Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) Houston received a $7.5 million grant in from the Wells Fargo Foundation in September 2022 to address systemic barriers to homeownership for people of color.
Led by LISC Houston, the Harris County Homeownership Collaborative (a group of 10 organizations with expertise in addressing the homeownership gap) developed the Own the HOU initiative and website to help create 5,000 new people of color homeowners in Harris County by the end of 2025.
In October 2023, Own the HOU was set to launch an interactive website to serve as the expert source of information and resources to assist people of color purchase a home and sustain homeownership in Houston and Harris County. Elmore was contracted to develop and execute strategic media relations, communications, and social media campaigns to generate awareness, excitement, and support of the new Own the HOU site and surrounding its launch event at Emancipation Park on October 6.
The event would announce the new initiative and website to community leaders, ambassadors, and professionals related to the housing industry to educate them on the initiative and request their support in promoting Own the HOU’s resources and tools within the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities.
We reached BIPOC communities through media relations by targeting black-, Hispanic-, and Asian-focused publications with pre- and post-event outreach, interview pitching and facilitating, and on-site media coordination.
Our communications efforts targeted community leaders in real estate and lending to inform and educate them on the resources available on the Own the HOU website. We created the event PowerPoint and script and provided ambassadors with a toolkit to help share Own the HOU with their BIPOC audiences.
Elmore established and grew Own the HOU’s Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn from scratch. We promoted the launch on these channels in both English and Spanish and posted live Instagram stories from the event.
Together, these efforts delivered a widely covered launch event that engaged the client and key partners. The success of the integrated campaign set the stage for Own the HOU to continue building momentum as a wide-reaching resource in the housing landscape in Houston and Harris County. Own the HOU now has a platform to promote future homebuying and home preservation strategies to help bridge the homeownership gap for communities of color in Houston and Harris County.
