Below is the story of Ronald & Adrienne Jones of West Haven, CT.

Hello, our names are Ronald and Adrienne Jones. I (Adrienne) became unemployed due to work force reduction in May 2009 from a job that I held for 21 years. My family hit hard times in October 2010 after going through our savings to try to make ends meet and keep things flowing financially, but we were unable to keep up with our high mortgage payment. We tried several times unsuccessful to handle this problem on our own by doing several things with our mortgage carrier. We tried 3 times to get help through them with their Unemployment Forbearance program and all 3 times we were turned down.

I was given the name of the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven by another agency who I thought was in a position to help us but they were not. But I tell you, the best thing that other agency could have done was to refer us to Neighborhood Housing where I was given an “angel” in disguise by the name of Jasmine Torres-Smalls. Before meeting with Jasmine I also tried on my own to get help through EMAP but was denied for that program because at the time of filing we were too far behind with our mortgage for that particular program. Once I hooked up with Jasmine she told me about this other program EHLP (Emergency Homeowners Loan Program) with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) and we had 2 days before the application deadline to submit our paperwork and it was a lot of paperwork in a short period of time but we pulled it together. The day of the deadline I was scrambling to get all paperwork together and Jasmine went above and beyond her duty to meet me at her office before hours just to make sure I had everything and lo and behold I was missing one crucial piece of paperwork and she gave us the time to get the paperwork that we were missing and bring it to her which she in turn hand delivered the complete application to Rocky Hill (that was in August 31st). She said now that, that was done CHFA had until the end of September to consider our application and we just had to sit and wait. Those were the longest six weeks of our lives. Waiting to see if we would be able to keep our home or become homeless after being in our home for 12 years. After many sleepless nights for a whole year, on October 4, 2011 we received a certified letter informing us that “WE WERE ELIGIBLE” for the program and that was the best news we could have received.

If it had not been for Jasmine and the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven I don’t know what we would have done. We are so grateful to this organization that they are in place to help people like us who are put in this situation due to the economy.

For those who are in a situation like we were, this organization and their staff will do everything possible to help you. Some words of encouragement; KEEP THE FAITH AND DON’T GIVE UP.

Humbly submitted,