Mission

Our mission is to promote stable, vibrant communities by providing our neighbors with comprehensive homeownership services.

Our Vision

We envision a future in which homeownership is affordable, attainable and sustainable for those who have historically faced barriers and injustice.

Our Values

Equity: We serve those who face unjust and systemic racial, cultural, and economic barriers in the home buying process.
Integrity: We promote an environment of transparency, accountability, inclusion, and honesty built on respect and trust.
Collaboration: We seek locally driven solutions with our Neighbors and non-profit partners in the public and private sector.
Empowerment: We encourage our Neighbors to achieve homeownership through motivation, education, and wealth-building.
Quality: We facilitate measurable, lasting outcomes through nationally recognized services, building on five decades of impact.

A National Movement that Started in Pittsburgh

For more than 50 years, NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania (NWWPA) has been enhancing the lives of and expanding housing options for our neighbors. In 1968, legendary community organizer Dorothy Richardson founded Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS)—which would eventually become NWWPA in 2007—to address the lack of safe and affordable housing in Pittsburgh’s Northside community. Richardson and her neighbors brought together financial institutions and government officials in a successful effort to revitalize their neighborhood. Their local work had national implications, establishing the new field of community-based development.

The success of NHS in Pittsburgh soon inspired the creation of similar organizations throughout the country and the formation of the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, created by Congress in 1977 to provide financial and technical support to the numerous NHS-inspired groups around the country. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation became NeighborWorks America in 2004 and currently serves a network of nearly 250 community development organizations in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Since our founding, NWWPA has continued Richardson’s work to improve the lives of residents and build strong, stable communities throughout Western Pennsylvania. Over the years, our events and workshops have expanded to meet community needs, and today we offer services across the entire spectrum of homeownership, from preparing homebuyers to preserving homeownership and preventing foreclosures. By working one-on-one with a homeownership counselor, individuals and families have access to the tools, knowledge, and resources necessary to set saving and spending goals, pay down debt, build and establish credit, and purchase their first home.