A Life Transformed
Mary-Elizabeth’s Journey from Grief to Giving Back
Mary-Elizabeth calls Greenbrier Village her “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” and said she’s grateful to be given such a gift.
Dennis Finds Motivation, Safety at Las Dahlias
“I never thought I would be in this situation.” In search of a fresh start, Dennis traveled back to Los Angeles hoping to find housing soon.
Family Finds Room to Grow at Las Dahlias
For five years, Micala and her two children constricted their lives into a single room at her parents’ tiny Boyle Heights house, overwhelmed with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic and escalating family friction.
Resident Finds Independence at Las Dahlias
By day, Jonathan was a student at Cal State LA, working to obtain a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering. By night, he was homeless, living illegally on the very same campus.
A Life Transformed: Follow Up at Valley Senior Village
Valley Senior Village resident Guy is celebrating seven months of flourishing at National CORE’s Escondido-based affordable housing community
Fernando Cardenas: From Financial Crisis to Construction Maestro
Fernando’s journey to his current career started during the 2007-08 financial crisis. Despite having earned his contractor’s license in 2006, he found himself laid off and faced with an uncertain future.
Single mom Starts Over at Vista de La Sierra
In 2021, the 25-year-old single mom moved from California to Georgia to create a better life for herself and her three small children.
Vista de La Sierra Provides Refuge for Charles After Three Years on the Streets
In late 2023, Charles found a helping hand and moved into National CORE’s newly opened Vista de La Sierra affordable housing community in Riverside, California.
Maggie Finds Safety, Security at Santa Angelina
Over the next year, Maggie struggled to get by, relying on her meager savings, a monthly Social Security income of $600 and the kindness of friends and family to prevent her from slipping into homelessness.
Guided by Faith, Senior Resident Finds Peace After Years of Turmoil
After his mother’s death in 2015 and significant health challenges of his own, mounting expenses and an unmanageable reverse mortgage plunged Mark, then 55, into the terrifying world of homelessness.
Resident Recovers Health, Optimism at Nestor Senior Village
In 2022, her stable home suddenly disappeared and, at the age of 65, Teretha found herself in a struggle with homelessness tangled with rapidly declining physical and mental health conditions.
Resident Gains Sobriety, Renewed Strength with Affordable Housing
It all started in 1999, when Brian injured his arm and it led him down the path of homelessness, physical and mental health illness and addiction.
Retiree Recaptures Independence, Freedom Through Stable Housing
Delaina is one of the millions of hard-working Americans who found themselves jobless because of a disability diagnosis, leaving her unable to afford rent.
Affordable Housing Gives New Start to Single Father
For the last 16 years, Clarence worked by day at a UPS distribution center and by night as a security guard – his way of ensuring he could meet the formidable rents prevalent in Southern California.
Mother of Three Rebuilds Her Life at Metro View Apartments
With three boys in tow, and isolated from her family, hope flickered when Alina discovered Metro View apartments, a new National CORE community opening in Rialto.
Valley Senior Village Helps to Heal Resident’s Heartbreak
Teri, 64, has bounced between motels, the street and homeless shelters since 2010, struggling with mental health challenges that escalated after the unexpected death of her fiancé, Robert, in 2022. Despite these hurdles, Teri still smiles endlessly and says, “Never...
Valley Senior Village Brings Love Back into Senior’s Life
Like a clock with missing parts, Guy's life seemed beyond repair. Over a seven-year period, the former mechanic, whose passion is fixing clocks, slid from injury to alcoholism to homelessness. Along the way, he became estranged from those he loved – his brother and...
A Life Transformed: Sadaia
For more than three years, Sadaia, 25, and her partner searched for a safe and stable home – a dream that launched a chaotic trek across the country, found her living out of motels, short-term rentals and, when resources ran dry, in her car. “It’s been three years of...
A Life Transformed: Resident Finds a Career at National CORE
A resident of Villa Plumosa in Yorba Linda, Daniel needed to find a full-time job after graduating high school in 2021.
A Life Transformed: Santa Ana Family Grows at Legacy Square
As Eduardo Garcia passed Santa Ana’s new Legacy Square housing community on his daily commute, he would longingly watch as residents hauled boxes of belongings into their new homes.
A Life Transformed: Single Mother of Two Finds Peace at Villa Serena
Yesenia, a single mother of two, sorts through donation boxes for household goods to decorate her new apartment. She eventually settles on three red plates and a lamp while her 3-year-old son clutches a Lego box he found tucked away in the community center of Villa...
A Life Transformed: Transition Age Youth Finds Independence at Villa Serena
Cassandra was never happier to see plastic plates than on the day she moved into her apartment at Villa Serena, a newly renovated affordable community in San Marcos.
A Life Transformed: Finding a Secure and Supportive Home After Years on the Streets
After five hard years on the streets, Ivan is still in Northeast LA. But now, he has a place to call home.
A Life Transformed: A Single Mom Pursues a Better Life
Living independently for the first time, Jeselyn is thankful for the two-bedroom apartment at Fairview Heights in Inglewood, allowing her to give her children the childhood she did not have.
A Life Transformed: Solving the Complicated Housing Equation in San Diego
National CORE Provides Stability for World-Class Mathematician Maziar has a tendency to make hard things look easy and downplay his success. Since a young age, he has shown world-class talent in math and science – in 2011, at age 17, he was one of a handful of...
A Life Transformed by Crestview Terrace
After moving into the new affordable housing community of Crestview Terrace in San Bernardino, Ruby, a single mother of two, has finally been able to take a breath
After Her Family Found a Home, She Found a Career
Jocelyn Vazquez very clearly remembers the moment when her family moved into the affordable apartment community of San Antonio Vista in Montclair.
National CORE: Providing Housing and Hope in Rancho Cucamonga
Charlie greets each new day looking out his bedroom window to view the sunrise as it appears over the San Gabriel Mountains. “It’s the first thing I do every morning. It’s very peaceful for me.”
A Life Transformed: Overcoming Adversity – A single mother finds hope at Vista Verde
Veronica*, a resident of the new affordable housing community of Vista Verde in the City of Ontario, has always dreamed of being a veterinarian. Although she knew she wanted to heal animals since she “was in diapers,” her path was never that simple.
A Life Transformed: Moving Beyond Homelessness
Before moving to Encanto Village, Robert spent nearly two years without housing. Despite owning his own landscaping business and taking odd jobs throughout the region, he could not keep up with the soaring costs of rental apartments.
Shevon Johnson: ‘A Stepping Stone for Greatness – A Better Life’
San Bernardino, Calif. – Shevon Johnson is determined to become a homeowner – to fulfill the American Dream that once seemed so far out of reach for the married mother of three who has spent much of her life in subsidized housing. Her new apartment home at Olive...
Omeika Candelaria: ‘There’s just such a good vibe’
San Bernardino, Calif. – Omeika Candelaria lived at the Waterman Gardens public housing project for so long, she can’t remember how exactly it happened. “I’d applied for public housing, and I think I got a letter in the mail that I was approved. But I didn’t know...
A Life Transformed: Moving here ‘just made my life perfect’
DOWNEY, Calif. – Valerie Aguilar is an honor student, a member of her high school scholarship club, Bible club and marine biology club, and will attend the University of California-Santa Barbara next fall in her quest to become an environmental engineer. Sounds like...
A Life Transformed: ‘I got my independence back’
YORBA LINDA, Calif. – Zack Collie lost his independence when he was 15, the victim of swim accident that left him paralyzed and reliant on others to perform such simple tasks as brushing his teeth. Now 22, he is getting that independence back – in college, with a...
A Life Transformed: ‘I never thought home ownership would actually happen’
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – For Nichole Callia, becoming a homeowner was about so much more than financial stability or having a permanent roof over her head. It was about breaking destructive cycles and providing her own children the kind of guidance she never received....
A Life Transformed: How Live-Work Spaces are Helping Building Karina Orozco’s American Dream
EAST LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Karina Orozco stops in mid-sentence, emotions taking her to a place she’d been trying to avoid. “It’s hard, but I would do anything for my children,” she says through her tears. “As parents, we don’t take days off. We don’t get sick. We do...
A Life Transformed: ‘I feel I won the lottery’
EAST LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The mannequin in Patricia Cruz’s store is a work in progress. An art piece more than a showpiece, it represents “the forgotten ones” – returning veterans who struggle to survive life outside the combat zone. In 2015, Patricia lost a...
A Life Transformed: ‘My kids and I have been blessed’
YORBA LINDA, Calif. – When Sarah Jones lost her job and any chance at child support in one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States, the mother of four children had a difficult decision to make: Remove her kids from the community and schools they’d...
A Life Transformed: When Strangers Become Family
Jasmine Martines felt alone and completely lost. The Hope through Housing Foundation gave her the strength and support she needed to start rebuilding her life. “What I learned this past year is that strangers can actually become family,” says Jasmine, a single mom...
Lives Transformed: Giving back after years of desperation and homelessness
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Living homeless in “the field,” raising her young daughter by whatever means she could, Lisa Ponder often wondered if she would ever again have a roof over her head. Life in a tent – surrounded by others who, like you, had lost just about...
A Life Transformed: Annifreed & Erin – How a 20-year relationship continues to help student and mentor
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. – Erin Welch follows a simple philosophy when it comes to helping the most vulnerable among us: “Kids need to have joy in their life, especially if they are experiencing difficult times,” says Welch, Director of Asset Management for National...
A Life Transformed: ‘I’m a driven person, and it is a rewarding feeling to know that there is help out there’
San Clemente, Calif- Kyril Bojckov doesn’t want a handout. At 27 with three jobs and monthly income of less than $3,000, he pays his bills on time and looks forward to moving up in the world. For now, however, he couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to live...
A Life Transformed: From homeless to community manager
Victorville, Calif. – Tiffany Petty is all about helping people. Even when circumstances left her homeless as a single mother raising three children, she never wavered from trying to help others avoid a similar situation. “I have to admit, it was very difficult having...
A Life Transformed: How Hope through Housing’s After School Program Paved the Path to College and Beyond
Montclair, Calif. – The Hope through Housing Foundation’s After School and Beyond program dared Itzel Farias to dream. Now 18 and beginning her second year at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Itzel is doing the rest. “I moved here when I was 10 years old,”...
A Life Transformed: Helping people comes full circle for a National CORE team member
San Bernardino, Calif. – Keanu Guerrero couldn’t have imagined a better outcome. Growing up in poverty in the High Desert of San Bernardino County, Guerrero knew that the opportunities awaiting others wouldn’t necessarily be there for him. Anything he achieved in...
How Lives Are Transformed by Hope through Housing’s After School and Beyond Program
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. – The Hope through Housing Foundation’s After School and Beyond program serves 1,300 low-income and at-risk children at 32 sites. Those are the numbers. The real stories are of young people with opportunities they might never have had...
A single dad’s story: ‘I want my kids to have everything I didn’t have’
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. – Single dad Rudy Miranda doesn’t hesitate when it comes to his priorities. “I want my kids to have everything I didn’t have,” Rudy says. “I never got a good education. At an early age, I was on the streets. When I got a job, I struggled...
‘I never thought in my wildest dreams I would end up here…This is my castle’
At 73 with a litany of health issues, Judy never figured she would have the opportunity to live in a community as “high class” as the Fountains at Sierra in Fontana.
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Building the Future of Community
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