Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services

Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc. (RNHS) has a long rich history in the City of Richmond. It has provided housing services to Richmond residents since 1981. RNHS was founded by dedicated low- income Richmond residents to address the housing needs within the community and was created to strengthen low income families and neighborhoods through the development and management of housing projects.

RNHS has served hundreds of families and individuals in jeopardy of losing their homes. RNHS has developed, acquired and/or rehabilitated over 400 single family homes including housing developments in blighted and vacant lots to sell or manage as affordable homes to purchase, or rent for low- income families. RNHS has also served residents through our education programs that include financial literacy programs, home loan programs, foreclosure prevention, and affordable rental counseling.

The cornerstone of the organization’s mission is to ensure that East Bay (specific areas include Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo and Pinole) and County residents have access to affordable housing (by definition of those incomes below median levels) and rents; while staying relevant to the current housing crisis conversation taking place in the Bay Area. Currently RNHS is looking to add additional services to its platform to ensure the organizational relevancy.

The landscape of housing services has changed in the City of Richmond; currently RNHS is the only organization with an active concentration in the development and acquisition efforts to secure properties for low income families. The AHEAD grant will be instrumental in our efforts in developing the next stage of our work; this work includes the promotion of homeownership and affordable rents, and launching an advocacy component to ensure that under represented and underserved communities within the area RNHS ( Richmond, El Cerrito, San Pablo, and Pinole) serves are not ignored as significant dollars (NHTF- National Housing Trust Fund) are distributed through communities to address the rental housing benefiting extremely low income (ELI) households (75%) and the needs of very low income (VLI) households(25%) serving communities that have been labeled to have the greatest disparity related to income and housing.