Portland Housing Center Receives $300,000 Grant From KeyBank To Support Communities With Historically Limited Access to Homeownership Opportunities

PORTLAND, Ore., December 4, 2024 /3BL/ - Portland Housing Center (PHC) has received a $300,000 grant from KeyBank to expand homeownership opportunities for historically marginalized communities.

PHC aims to make home ownership possible through quality education, counseling and financial services. Its mission has evolved as the market has, and to sustain responsiveness to emergent community needs and housing market trends, PHC remains agile—creating services and products that fit customer needs, including down payment assistance with matched savings, deferred/forgivable loans, second mortgages and referrals to vetted lending partners and realtors.

This specific grant will expand outreach and support to Spanish-speaking clients to increase rates of homeownership among Hispanic/Latinx communities. By addressing the systemic barriers these populations face, this initiative aims to provide culturally relevant financial education and guidance tailored to their unique needs. Direct beneficiaries are Spanish-speaking individuals and families, particularly low-to-moderate income households within the Hispanic/Latinx community who face historical and systemic barriers to homeownership. In addition to significantly increasing homeownership rates among Spanish-speaking households, this will contribute to the broader community’s economic and social well-being, reducing the racial wealth gap and advancing equity in housing access.

“PHC knows that homeownership is vital to the health and well-being of families, and its efforts to support underserved populations squarely addresses KeyBank’s funding priorities,” says Josh Lyons, president of KeyBank in Oregon and Southwest Washington. “KeyBank has long been an avid champion of PHC’s proven model, and we are delighted to accelerate our support with this new grant.”

“We are deeply grateful for KeyBank's generous support,” said Dana Shephard, Executive Director of Portland Housing Center. “This $300,000 grant will help us expand our outreach to Spanish-speaking individuals and families. By providing culturally relevant financial education and personalized guidance, we can help overcome systemic barriers to homeownership faced by the Hispanic/Latinx community. Together with KeyBank, we're making strides toward equitable housing access and helping more people achieve the dream of owning a home.”

About Portland Housing Center

Portland Housing Center (PHC) is a nonprofit one-stop-shop homeownership center specializing in accessible and culturally responsive home-buying education and financial services to prepare first-time home buyers to become long-term homeowners. Founded in 1991, Portland Housing Center opened its doors as a call to action in response to declining homeownership rates in Northeast Portland caused by redlining and other discriminatory housing policies practiced by banks and mortgage lenders. PHC quickly identified a need for a community-driven, accessible, ‘housing information clearinghouse’ for renters and hopeful first-time homebuyers—especially populations disenfranchised by past discriminatory housing policies.

About KeyCorp 

KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $190 billion at September 30, 2024. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,200 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

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CONTACT: 

Portland Housing Center | Tai Love | 469-212-2727 | [email protected] 

KeyBank | Laura Suter | 206-343-6953 | [email protected]