Who We Are
Mission First Housing Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to ensure everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home.
Our Vision
Mission First Housing Group's vision is to be a premier partner in expanding affordable, equitable, safe, sustainable home options in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Mission Statement
Mission First Housing Group’s mission is to develop and manage affordable, equitable, safe, sustainable homes that support residents and strengthen communities.
Core Values
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Inclusive Leadership
We lead with a commitment to helping staff and residents feel that they belong and perform at their best.
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Empowered Engagement
We provide staff and residents with tools, resources, opportunities, and support to help them succeed.
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Collaborative Creativity
We invite every person to express their ideas, and we leverage our collective strengths in the ways we work, act, and solve problems.
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Intentional Integrity
We tell the truth. We conduct ourselves in the best interests of residents and communities and act to grow trust in carrying out our roles and responsibilities.
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Objective Openness
We promote transparency.
Brief History
What began more than 30 years ago as a joint venture between the City of Philadelphia, HUD and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has become a full-service, nonprofit affordable housing organization developing high-quality, green community assets across the Mid-Atlantic region. Mission First’s original purpose was to provide for the housing needs of adults living with chronic mental illness. In June 1989, Mission First acquired its first property – a South Philadelphia duplex. Our first resident moved in to an apartment there October 1, 1989 and lived there for 22 years.
Over the course of our history, Mission First employed a number of key strategies and innovative practices to support its expansion, including incorporating an affiliated nonprofit entity to lease, manage and maintain its properties and coordinate resident services; leveraging funding to acquire property; assembling complex financing sources; and developing a successful model for utilizing mergers, acquisitions and friendly take-overs to help stabilize troubled affordable housing projects and expand its portfolio.
Having developed a successful model for providing safe, quality, affordable housing for a particularly vulnerable population, Mission First sought to expand its model to new geographies and serve others in need. Mission First’s footprint is now the entire Mid-Atlantic region and it now serves a diverse resident population that includes families, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Today Mission First provides safe, affordable, sustainable homes to nearly 6,000 people in over 4,000 apartments.
Mission First’s family of organizations:
1260 Housing Development Corporation
Mission First Housing Development Corporation
Making It Possible to End Homelessness
Mission First Senior Staff
- Thomas A. K. Queenan Chief Executive Officer
- Chip Darling Chief Operating Officer
- Mark Deitcher Chief Financial Officer
- Robert H. Kwait, Esq. Corporate Counsel
- Sarah Constant Senior Vice President, Real Estate Development
- Moira Rooney Senior Vice President for Fundraising & Communications
Board of Directors
- Michael Davidson, Esq., Chair Partner, Turner Law PC
- Mark Duffy, Treasurer Senior Vice President, Firstrust Bank
- Michael B. Simmons, CPM®, NAHP-e®, Secretary President & Chief Executive Officer, Community Realty Management
- Terry Booker Co-Founder, CEO and Director, Collective Impact Health
- Harry G. "Skip" Dittmann Retired,
- Shay K. Dugan Chief Operating Officer, Humphrey Management
- Jim Kilcoyne Veteran, Volunteer, Philadelphia Veteran’s Administration Medical Center
- Lianna Petroski Senior Vice President, Head of Acquisitions & Deputy Fund Manager, Real Estate Equity, Enterprise Community Investment
- Leigh N. Whitaker, Esq. Principal, Government, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney
- Marva Williams Independent Consultant and Adjunct Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University