Meet Jerel Williams: SJHP Director of Business Development

By Carole Hawkins

Need an affordable home to rent? St. Johns Housing Partnership (SJHP) does that. Wait, what?

Yes, though best known for home repairs and weatherization, SJHP also provides rentals for people who might otherwise go homeless. Jerel Williams, SJHP’s Director of Business Development, is the guy who buys and manages them.

Williams is a veteran of distressed properties. A former sales engineer for Sprint telecommunications, he began investing in rental homes in 1997 to earn money for retirement. Then during the 2008 housing crisis, he picked up more.

“I had a passion for real estate,” Williams said. “I saw the power of helping people.”

In 2011 SJHP qualified for federal stimulus money to rehab 1,100 apartments. They hired managers to handle it all, and Williams was one of them. It kicked off SJHP’s rental arm and Williams has worked there ever since.

The job demands creativity. The nonprofit has to pay market rate for properties, but they don’t get the maximum rent.

“To be honest, it’s more difficult, because we’re competing with the for-profit world,” he said. “It’s a great mission-based company. But I sometimes remind SJHP Executive Director Bill Lazar that we do need to make money too.”

But he can clearly see the difference it all makes.

“There are more examples than I can count of teary-eyed people who say ‘thank you so much!’” he said.

Learn more at www.sjhp.org.