Our Vision
A healthy and vibrant community ensuring housing choices for everyone.
Our Mission
To cultivate partnerships and resources to increase the availability of quality, fair and affordable housing throughout Lancaster County.
Founded in 1994, the Lancaster Housing Opportunity Partnership (LHOP) is a community benefit 501(c)(3) organization created by county and municipal government, business and civic leaders focused on making homes more affordable to low to moderate income people living and working in Lancaster County. Through its programs and partnerships LHOP advocates, educates and facilitates local solutions to the county's growing need for affordable housing.
We believe that all families deserve a quality, affordable home, either to purchase or to rent. Lancaster County needs to provide residents with a continuum of choices that includes a wide variety of housing sizes, types, locations and prices. As a certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) serving Lancaster County, we are dedicated to providing a full range of technical and financial services to those seeking to create or preserve affordable housing.
LHOP is the community advocate and resource center for fair and affordable housing information, ideas, insights and solutions. We are able to help residents, builders, developers, lenders, real estate agents, and municipal officials turn the dream of a quality home into reality for working families throughout Lancaster County.
Products and services offered by LHOP include:
- Community Home Buyer Program – Provides education on home ownership and financial literacy for all Lancaster County residents and a source of home purchase financing assistance for low to moderate income individuals and families. The program works with HUD, PHFA, USDA and FHA.
Impact: provided home buyer education to over 8,500 people and $8.4 million in down payment assistance to over 1,700 LMI first-time home buyers.
- Fair Housing Center – Provides education, outreach and technical assistance to the community on fair housing and landlord/tenant laws.
Impact: greater knowledge of rights and responsibilities in such housing laws reduces friction and time consuming and financially costly complaints are avoided or mediated.
- Affordable Housing Development Technical and Financial Assistance - Provides developers and existing owners of affordable housing (non-profit or for-profit) with low cost, flexible capital to be used to finance site acquisition, pre-development, construction, rehabilitation and/or preservation costs.
Impact: assisted in the creation or preservation of over 665 units of affordable housing in Lancaster County by providing approximately $3,000,000 in loans.
- Community Outreach and Advocacy - Often, the conditions are not ripe for the creation of affordable housing; there are barriers. Over the years, the organization has advocated for the reduction of barriers to affordable housing, whether in the realm of public opinion or in land use regulations. LHOP is the only organization dedicated to such activity in Lancaster County.
Impact: public service television videos, reports, editorials, legislative testimony, brochures and targeted research has been provided in the effort of reducing barriers to affordable housing.