1970's: From a Grassroots Movement to a Nonprofit Agency

The agency's first decade served as a time of grass roots philanthropy, with a handful of dedicated staff and board members reacing out to the community to identify and fulfull basic housing needs for clients.

The roots of the agency's cornerstone Home Maintenence and Repair Program - which leveraged volunteer manpower to repair and referbish homes in low-income communities - can be traced to this early era of service.

So, too, is the agency's ability to recruit, rally and work with groups of volunteers, which over the years has resulted in millions of dollars in cost-savings for deserving clients.

1980's: An Era of Program Development
Brothers Redevelopment, the 1980's will forever be characterized by the creation of many of the agency's popular programs that remain in place today - from property management to housing counseling.

During the early 1980's, Brothers made the transition from housing refurbishment to housing provision with its purchase and redevelopment of Edgewater Plaza - an 84-unit, federally subsidized senior housing complex located in a west Denver suburb.  By the end of the decade, the agency would add another 150 units of affordable housing that would make available to a growing number of seniors residing along the Front Range.

The agency’s Annual Paint-A-Thon, the agency’s signature, senior-serving event also was established early in the decade.  Relying on teams of volunteers to paint the homes of low-income seniors across Colorado, ‘Brothers’ has since used the the Paint-A-Thon to paint the homes of thousands of senior homeowners statewide.

The “Me Decade” also saw Brothers launching its successful Housing Counseling Division to provide consultation to first-time homebuyers and homeowners facing foreclosure. Among other things, the latter 80s concluded with the creation of Brothers Redevelopment’s Neighborhood Caretakers Program—an initiative that would over time see the agency and its volunteers coordinate wide scale repairs in more than two dozen metro area neighborhoods.

1990s: Partnerships are Paramount to the Organization’s Success
Entering its third decade with a host of successful housing programs in place, Brothers earned acclaim alongside new affiliations.

To a greater degree, the agency became a sought-after partner of local governments working to address critical housing issues, particularly in the area of neighborhood stabilization.  As a result, Brothers saw incredible growth in both the Annual Paint-A-Thon and Neighborhood Caretakers initiatives - major efforts with the potential to broadly and dramatically impact local communities.

'Brothers' also built and maintained relationships with growing numbers of foundations and other philanthropic organizations who saw the organization as a viable and effective engine addressing housing affordability and accessibility.  These strategic partnerships - enduring, in part, thanks to the Brothers Redevelopment's focus on accountability - enabled the agency to serve a growing number of low-income clients along the Front Range.

2000: An Era of Sustainability
The organization's most recent history is one of strong financial stewardship and sustainability.  The agency's operation and ownership of 10 senior subsidized housing complexes provides the agency with an important revenue stream that generally covers administrative overhead and some staff salaries.

That means Brothers Redevelopment raises funds solely to cover the costs associated with the implemenation of its key programs - all of which ahve seen dramatic increases in volume over the past decade.

More importantly, 'Brothers' focus on strong fiscal stewardship means that the agency is able to address new housing challenges facing the region.  In 2006, the Colorado Division of Housing selected the agency to manage The Colorado Foreclosure Hotline and its network of some 26 housing counseling agencies across the state - an effort that has brought the organization unprecedented acclaim alongside international, national and local media attention.

2008: Formal Partnerships Established
In 2008, formal partnerships were established with several north metro area municipalities to stabilize neighborhoods and improve the housing stock in those communities.  Over the past two years, Brothers Redevelopment has worked in a formal capacity with communities such as Denver, Arvada, Brighton, Commerce City, Northglenn, Thornton, Westminster, Wheat Ridge and unincorporated areas in Adams County.

The agency's ability to recruit and work along side volunteers also remains impressive.  In the summer of 2008, volunteers donated a record 20,713 hours to serve Brothers Redevelopment clients.  Their collective contribution was valued at more than $403,500 in donated labor - savings that the agency passed on to its deserving clients.