, and housing non-profit organizations in making available homeownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income families. This multi-year project involved the design and implementation of two pilot projects, one focused on residents/migrant farm workers, and the other focused on persons with disabilities. In each of HUD’s 10 regions, FirstPic, Inc. and JRD & Associates worked with clusters of community-based PHAs to achieve over 1,500 single-family homeownership real estate closings. We provided training and technical assistance to more than 800 PHAs to educate them on tailoring homeownership programs to most successfully meet the needs of these two populations. An important component of the program was assisting the PHAs in recruiting partners from the housing finance and real estate industry to expand financial resources for prospective homebuyers and also to increase awareness and understanding of these underserved populations.
