Impact and Programs
Accomplishments
In 2018, PRG, Inc. acquired three lender - or city owned, single-family owned homes for renovation and resale to low and moderate income households, bringing our 9-year total to 86. We acquired five additional city-owned vacant lots for new construction, bringing our total Green Homes North and infill partnership with Phillips in South Minneapolis to 23 new homes. 75% of PRG’s single-family construction contracts awarded in 2018 went to minority-owned businesses and 25% went to women-owned business. Over the past 9 years, PRG has awarded over $12.4 million in single family construction contracts with 98% going to small, minority or women owned businesses. In 2018, PRG sold 6 homes with all but one purchased by households of color, and bringing the 9-year total to 99. Of these, 75% of buyers had incomes under 80% AMI, with the average median income at 66% AMI, including two households from Minneapolis Public Housing. . Last year, PRG's homeownership advising services provided free, one-on-one, foreclosure prevention assistance to 40 families. Of the cases resolved in 2018, 73% avoided foreclosure. Of foreclosure counseling clients, 93% had incomes under 80% AMI, 59% had incomes under 50% AMI, and 52% were households of color. In 2018, PRG held 18 first-time home buyer education workshops in north and south Minneapolis, providing education to 475 households. Of the workshop attendees, 84% had incomes under 80% AMI, 48% had incomes under 50% AMI, and 80% were households of color (an increase of 19% over the previous year). PRG also provided free, one-on-one, pre-purchase home buyer counseling and/or financial coaching to 236 families. Of households of color participating in our pre-purchase services, 52% go on to purchase a home within three years. This translates to approximately 275 new homeowners of color annually. In 2018, PRG established a partnership with Minneapolis Public Housing to transition their over-income residents to home ownership. Combining homeowner education, affordable housing options, and multiple programs and products, the partnership supports MPHA residents in transitioning from public housing to economic independence and homeownership, and opening up MPHA rental units, which has an extremely low vacancy rate with over 13,000 on the wait list, for families with the greatest needs. Currently PRG advisors are actively working with 24 households from Minneapolis Public Housing to transition to homeownership.
Current Goals
Provide home ownership education and counseling to 755 households; sell a majority of the 16 renovated or new single-family homes to households of color; and continue to partner with others to address unmet housing and neighborhood revitalization goals.
Community or Constituency Served
Services include neighborhood revitalization via brick-and-mortar development, partnering to address unique housing needs of special populations and HUD-approved, tri-lingual home ownership education and counseling to those households interested in attaining or sustaining home ownership, particularly among low income households, households of color, and immigrant households. PRG serves the Twin Cities with a focus on Jordan and Harrison neighborhoods of north Minneapolis and a section of Phillips neighborhood in south Minneapolis. In 2017, through a strategic partnership with The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, PRG developed a program focused on providing homeownership opportunities for MPHA households earning more than 60% AMI. Combining homeowner education, affordable housing options, and multiple programs and products, the partnership supports MPHA residents in transitioning from public housing to economic independence and homeownership. The benefits of the partnership are profound. Not only does the program directly address the racial homeownership gap, it opens up MPHA rental units, which has an extremely low vacancy rate with over 13,000 on the wait list, for families with the greatest needs, thereby serving constituents across the entire housing continuum.
Geographic Area Served
Seven-county Twin Cities Metro Area with an emphasis in Minneapolis.