Dear Friends,

Plan, act, assess, adjust, grow, worry, struggle, adopt, sell, excite, envision, fail, cajole, change, grow, respond, submit, recognize, question, record, wait, beg, conceptualize, grow, describe, perform, reflect, adapt, convene, fumble, confront, relax, correct, succeed, grow, convince, score, repair, solidify, compromise, seek…and perhaps grow a little more...

These are the words that best describe NHSSV over the past three years. These are action words that communicate the tensions inherent in growth and development. They are words that signify the unsettling and sometimes unpredictable reality that a Board and staff must face in creating an organization and molding its products and services into something of value to its constituents and the community at large. And this, our first published Corporate Report expands on the themes and images that these words connote.

Plan, act, assess, adjust; a formula for viability in any organism and in any organization. NHSSV's dramatic growth, reflected in the Financial Highlights on the preceding page, began in January 2000 with a Board and Stakeholders Retreat. Although the attendees were small in number, the plan they ultimately adopted and began to act upon was expansive: Make home ownership for low-income residents of the Silicon Valley NHSSV's niche product.

In the fall of 2000, with increased operational and equity capital support from the City of San José's Redevelopment Agency and Housing Department and from Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, we opened the HomeOwnership Center. In the fall of 2001, we launched The HomeVenture Fund™, providing deferred second mortgage financing and bringing a new level of purchasing power to San José's working families.

We invite you to peruse the pages of this report and share in the stories they tell of plans enacted, struggles encountered, changes adopted…and growth achieved.

Ed Moncrief

Executive Director