An Anniversary Message from Our President and CEO

By Clemente A. Mojica

As NPHS celebrates 35 years of Making Home Happen, I am reminded that behind every home is a family, a story, and the simple hope for a better future. That hope is deeply personal to me. I was just two years old when my parents brought me to the United States from El Salvador. We didn’t have much, but they carried something powerful. They believed their children could have a better life. When I look at the families we serve today, I see that same hope, determination, and willingness to sacrifice for the next generation. It is a hope that connects us all, regardless of where we come from, and one that has guided NPHS for 35 years.

What began as a neighborhood housing organization has grown into an innovative community development enterprise working to change how housing and opportunity are created. Today, NPHS is advancing more than 1,600 affordable rental homes through our Homes & Hope partnership, expanding affordable homeownership, pioneering factory-built and wildfire-resilient housing, and developing new financing solutions that help families purchase, improve, and preserve their homes. Through education, community lending, research, and policy innovation, we are addressing not only families’ immediate housing needs but also the systems that have kept opportunity out of reach.

We are proud of what we have accomplished over the past 35 years, but the challenges ahead demand that we be even bolder together. Rising housing costs, worsening wildfires, growing insurance challenges, and a rapidly changing economy are reshaping our communities. The challenges are coming faster than the old ways can keep up. We often hear, “Don’t reinvent the wheel.” But I say, “Let’s have the courage to reinvent it.” Because continuing to accept systems that are failing our neighborhoods isn’t caution. It’s blatant consent. At NPHS, innovation means more than doing things differently. It means having the courage to challenge what isn’t working, rethink what is possible, and build something better. Because the next generation deserves to inherit the opportunities we created, not the barriers we failed to remove.

Yet as we reflect on our accomplishments, I am reminded of something fundamental. It has never been just about the houses. It is about the lives those homes set in motion. It is about a child who grows up with the security to dream beyond their circumstances, parents who can finally plan for tomorrow instead of worrying about today, and families who begin building something that can last for generations. A stable home can change the course of a life and, at times, an entire family’s future. The true value of our work lies not simply in the homes we create but in the possibilities those homes make possible.

Thirty-five years ago, a group of neighbors believed their communities deserved better and chose to act. Thirty-five years from now, I hope future generations look back and say we carried that same courage forward. That we challenged what wasn’t working, invested in people and neighborhoods, and helped make what once seemed out of reach possible. But my greatest hope is that the children growing up in the homes we help make possible will never know the fear and uncertainty their parents faced. That what their parents fought so hard to achieve becomes the security their children grow up with and the foundation for dreams their parents never imagined possible. If we can make that happen, we will have built something far more enduring than houses.

As we begin our next chapter, I invite you to be bold with us, challenge what isn’t working, and imagine what we can make possible together. The choices we make today can shape the future for families we haven’t met and for generations we may never know. Perhaps that is the greatest measure of our legacy, not just the homes we build, but the opportunities we create and the lives that are better because we chose to act. That is our responsibility. That is our promise. And that is what Making Home Happen is all about.

Together, let us carry that promise forward for the next 35 years and beyond.

Clemente A. Mojica

President & Chief Executive Officer