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• To learn more about credit counseling and down-payment assistance, call the Partnership at 755-2822.
The Partnership for Families, Children and Adults on Monday got a $100,000 check from First Tennessee Bank, which the partnership will divvy up into $2,500 matching grants to help people with credit problems make a home down payment.
"You cannot stabilize a life unless you put people in a home," said Pam Ladd, the president and CEO of the partnership, a Chattanooga nonprofit organization that traces its roots back to 1877 when it was a home for unwed mothers.
The $2,500 home down payment matching grants will be available to clients who get counseling through the partnership to improve their finances and credit scores.
"Clients completing their Consumer Credit Counseling program will now have even more incentive to bring up their credit scores: eligibility for matching funds for home down payments assistance," said Bryan Jordan, the president and CEO of First Horizon, the parent company of First Tennessee.
Jordan traveled from Memphis, Tenn., to the partnership's McCallie Avenue headquarters Monday to give a giant-sized check to the nonprofit's officials at a media event.
Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger, who was among the officials at the gathering, praised the partnership and First Tennessee for making an effort to get people into their own homes.
"We don't treat a rental car the way we treat our own car," Coppinger said, making an analogy in favor of home ownership.
First Tennessee Bank has a $50 million community development fund from which it gives about $3 million annually in communities where it does business. The fund supports such efforts as home ownership, financial and credit counseling for low- to moderate-income people, said Jeff Jackson, president of First Tennessee's market that includes Chattanooga, North Georgia and Atlanta.
"Partnership was just an obvious choice for us," Jackson said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.