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Subjects: Contract/Agreement, Funding

Largest New Mexico Homeless Service Provider Receives $420K Grant


Thanks in part to a $420,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) grant from Wells Fargo and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas), HopeWorks of Albuquerque, New Mexico, will soon have a new resource for assisting the local homeless community. The grant will help fund the construction of HopeWorks Village, a 42-unit permanent development for homeless individuals who have struggled with mental health and substance abuse disorders.

HopeWorks is the largest provider of services for people experiencing ? or who are at risk of ? homelessness, providing mental health and addiction recovery resources to residents. Executive Director Greg Morris describes the organization's approach to battling homelessness as a "housing first" approach.

"The ?housing first' approach essentially views housing as the end of a homeless episode, with wraparound services once an individual or family is housed," explained Mr. Morris. "Without AHP as a development source, we would have needed to scale back the community service provision space in the facility."

HopeWorks Village is New Mexico's first single-site housing project, where intensive services will be available onsite at the housing development. As part of its holistic approach, HopeWorks Village's homeless service provider will also serve as the landlord of the facility. Construction for the $9 million project will begin in October 2019 and be completed in late 2020.

YES Housing's Vice President of Development Michelle DenBleyker said this project is serving the area's most vulnerable individuals with the highest quality of service.

"This is the first housing development that is designed to successfully take people currently living on the street and ensure they have housing to keep them off the street," said Ms. DenBleyker. "We want to ensure they have a roof over their head and intensive services available to them."

Wells Fargo Vice President of Community Development Pat Nie said the AHP has enabled the bank to make an impact on the communities it serves.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that residents in our community have access to safe, decent and affordable housing," said Ms. Nie. "The Affordable Housing Program and our partnership with FHLB Dallas are integral to helping advance HopeWorks' mission."

AHP funds are intended to assist FHLB Dallas members in financing the purchase, construction and/or rehabilitation of owner-occupied, rental or transitional housing for homeless individuals in their community. Funds for the program are targeted to benefit households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the median income of an area.

"The AHP provides gap funding for projects so that our members can provide special-needs residents with access to affordable housing," said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas. "This wouldn't be possible without our partnership with Wells Fargo and their relationship with local developers, like YES Housing."

In 2018, the AHP, offered through FHLB Dallas member institutions, awarded $14 million in grants to 29 affordable housing projects. Since the program's inception in 1990, more than $278 million in AHP funds were awarded to assist 51,000 households.

Visit fhlb.com/ahp for more information on the AHP.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo's vision is to satisfy our customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,700 locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 32 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 262,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune's 2018 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank system created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $69.0 billion as of March 31, 2019, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced advances and other credit products to approximately 820 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. Visit fhlb.com for more information.



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