Last week, staff from MPHA and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (TCHFH) gathered in Brooklyn Center to celebrate Angeline Rainey and Allen Weitzel, the first MPHA family to successfully achieve homeownership through MPHA’s Pathways to Success partnership. The celebration commemorated Angeline and Allen’s resilience on their journey to homeownership—an accomplishment they rarely dreamed for themselves in recent years.

Over a decade ago, Angeline and Allen were facing homelessness. Angeline was living out of her car and Allen was staying with family. When Angeline received the call that her family was approved for MPHA housing, the timing could not have been better.

Angeline and her family moved into a single-family home in Bancroft neighborhood in South Minneapolis. While living in MPHA family housing, Angeline and Allen made their home a refuge for both their children and grandchildren. Their grandchildren fondly called the home Grandma’s Safe Haven.

“We were so happy to have our little place,” said Angeline Rainey, Minneapolis Public Housing Authority resident. “It felt so great that we were in a house, not an apartment or townhouse.”

With their housing stabilized, Angeline and Allen were able to move up in their careers and increase their household income. And in 2023, they reached the income limits for MPHA housing. That’s when Angeline and Allen heard about the Pathways to Success program through MPHA staff and began their journey to homeownership.

“[The Pathways to Success team] believed in us even when we didn’t,” said Angeline Rainey. “They helped us get through the program and buy our home.”

Over the next several months, Angeline and Allen completed TCHFH homebuyer education classes and workshops, worked to improve their credit, and consolidated debt. They had a goal of providing a forever home for their family, and every day they were inching closer.

But their journey abruptly stopped in May 2024 with the sudden passing of their youngest daughter. With the waves of pain and grief from the loss of a child feeling too overwhelming to overcome, Angeline and Allen questioned whether to continue pursuing homeownership.

As time passed, and the initial intensity and shock waned, Angeline and Allen were able to find the strength to continue their homeownership journey—knowing that it was their children and grandchildren that inspired their goal of finding a forever home. And while they continue to carry the heaviness and grief of losing a child every day, they resumed the program’s coursework and worked to meet the financial eligibility requirements.

Earlier this spring, Angeline and Allen’s work and resilience paid off as they were deemed mortgage-ready and began house shopping. And after months of searching, they closed on their new Brooklyn Center home in July.

“It feels so good to own our home,” said Angeline Rainey. “And to be able to fix it up to be truly ours, it makes me happy.”

As new homeowners, Angeline and Allen are excited they have reasons to make trips to the home improvement stores. Homeownership is something they never know they would be able to achieve but thanks to the encouragement and support services of the Pathways to Success partnership, Angeline and Allen are proud homeowners.

Established in 2023, Pathways to Success is an innovative partnership that takes a holistic approach in empowering MPHA residents to achieve long-term financial stability. The partnership connects MPHA families with Twin Cities R!SE (TCR) to deliver career readiness training, PRG, Inc. (PRG) to provide specialized financial coaching and credit remediation services, and Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity to connect families with homeownership education, financial coaching, and variety of homebuying tools to make homeownership a reality.

At MPHA, agency staff take a proactive approach to introducing MPHA families to the voluntary programming. Once a family has lived in MPHA family housing for a month, agency staff contacts the family to share details about the partnership. When residents express interest, MPHA staff helps enroll them in TCR’s career training program. While the TCR program spans two years, the first milestone is an eight-week personal development and career readiness training. To date, 12 MPHA residents have completed the eight-week training. Two residents have gone on to full-time employment while eight residents are currently working with TCR employment specialists on resume building, mock interviews, and job searches. Two residents have exited the program.

As families earn more income and begin to near MPHA’s income limits for its housing, agency staff contact these families and share details about TCHFH’s homeownership and financial literacy programs. The TCHFH program works one-on-one with residents to get them mortgage-ready by providing financial coaching, homeownership education, unique homebuying financial tools, assistance addressing collections and judgements, building savings for down-payments, and providing hands-on support both during and after their homebuying journey.

To be eligible for TCHFH’s homebuying program, however, residents need to meet specific credit score, debt, and debt-to-income ratio requirements. For residents who are ineligible for TCHFH’s homebuying program, MPHA staff offer to refer the family to PRG to access credit and debt remediation services. Upon successful credit and debt remediation, families can then choose to remain with PRG or return to TCHFH to resume their homebuying journey—with PRG offering one-on-one homebuying counseling, workshops, and financial coaching.

Once residents are mortgage-ready, TCHFH supports their homebuying journey on the open market or among TCHFH -developed properties in the seven-county metro area. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity’s affordable mortgage offerings are structured to cap monthly payments at 30 percent of household income, mirroring what residents pay for rent in MPHA housing. Additionally, TCHFH offers a 5.875 percent fixed interest rate, no mortgage insurance requirements, and homebuyer support for life of the loan. Following the homebuying purchase, TCHFH offers post-purchase support programming, including foreclosure prevention and home maintenance coursework.

Key to this partnership’s success is the stable, affordable housing MPHA provides families from which to build their financial future. For many MPHA families, including Angeline and Allen, increasing their income and reaching financial milestones would not be possible for them without MPHA’s housing and the resources provided by this partnership.

For MPHA families interested in enrolling in the workforce, financial, or homeownership programs available through the Pathways to Success partnership, they can contact A Vue, MPHA Housing Stability Coordinator, at avue@mplspha.org or (612) 476-2959. Alternatively, they can speak with their property manager who can connect them with the partnership team.