In 2016, I sat in a tense board meeting of what was then called the Community Hope Center. Our community was facing a housing crisis, and board members were split on whether the “Hope Center” should get into the housing business. Some members reminded me that when I became the founding executive director of “Hope Center,” I swore we would never do housing. Three years later, I was advocating for us to become a housing organization in addition to our work in diversion and case management. I understand why everyone was having a hard time. We had promised not to provide housing, and I was telling the board we were wrong.
That night will always live in my memory. We lost supporters that I dearly cared about. But I could see what we were facing in our community, and I knew we had the capacity to help more. I didn’t want to back down. And so, in February 2016, “Hope Center” made the decision to begin administering HUD rapid re-housing. Since that time, we have housed hundreds of families.
Fast forward to 2023— we’ve changed our name to Hope Partnership with the knowledge that we were doing far more than offering a center on the 192 corridor and that our work was bigger than one building. And on Sept. 29, we purchased our third building — a 34-unit hotel that we will convert into affordable housing.
I could cry sitting here thinking about the last 11 years of our work in this community and how we get to keep going. I cannot wait for construction to begin. I cannot wait to open the doors of what we are lovingly calling THRIVE Studios. For now, we had a wonderful open house and press conference where so many of our supporters spoke on the importance of why a project like this is necessary, and we were able to show off what wonderful shape the motel is currently in. I hope everyone is able to see the future of gorgeous apartments coming very soon.
So much of my work on this project, along with our COO Will Cooper, has been the planning stages architectural renderings, city and county building development meetings, and selling a dream. Now, we get to do the next right thing in the work of Hope Partnership and BUILD HOPE, and I’m so thrilled that you get to be on this journey with us.
It’s not going to be easy, and there will inevitably be bumps in the road, but I know that our community is behind us and that each one of you believes that everyone deserves a safe place to call home. I especially want to ask that if you are planning to make a financial contribution to Hope Partnership this holiday season you’ll consider donating to support the work of Thrive Studios and every single way we provide hope to our community.
Mary Downey is the CEO of Hope Partnership.
