The society claims success in stabilizing the East Camden neighborhood, citing low vacancy rates and high homeownerships that are both better than Camden in general, its website says.
Since Father McDermott started St. Joseph's Carpenter Society more than three decades ago, it has graduated 3,000 people through its education program. It has helped with 450 home repairs and sold close to 1,000 homes. Once people buy, they rarely leave. Eighty-five percent of these homeowners still live in the home they bought from the non-profit.
Behind each number is a personal story.
"The exciting part is when we hand over keys to a family," said Hogan. "A lot of them just look at us like they never felt that this was going to happen."
Figueroa described the joy of closing day for clients: "sometimes they start crying, sometimes they run out and start screaming with their kids."
One beneficiary family was paying very high rent--so high that when they later became homeowners, their mortgage payment was only two-thirds the cost of their previous rent payment, Hogan said.
"The conditions were so bad that a young mother and young father spent most of their day in the car. The kids did their homework in the car, the kids ate in their car," Hogan recounted. Their vermin-infested rental apartment was in such bad shape that "they wanted to limit the time that the kids were in that environment."
Now they have gone through the St. Joseph's program and have a home of their own.
"She couldn't have been more pleased with the fact that she was now controlling her life in a much better way, and the lives of her children," Hogan added. "She was still working, like she had been before, but now the house was hers and she could keep it clean. And do everything she needed to do to keep her kids safe."
"This woman was all smiles," she said.
Figueroa said the mother is now back in school, which she wasn't able to do before. The father recently received a promotion at work. Contributing to this, she said, is "the fact that now they have their home, that space for their kids, and that backyard for the kids to play in, and for them to barbeque."
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The typical client of St. Joseph's Carpenter Society, according to Hogan, is "a hardworking, dedicated small family." Typical household income ranges from $20,000 to $35,000 per year. Clients are mainly Latino, but many come from Camden's African-American community or its small South Asian communities.
Figueroa said clients face housing issues and financial difficulties. Some need to learn how to save or to budget money. Sometimes their credit isn't what it should be, or they need to learn how to apply for grants, programs and loans.
"Those are things that we help them address when they come here," said Figueroa. "A lot of them don't know anything about banking. We help them maintain banking accounts, a line of credit and help them use it properly."
"We teach them about savings and the importance of long-term savings," she added.
It's not always easy to become a homeowner, especially in Camden.
"Sometimes the suggestions that we have for people are harder," said Hogan. "It's things like: you're going to have to work on finding a better job or taking a second job."