A Life Transformed
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.
• • • •
Building the Future of Community
• • • •