About Us
Our Mission
Homeword is committed to providing safe, healthy affordable housing using sustainable methods and promoting strong communities through housing counseling and education for those most in need.
Historically the demand for affordable housing in Montana has exceeded the supply. Wages in the state are low while the cost of living remains high. And with the current financial crisis and record increases in unemployment, renters and homeowners alike find themselves especially challenged by issues of housing affordability.
Homeword recognizes these very real problems and seeks to address them with ecologically sound and socially responsible solutions. It all begins with our core belief—the simple notion that we cannot build for the future by destroying the environment today. We provide high-quality, sustainably-built housing that our residents are proud to live in and that the community as a whole is proud to support. We also teach financial literacy, as well as provide homebuyer education and counseling, as the first steps towards self-empowerment and self-sufficiency. This holistic approach continues to prove successful for us, our community, and, most importantly, for those most in need.
History
Homeword began as a project of WORD (Women’s Opportunity and Resource Development, Inc.) in 1994, in response to the growing need for affordable housing in Montana. In 1998, Homeword became its own 501(c)(3) with its own Board of Directors and is now regionally and nationally recognized for its sustainable affordable housing development and programming. Since 1995, we’ve developed 13 innovative affordable housing projects totaling 228 units in Missoula, Billings, Anaconda, and Lewistown. Since 1997, our walk-in HomeOwnership Center (HOC) has served nearly 4,500 households, with over 720 clients buying their first home.
Our clients are as diverse as our state. We serve those working low-wage jobs, seniors on fixed incomes, individuals with disabilities, female-headed households, domestic violence survivors, veterans, and formerly homeless people, to name just a few. We work statewide and are committed to bringing our holistic approach to affordable housing to those communities most in need.
Our Awards
Our most recent project, Solstice, has received national recognition—most recently as the recipient of the 2011 Innovation Award from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Our Equinox project was recently honored as the national winner of the 16th Annual Charles L. Edson Tax Credit Excellence Award in the Green Housing category. In 2007 Homeword was recognized for overall practices within our community by the Orton Family Foundation’s inaugural PLACEMATTERS Innovator in Place Award and the Sonoran Institute’s Building from the Best of the Northern Rockies Award. In 2006, Missoula’s Orchard Gardens development was awarded the Home Depot Foundation’s Award of Excellence for Affordable Housing Built Responsibly in Rental Housing. The organization is a two-time recipient of a local Historic Preservation Award and was featured in Center for Community Change’s annual report, where its approach was called “unique – women-oriented, innovative, environmentally sound and eminently replicable.”