Mission First Housing Group

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

  • Inclusive Leadership

    We lead with a commitment to helping staff and residents feel that they belong and perform at their best.

  • Empowered Engagement

    We provide staff and residents with tools, resources, opportunities, and support to help them succeed.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

Columbus Property Management

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

Thomas A. K. Queenan

Chief Executive Officer

ThomasQueenanPhoto
Thomas A. K. Queenan joined Mission First Housing Group in June 2022 as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Thomas reports to the Board of Directors and works collaboratively with Executive and Director-level staff members in each of Mission First’s business lines (development, construction, property management and resident services) and shared services to oversee, develop and implement the strategic plan, ensuring the organization consistently achieves its mission and financial objectives. He ensures the organization manages growth effectively; assuring financial strength while advancing the mission and builds the organization’s external identity in order to promote visibility, preserve and expand resources and connect with other professionals and organizations.

Prior to joining Mission First, Thomas served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). During his tenure at PIDC, Thomas was responsible for overseeing finance, financial reporting, accounting, and business operations, including IT and Data Management, Human Resources, Facilities and the Office of General Counsel. His work at PIDC was built on more than 30 years of diverse finance, and business operations experience, including CFO of the Milton Hershey School and Trust, VP Finance and Operations at Dickinson College, head of treasury operations at Temple University Health System and former City Treasurer during the Rendell Administration.

Thomas is a Philadelphia native. He is a graduate of Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. He also has a master’s degree in architecture and city planning from Columbia University and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Thomas practiced health care architecture for 10 years and remains a registered architect in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Board of Directors

Career Opportunities Join the Mission First Housing Group Team