Unconventional allies: Finding common cause with workers on the ‘front lines’ of communities

By Eileen Fitzgerald
Chief Executive Officer
NeighborWorks America

A woman with diabetes, evicted from her home after failing to keep up with her mortgage, is forced to find shelter with a string of friends. Unable to keep track of her medications or maintain a stable, healthy diet, her disease spirals out of control.

A youth’s grades plummet and he drops out of high school, unable to concentrate on his homework because he shares the same cramped living quarters with five siblings, his parents and grandparents.

An employee of a small business is chronically late and misses key deadlines because she cannot afford to live close to work or secure reliable transportation.


It’s true: Home matters. The lack of safe, clean, affordable housing concerns a wide network of frontline workers in the community. Talk to health care professionals, teachers and business managers, and the critical necessity of decent, accessible housing for health and productivity immediately becomes apparent.

Forty years of research show that reducing overcrowding, for example, lessens exposure to infectious diseases and promotes better health overall. One recent study by the University of Michigan illustrates that housing instability triggers depression and anxiety.

Likewise, teachers testify that children who live in safe, healthy, permanent homes do better in school. National Housing Conference research documents that children who move frequently are absent more from school, have trouble concentrating on their studies, and have difficulty making and keeping friends. In addition, children who live in overcrowded homes have lower math and reading scores, and are less likely to graduate from high school.

In the work world, managers at enterprises both big and small have learned firsthand that employees who are not stressed every month about how they will make their rent or mortgage payments—and ideally do not have arduous or expensive commutes—are more reliable and productive.

By remembering that safe, affordable housing affects virtually every aspect of a person’s life, the number and type of potential partnerships ripe for exploration expands exponentially.

This is re-posted from the Bipartisan Beat blog on the Bipartisan Policy Commission website.

NeighborWorks America Teams Up With Neighborhood Housing Services of Oklahoma City to Help Tornado Victims

By Brian Levinson, public affairs and communications advisor for the midwest region, NeighborWorks America

A fireplace is all that's left of this house in Moore, Oklahoma
Photo credit: Travis Marak

Soon after tornados struck Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, the extent of the devastation was apparent. Entire blocks and neighborhoods were flattened or heavily damaged, including two elementary schools, and 24 people were killed. Less than two weeks later, a second twister with winds exceeding 200 mph struck western Oklahoma City and El Reno, Oklahoma. It killed more than 20 people and went on record as the widest tornado ever recorded.

When the first storms hit, NeighborWorks America staff immediately reached out to Roland Chupik, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Oklahoma City, to check on staff and clients. As Chupik received preliminary damage estimates, he quickly focused his team on immediate housing issues: helping residents deal with FEMA, insurance companies, mortgage lenders and other organizations that were providing financial assistance.

“The emotional impact of losing your home is almost impossible to imagine. Most homeowners are overwhelmed with that loss, which can make it difficult to shift gears to start the recovery process,” Chupik said. “The NHS staff was not directly impacted by the tornados and has the expertise helping clients deal with government agencies and lenders, so we immediately jumped into action and offered our help to homeowners applying for assistance and completing insurance claims.”

Then, Chupik and NeighborWorks America staff focused on the next need: temporary housing. With 12,000 homes damaged and 1,400 destroyed, creating additional affordable housing units became critical. NeighborWorks America gave NHS of Oklahoma City a $100,000 grant to begin repairs on 15 foreclosed properties donated by J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America.

Front Row, right to left:  Corinne Cahill, deputy regional director, midwest region, NeighborWorks America;  Janet Barresi, Oklahoma State superintendent of public instruction;  Roland Chupik, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Oklahoma City (NHSOKC);  Elizabeth Jones, City of Moore director of community development
Back Row, right to left:  Wiley Rice, chairman, board of directors of NHSOKC;  Linda Rowe, director of home ownership, NHSOKC;  William Fulmer, housing director, NHSOKC;  Ashley Dickenson, neighborhood capacity builder, Neighborhood Alliance of Oklahoma City;  Jared Jakubowski, City of Moore special projects coordinator.

“The NeighborWorks grant will help us immediately start fixing up these homes so that some of the families who lost their homes can have a place to live,” Chupik said. “It will also help us pursue funds from private funding sources, so that we can rehab all 15 homes as quickly as possible.”

The third phase of the recovery effort is focused on a critical, long-term need: storm shelters. NeighborWorks America is working with all three network members in Oklahoma – NHS of Oklahoma City, Community Action Project of Tulsa and Little Dixie Community Action Agency in Hugo – to develop a strategy for building storm shelters for existing single-family home and multi-family projects, as well as incorporating storm shelters into future developments.

John Santner, Midwest Region director for NeighborWorks America, said the collaborative and multi-pronged approach to dealing with the housing needs reflects NeighborWorks America’s commitment to working with local groups who are in the best position to assess community needs, and addressing affordable housing needs in a way that has a long-term, positive impact on residents.

“We are eager to help our Oklahoma network members respond to these devastating storms in a comprehensive way that creates more and safer affordable housing in the communities they serve,” Santner said.

Homeownership the NeighborWorks Way: Prepare, Invest and Retain

By Marietta Rodriguez
director, National
Homeownership
Programs & Lending

Every June is National Homeownership Month. While the most recent housing crisis has perhaps put homeownership into question, homeownership provides many benefits to homeowners and to communities. Sufficient preparation when considering homeownership is critical. We like to call the services NeighborWorks provides homeownership the NeighborWorks way.

While homeownership may not be the right choice for every person at every stage of their lives, homeownership is an important cornerstone of our communities. And NeighborWorks America and the NeighborWorks network are trusted resources for homeowners, creating thousands of homeowners each year. In 2012 NeighborWorks America and the NeighborWorks network helped 15,000 homebuyers achieve their dream of homeownership.

For 35 years, NeighborWorks America and the NeighborWorks network have provided access to homeownership and to quality housing in thousands of communities across the country. The more than 240 NeighborWorks organizations across the country provide current and potential homeowners a suite of specialized homeownership programs and services. These include an analysis of homebuyer readiness, comprehensive education on the homebuying process, one-on-one financial coaching, important information about the availability of possible financial assistance with down payment and closing costs, and access to affordable mortgage products.

Preparing for Homeownership with Pre-Purchase Education 

Successful homeownership requires more than just having enough money on hand. It’s about knowing how to navigate the home buying process, what to expect once you become a homeowner, and having a reliable partner to turn to when questions come up. For example, for many homebuyers, pre-purchase homebuyer education and counseling is a critical component to successful and sustainable homeownership.

NeighborWorks organizations, located in every state, are a great place for prospective homeowners to start because they help individuals become mortgage-ready and better equipped to manage the process. Counselors work with individuals to ensure their credit profile reflects strength and help identify experts who could explain what kind of maintenance – immediate or long-term – the home may need.

It is important to remember not all mortgages are created equal. NeighborWorks counselors can help potential homeowners secure a mortgage suitable to their current needs. In addition, NeighborWorks services offer a free or low cost alternative to  higher cost services,  and that’s an important distinction. Ultimately, it’s a NeighborWorks homeownership counselor’s goal to make sure that each homeowner is matched with the right homeownership products. In 2012 NeighborWorks organizations provided nearly 122,000 individuals and families with education and counseling services.

Providing Help through a Network of HomeOwnership Centers

NeighborWorks America’s National Homeownership Programs offer technical assistance and grants to our network that, in turn, provide a continuum of strategies to help ensure successful, sustainable homeownership for people of modest means in every state. There are more than 100 NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Centers around the country, and many offer affordable first and second mortgages. They are “one-stop” shops for prospective homebuyers and homeowners. Customers can access all of the services and training necessary to shop for, purchase, renovate, maintain, and manage a home. To locate a NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center, visit here.

NeighborWorks America knows that for many individuals the road to homeownership can seem, at times, challenging. But dependable NeighborWorks staff work hard every day to make the dreams of homeownership a reality for thousands of individuals every year. Join us in celebrating those who will achieve their homeownership dreams in 2013 and help us ensure all those interested in pursuing homeownership know about homeownership the NeighborWorks way: prepare, invest and retain!

Enterprise Rose Fellowship Redefines Community Design at NeighborWorks Organizations

Blog by Kat Miller, NeighborWorks Rural Initiative
Miller is an AmeriCorps VISTA and recent graduate of Smith College, where she studied architecture.

The Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship, is a highly competitive and innovative program that places some of the nation’s finest early career architects in underserved communities across the country to team up with community development host organizations. The program is headed by Enterprise Community Partners’ National Design Initiatives, which offers a variety of programs that help build capacity for design leadership across the community development field.

The Rural Initiative and NeighborWorks America staff with
Rose Fellow Mark Matel (left) at the Bartlett bus yards 

NeighborWorks America is proud to have two Enterprise Rose Fellows currently working at NeighborWorks organizations: Geoffrey Barton at Mountain Housing Opportunities in Asheville, North Carolina and Mark Matel at Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

By bringing designers directly into the communities in which they are working, the Rose Fellowship boosts an organization’s capacity to create affordable, sustainable, and well designed communities. We often think about design as being strictly aesthetic. Good design, however, must be measured more three dimensionally; as something that transforms not only appearance, but also performance. To achieve this, the Rose Fellowship boasts a bottom-up approach towards design. This approach rests upon three core principles:  design excellence, sustainability, and first and foremost, community engagement.
 
Mark has certainly embraced this bottom-up approach as Project Manager for Bartlett Place, Nuestra Comunidad’s new mixed-use development that is transforming a vacant eight acre bus yard into a “creative village”. Tapping into Roxbury’s rich artists’ population, Bartlett Place will offer a variety of public spaces, commercial storefronts, and housing types to both provide new opportunities for current neighborhood residents and attract new populations.

As Project Manager, Mark is involved with overseeing all aspects of the project ranging from site planning to real estate development to contracting, etc.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Bartlett Place, however, has emerged in between the planning and construction phases of the project. As a liaison between the production team and Bartlett’s primary client, the Roxbury community, Mark has facilitated “Bartlett Events,” as a platform to raise excitement and engage the community in the months leading up to construction. An of example of this is MuralFest, Bartlett’s kickoff event  where local artists came together to beautify the site with murals and sculpture, transforming the old Bartlett bus yards from a drab vacant field of asphalt into a vibrant arts/events space. This new space will be used throughout the summer to keep Bartlett alive until construction starts next fall.  

In addition to providing interim programming for the site, Bartlett Events is also being used as a way to test ideas that can be re-integrated into Bartlett Place permanently. In this way, Bartlett’s design process is fundamentally rooted in the community. 

Our visit to Nuestra Comunidad and the Bartlett Yards demonstrated that good community-based design is as much about dealing with social issues as it is about dealing with architecture and building issues. This concept is certainly evident in the community-based design work that Mark is doing at Bartlett, and is echoed across the country, where a legacy of other Rose Fellows tackle similar design issues in underserved communities. 

Take a look at what Rose Fellow, Geoffrey Barton, is working on at Mountain Housing Opportunities  (one of our newest additions to the NeighborWorks Rural Initiative!) and visit the Enterprise National Design Initiatives website to learn more about the fellowship and their other programs. Applications for the Enterprise Pre-Development Design Grant are now open and close on July 10.  

NeighborWorks Rochester Expands Healthy Blocks Approach

By Ascala Sisk, Senior Manager
Neighborhood Stabilization
NeighborWorks America

Reposted from StableCommunities.org

NeighborWorks Rochester has partnered with residents in three neighborhoods to make exterior home improvements, address quality of life issues, and attract new residents and investment. Through this targeted “Healthy Blocks” approach, homeowners, tenants and landlords work together to create neighborhoods of value and choice.

After eight years of sponsoring “Makeover Madness” home beautification campaigns, organizing social events, planting gardens, sponsoring neighborhood clean-ups, and promoting new neighborhood branding, the Healthy Blocks approach has proven to be successful in improving physical conditions, creating pride, and fostering a community identity. For example, in “The Pocket,” a 7-block neighborhood of 750 residents in the East Main–Atlantic area, NeighborWorks Rochester has observed that physical conditions are improving, the average sales price is up 20 percent since 2008, and homes on the market sell in an average of 18 days as compared to 27 days in 2008 — all signs of a rebounding housing market.

Building on this success, NeighborWorks Rochester is considering candidates for its next two Healthy Blocks initiatives. To help with the selection and to train new staff members on the core components of this approach, NeighborWorks Rochester CEO Kim Brumber turned to David Boehlke, the nation’s leading Healthy Neighborhoods strategist. Joining them over the course of two rainy days in January 2013 were representatives from NeighborWorks Western Vermont who wanted to learn how they might apply this thinking to their own newly selected target neighborhood in the town of Rutland.

With a healthy dose of offbeat humor, Boehlke stressed the need for strategies that are grounded in market realities and build confidence among existing residents. “Markets need to be built,” he said, “not just houses.” This is especially true in cities with stagnant or declining populations where potential homebuyers have many homes and neighborhoods to choose from. In order to compete, you need to reposition your neighborhood in the marketplace. Building confidence in the future of the neighborhood validates people’s choice to live there, creates pride, and encourages investment because it makes economic sense.

So, how do you build confidence? A lot of it has to do with image and physical conditions. Neighborhoods with houses that are reasonably well-maintained and have tidy gardens and litter-free streets instantly convey that this is a neighborhood where current residents succeed, and where future homeowners would want to buy. But according to Boehlke, the key to building confidence is engaging residents and building their capacity to manage day-to-day neighborhood issues. Ultimately, people are more likely to invest in areas where residents work together to improve the quality of life.

As NeighborWorks Rochester considers its next Healthy Blocks, it will select neighborhoods where resident engagement activities and modest investments in home repairs are likely to leverage additional investment. As the team from NeighborWorks Western Vermont also learned, Healthy Blocks’s focus on building markets, improving image and physical conditions, and fostering resident leadership offers lessons for other organizations that are designing place-based revitalization strategies.

To learn more about the Healthy Neighborhoods approach that David Boehlke created and teaches, take a look at his monograph, Great Neighborhoods, Great Cities, written about the Healthy Neighborhoods approach in Baltimore for the Goldseker Foundation.
 

Reflections on Superstorm Sandy After Six Months

by Deborah Boatright, northeast regional director, NeighborWorks America

Six months after Superstorm Sandy rocked the coastlines of New Jersey, New York City and Long Island, NeighborWorks America and its affiliates remain deeply engaged in helping homeowners and businesses to recover and rebuild. We are committed for the long haul; with our sights set on strengthening community resiliency in an era of climate change. 

Over the past six months, NeighborWorks America educated more than 750 contractors and homeowners at 13 mold remediation trainings, six of which were co-sponsored with NeighborWorks affiliates. A fully updated “Navigating the Road to Housing Recovery Guide”, providing “road maps” to residents on rebuilding, repairing, selling, relocating, buying or renting, was released in March, and 90 counselors and nonprofit professionals were trained in its use. The Navigating Guide and Mold Remediation tools are downloadable from our website: www.nw.org/sandy.

NeighborWorks America’s northeast regional headquarters is located in lower Manhattan, and our local staff has been steeped in recovery and resiliency discussions throughout the region. Our office was closed for four months due to flooding. Staff came back to a changed landscape. Many of the small stores that surround our building have yet to reopen; and the South Street Seaport, a major tourist attraction and hub for small businesses, remains shuttered. Similar conditions exist in other hard hit commercial areas along the region’s vast shoreline. 

Wayne Meyer, president of NeighborWorks affiliate
New Jersey Community Capital, was one of a dozen
people honored this week at the White House as
a Superstorm Sandy “Champion of Change for
the organization’s REBUILD New Jersey Fund.

This is a pivotal time in recovery and rebuilding, as congressionally appropriated resources are becoming available for deployment, and the private funding community is more organized and focused. NeighborWorks America has a unique role to play, utilizing our nationally regarded expertise in training, community building, impact measurement, capacity building and grant making. Our affiliates are doing great work, guided by a deep commitment and astute professionalism that is the hallmark of NeighborWorks. It is challenging work in the communities that we have all long called home.   

Wayne Meyer, president of New Jersey Community Capital (NJCC), was one of a dozen people honored this week at the White House as a Superstorm Sandy “Champion of Change” for the organization’s REBUILD New Jersey Fund. The REBUILD New Jersey Fund closed 23 loans totaling $800,000, preserving 135 jobs for customers like Architectural Hardware in Jersey City, New York, a family owned and operated distributor of metal and wood doors, frames and hardware for more than 40 years. Architectural Hardware had up to 56 inches of water, and lost a great amount of inventory and all its vehicles. Their loan allowed the owners and their nine employees to get back to business through the purchase a new forklift, replaced inventory, and replenished revenues.

In Monmouth County, New Jersey, homeowners and residents seeking help with their housing situation continue to come to the Affordable Housing Alliance’s offices daily, and the organization has seen a rise in the number of applicants for assistance through their statewide utility relief program.  Fifteen of the 17 mobile homes purchased by this NeighborWorks affiliate are now installed and on the way to full occupancy, and the  remaining two, accessible units for people with disabilities, are arriving soon. The Alliance’s work is featured in a compelling video by the Robin Hood Foundation, focusing on the story of Kanseisha Wilson, a home health aide and mother of two. 

Neighborhood Housing Services of East Flatbush, part of NeighborWorks affiliate NHS of New York City, opened a Housing Recovery Center in Brooklyn’s Canarsie section. Homeowners there were able to re-occupy their homes only after the City of New York’s rapid repair program addressed their most emergent needs.  Permanent repairs remain to be done, and funds are in short supply. NHS’ experienced contract management specialist has helped 57 families to assess their homes and plan for appropriate repair, and the organization secured funds for small grants of $10,000 to help offset the costs. Qualifying counselors assist families to negotiate insurance claims, address mortgage issues and avoid scams, which are rapidly growing. The innovative program was recently featured on NY1.

"It is important for Asian Americans for Equality to be there because
people in the community trust us. Our physical presence shows we are
there for the long haul,” said Raquel Colon, senior housing counselor.

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE) is working heavily in Queens, Southern Brooklyn and Staten Island with a focus on Asian Americans and new immigrants. AAFE has stationed staff at local grassroots organizations in Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay to strengthen their capacity, while offering grants, low interest loans, targeted technical assistance and one-to-one financial counseling to impacted homeowners and small businesses throughout the city. To date, over 160 businesses from all over the city have received loans totally $3.2 million from AAFE’s small business affiliate, and more than 200 walk-in clients were served just at one Emergency Help Center in Flushing, Queens. AAFE too is deeply concerned with scams and predatory contractors, and plans to review contractor records and work claims for homeowners. 

“There are three big issues that we are facing in terms of recovery. Clients are being advised to elevate their homes, flood insurance rates are sky high now, and people need guidance and direction on how to navigate the bureaucracy. It is important for AAFE CDF to be there because people in the community trust us. Our physical presence shows we are there for the long haul,” said Raquel Colon, senior housing counselor. 

Wade attended a Hope for Homeowners event
sponsored by NeighborWorks America,
Hope Now Alliance, Community
Development Corporation of Long Island

On Long Island, which has the largest number of FEMA applicants of all three areas, Community Development Corporation of Long Island’s Sandy Housing Recovery Program is working extensively in seven towns throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties. CDCLI is currently focused helping 143 clients to create individual plans to address their immediate and long term housing needs, and is making their full array of housing services available. Insurance and mortgage issues related to the storm are prevalent—49 of their current clients are also receiving help with these issues.  Amityville resident Harold Wade, who came to CDCLI at a Hope for Homeowners event, typifies many homeowners: “"I was under water in two ways, both from Sandy and financially," said Wade. "It’s a long road ahead but it’s my opportunity to start over again."