Pub. 9 2018 Issue 3

Fall 2018 11 West Virginia Banker 2007 - The Fund financed it’s 100,000th home. 2013 - The Fund launched its Movin’ Up Program to help seasoned and higher-income home buyers. 2016 - The Fund broke its 2012 record by offering first-time homebuyers a 2.75% 30-year fixed rate loan, the lowest in the agency’s history. 2018 - The Fund has partnered with Federal Home Loan Bank Pittsburg on Home4Good, a multimillion dollar project to combat homelessness in West Virginia. Today, as we reflect on 50 years of doing all we can to help West Virginia achieve and realize its amazing potential, it is vital to thank our partners across the housing spectrum. We work with banks, lenders, non-profit organizations, civic groups, builders and tradespeople, elected leaders and government organizations at the municipal, county, state and federal level. Our mission is the same - to make certain that West Virginians have access to safe, decent affordable housing. People like the Holland family in Huntington. They used the Movin’ Up program and the Fund’s exclusive Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance Program to buy a house with a big back yard for their son Max. Keith Cox, a young attorney in Charleston, who wanted to buy his first place. Our customers can call our Charleston office if they have questions or concerns. We service our loans in house and we are the state’s largest service or mortgage loans. We pride ourselves on our exceptional customer service and our will- ingness to work with those who have entrusted us with what is often their biggest investment. Mortgages are just part of what we do. At the newly-remod- eled Sutton School in Sutton, we worked with developers to transform a crumbling old school house into gleaming new apartments. Ida Henderson, who now lives in a unit on the building’s second floor, attended school there in the late 1950s. When she roams the halls, she can still pinpoint her former classrooms. If she stands at the building’s main entry, she can look across the street and see the former soda foun- tain where she would go when the school day was over. Susan Larkin and her mother lost their home in Roane County when a nearby creek turned into a raging torrent and flooded the residence in June 2016. With the help of the Fund, they were able to rebuild. Susan worked with other families affect- ed by high water and helped them utilize Fund programs to rebuild or repair their homes. Tonia Pantoja didn’t have much hope. After a stint behind bars on drug charges, she was estranged from her family and struggling with addiction. She found a spot at Recovery Point in Charleston, became clean and now works as a peer mentor to help others battle the same demons that once haunted her. The Fund worked with Recovery Point to not only help build their rehabilitation facility, but we helped finance Re- covery Point Apartments, apartments for women who have successfully completed substance abuse protocol. Sometimes, the only way to create opportunity is to put the past behind us. Utilizing the West Virginia Property Rescue Initiative, the Fund works with local governments across the state to help them tear down blighted, dangerous structures. We love the Mountain State and we are proud of the con- tributions we have made. We hope to be here for another 50 years and we are honored by the faith that so many have shown in the West Virginia Housing Development Fund. 