NHSQ Housing Expo 2023: A Remarkable Achievement

The Neighborhood Housing Services of Queens (NHSQ) celebrated a remarkable achievement on July 22nd, 2023 when it hosted its annual Housing Expo at the Queens Museum. The event attracted more than 400 attendees who were eager to learn more about their housing options and opportunities. The event also featured 40 vendors who offered valuable guidance and support to renters, first-time homebuyers, homeowners, and community mem­bers. The event was a great success that showcased the NHSQ’’s efforts promoting, creating, and pre­serving generational wealth for low to moderate-in­come neighbors.

Yoselin Genao-Estrella, the Director of NHSQ, expressed her satisfaction with the turnout and the feedback on the event. She also emphasized the im­portance of “working together with public and pri­vate sector partners to create access and opportunities for our families, ranging from home­ownership, to digital literacy, and financial literacy, in order to create and preserve generational wealth in our low to moderate-income communities.”

The children and adults had a great time with Mr. and Mrs. Met, who welcomed them.

Several leaders in housing and community de­velopment have expressed their support for the event, such as Jessica Ramos, New York State Sen­ator; Steven Raga, New York State Assemblyman; and Daphany Sanchez, who is the Executive Direc­tor of Kinetic Communities Consulting. They were at the event and interacted with participants.

Senator Ramos said, “Every day, my office re­ceives many calls from people who are struggling with the high cost of housing in our city. Affordable housing has been a major issue for a long time, and events like this one are important to provide infor­mation and assistance to people who need it.”

Sanchez said that Housing Expo was a great op­portunity for people to take control of their housing, energy, and job opportunities. She also said that she was glad to connect with the community and help them with their needs.

The 40 vendors who participated in the Housing Expo represented different sectors of the housing industry, such as banks, lenders, government agen­cies, non-profits, and contractors. They provided services such as mortgage counseling, home im­provement loans, community development proj­ects, and solar energy installation. Some of the vendors were Bank of America, Valley Bank, Ki­netic Communities Consulting, and SONYMA.

NHSQ Housing Expo 2023: How to Achieve Your Housing Dreams in Queens had more than 400 attendees interested in learning more about their housing options, making the event a great success. Above are Danny Rivera and his wife at the expo.

The attendees of the Housing Expo were mostly residents of Queens who were looking for informa­tion and resources on how to achieve their housing goals. Some of them were renters who wanted to buy their first home. Some of them were homeown­ers who wanted to improve or preserve their homes. Some of them were community members who wanted to learn more about the neighborhood and its opportunities.

Maria Martinez was one of the attendees who learned a lot from the event. She said that she found out that there are grants for buying a home for the first time. She also said that she “learned what are the documents needed to buy a house.”

It was a fun day for the chil­dren, who participated in fun and educational activities, and had their faces painted.

Danny Rivera was another attendee who came to the expo with his wife seeking information on securing affordable housing. He said that renting is expensive, and he wanted to know how to apply for affordable housing. He also said that he would like to buy a home, but due to the increase in interest rates and the high prices of homes, he could only consider affordable housing for now.

The event received positive feedback from the community and it also had a Kids’ Zone, where children could participate in activities such as finan­cial literacy, neighborhood and housing visioning, face painting, and an opportunity to meet Mr. & Mrs. Met. In addition to the Kids’ Zone, the event also offered free raffles for the participants. As a bonus, they had a chance to win prizes such as tick­ets to see the NY Mets play, Target gift cards for $150, Nike Apple Watches and JetBlue travel cer­tificates to any city they serve.

The event had the support of various banks and businesses, such as NY Mets owner Steve Cohen, Lemle &

One of the Housing Expo sponsors, MortgageDepot, ran a raffle for a Nike Apple Watch. The delighted winner was presented with the watch by Orlando Jarrin of MortgageDepot.

Wolff, and Foxy Management. It also had participation from the offices of several elected officials. These included Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congresswoman Grace Meng, NYC Coun­cil Speaker Adrienne Adams, Councilmembers Francisco Moya, Julie Won, Selvena Brooks-Pow­ers, and Shekar Krishnan, and Assemblymembers Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, Jeffrion Aubry, Catalina Cruz, and Jenifer Rajkumar.

NHSQ is a non-profit organization that pro­vides affordable housing and financial education to low and moderate-income families in Queens. NHSQ’s mission is to create and preserve genera­tional wealth for its clients and communities. NHSQ offers a variety of programs and services, such as homebuyer education, foreclosure preven­tion, home improvement loans, and community de­velopment projects.

For more information about NHSQ and its pro­grams, visit their website, www.nhsofqueens.org. You can also follow them on Facebook/nhsofqueens, Twitter/nhsofqueens, or In­stagram/nhsofqueens/. You can also call them at (718) 457-1017 or email them at [email protected].