In 1994, I became HOM’s first employee. We were a small, family-run business administering HUD’s Shelter Plus Care and Supportive Housing programs, helping people experiencing homelessness move into homes of their own. I still remember fondly our first housing “surge,” supporting 13 individuals to transition from a closing facility to their own apartments. My friends and I loaded up our cars and trucks with their furniture and personal belongings and helped them move into their places. Some of them are still housed in our programs today.

I grew up around this work. My mother, who would go on to found HOM, became Executive Director of the Casper Housing Authority in 1983, and I remember her reading the Code of Federal Regulations at night, highlighting and tabbing the pages. I didn’t know then that I’d spend my own life in those same pages. My early days at HOM were about data and process: refining forms and workflows, helping households through annual recertifications and into leases of their own, inspecting apartments, and bringing in the technology that made our services more efficient and effective. Working across every part of the business made me a houser. But it was the people who shaped me: my fellow HOMies, our landlord partners, supportive services teams, systems leaders, and most of all, the individuals and families we served. I learned the rules from the pages, but I learned why they matter from the people.

Today HOM administers more than $120 million a year in housing assistance, helps 6,600+ households stay housed every month, and works with 2,800+ landlords across Arizona, California, and North Carolina. That growth was never the goal. It’s what happened when a group of people decided to get the details right, because a family’s home depends on it.

Brian Petersen

Effective October 1, 2026, Brian Petersen became HOM’s Chief Executive Officer while continuing to serve as our President. Brian has led HOM day to day as President and Chief Operating Officer for the past 18 months. The CEO title makes official the leadership he has already been providing.

Brian and I have worked together for more than 25 years. He started as a Housing Specialist, and not long into my own leadership of the company, I knew I needed him as a partner in stewarding HOM into the future. Brian is the wisest person I know. He listens more than he speaks. He doesn’t judge, he doesn’t rush, and he doesn’t need to be the smartest person in the room. People bring him their hardest problems because they know he’ll hear every side before he says a word. When he does speak, it’s usually the thing everyone needs to hear.

His integrity is impeccable. In 25 years, I have never once wondered whether Brian would do the right thing. Not when it was expensive. Not when no one was watching. Not when the easier path was right there.

He doesn’t get rattled. In our work, setbacks are guaranteed: funding delays, program changes, a crisis on a Friday afternoon. Brian meets them with a calm, steady persistence that settles everyone around him. He doesn’t panic, and he doesn’t quit. He just keeps moving us forward.

Above all, Brian thinks of others first. His instinct is always to ask what the people around him need, whether that’s a HOMie, a partner, a landlord, or a family waiting to get into their new home. It’s the same instinct that makes him the right person to lead HOM. Brian lives our values every day. I have complete confidence in him, and so does our team.

Brian will continue to lead alongside Senior Vice Presidents Hayley Winterberg and Carlos Gonzalez, and Vice President Brian Herrera, with strong leaders in each of our locations.

As part of this change, I have stepped out of my employee role and now serve as Chairman of the Board. I remain HOM’s majority owner but will not have a daily role in the company. My full-time focus is Padmission, where, as co-founder and CEO, I’m taking what we learned at HOM and building it into software for organizations across the country working to end homelessness.

I won’t pretend this is easy. HOM has been a defining part of my life for more than three decades. But the best thing a founder-era leader can do is build something that no longer needs him, and HOM is that. Its strength comes from its people, its culture, and a mission that has stayed at the center of this work since 1994.

Our programs, services, and partner commitments remain strong. So does our focus on the individuals and families we serve.

To the HOMies, past and present: thank you. To our partners, funders, and the landlords who open their doors: thank you for trusting us with this work. And to the tens of thousands of individuals and families who let us be part of your journey home: thank you. It has been the privilege of my life.

I believe in Brian, our leadership team, and every HOMie across this organization. Some of HOM’s best work is still ahead, and it’s in the right hands.

Mike Shore
Chairman of the Board
HOM, Inc.