Deneen Hooker

Mission First Housing Group is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to ensuring everyone has a safe, affordable house to call home. Mission First's mission is to develop and manage affordable, equitable, safe, sustainable homes that support residents and strengthen communities. What began more than 30 years ago as a joint venture between the City of Philadelphia, HUD and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has become a full-service, nonprofit affordable housing organization developing high-quality, green community assets across the Mid-Atlantic region. Mission First’s original purpose was to provide for the housing needs of adults living with chronic mental illness. Over the course of our history, Mission First employed a number of key strategies and innovative practices to support its expansion, including incorporating an affiliated nonprofit entity to lease, manage and maintain its properties and coordinate resident services; leveraging funding to acquire property; assembling complex financing sources; and developing a successful model for utilizing mergers, acquisitions and friendly take-overs to help stabilize troubled affordable housing projects and expand its portfolio. Having developed a successful model for providing safe, quality, affordable housing for a particularly vulnerable population, Mission First sought to expand its model to new geographies and serve others in need. Mission First’s footprint is now the entire Mid-Atlantic region and it now serves a diverse resident population that includes families, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, seniors and individuals with disabilities. Today Mission First provides safe, affordable, sustainable homes to more than 5,500 people in over 4,000 units. Our vision is to be a premier partner in expanding affordable, equitable, safe, sustainable home options in the Mid-Atlantic region.