PRG began in 1976 when a group of neighbors near Minneapolis' Powderhorn Park became concerned about preserving affordable, resident-controlled housing in their community. Today, communities all over the Twin Cities ask for our partnership and expertise to tackle the housing challenges they face. They know we'll listen and respond with creativity, diligence, and respect.

We have a long history of providing housing and services tailored to the unique needs of specific communities. For example, we've renovated apartments into cooperatives whose architecture and structure fits the lives and desires of southeast Asian immigrant families, and we've built housing for adults with mental illness that bridges the gap between group homes and independent living. We've counseled and supported thousands of first-time and first-generation homebuyers.

What our partner communities want most today is a way to stem the tide of home foreclosures and mitigate the effects of vacant, foreclosed homes.

So we're confronting the foreclosure crisis head-on:

* Our foreclosure counselors are among the most successful in the state, helping 70% of our clients stay in their homes and 80% avoid foreclosure. We provide this service free of charge.

* Hand-in-hand with some of the neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosure, we're rehabbing foreclosed homes and reselling them to well-prepared buyers with modest incomes, giving new life to vacant homes and new hope to neighborhoods.

* Our homebuyer workshops give first-time and first-generation homebuyers the knowledge and confidence to buy homes and be successful, long-term homeowners.