Senior Housing Issues, Successful Programs Take Center Stage at Atlanta Training Institute

An August 10 symposium on senior housing was the centerpiece of a week-long NeighborWorks Training Institute that attracted 2,100 community development practitioners to Atlanta. Sponsored by The Atlantic Philanthropies, the symposium brought together innovators from the affordable housing field with experts in aging to explore ideas and share strategies for creating healthy, vital communities that include seniors as a growing and important segment.

"As a result of the aging of the oldest baby boomers (born 1946 to 1955), this decade (2011-2020) will witness a huge increase in the number of age 65-74 persons below the poverty level,” predicted opening speaker Stephen M. Golant, a professor at the University of Florida and an expert in the field of aging. “This will produce a large latent demand for public programs that offer these younger seniors affordable rental accommodations and assistance in maintaining their own homes."

Other speakers and panelists underscored how the current foreclosure crisis and economic recession have created even more pressing challenges for lower-income seniors.

Our Twitter Wrapup captured some of the more pointed comments from the symposium from the perspective of some of the participants.

Our photos from the symposium contest take you right into the neighborhoods and homes of seniors who personify what aging gracefully in community is all about.

You can also download resources from the symposium on topics such as:

• Successful programs that make homes for seniors safer, more affordable and an asset to the community
• Effectively engaging senior residents on boards of directors, and in neighborhood associations, community projects and other volunteer efforts
• Available resources for effective rehabilitation, retrofitting and weatherization
• Housing counseling services for seniors, including the benefits and risks of home equity conversion mortgages (HECMs)/reverse mortgages, and how to offer these products and/or counseling to your clients
• Partnering with health and social service providers to ensure your seniors are receiving the care they need to be productive members of your community
• The design and benefits of multi-generational housing
• Identifying and accessing available resources for your senior programs
• Successful models of affordable housing for seniors

Thanks to the Advisory Committee that helped make this an engaging symposium, representing AARP, AARP Foundation, Avesta Housing, HHS, Enterprise Community Partners, Leading Age, National Council on Aging, St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center and United Way.

Homeowners Who May Be Forced to Leave Their Community Are Fighting Back

Homeowners in Niagara, NY are learning the hard way that foreclosure isn’t the only way to lose your home these days. More than 135 owners of mobile homes in Sabre Park have begun working with NeighborWorks organization, Pathstone to find a way to halt the sale of the land their homes are on. Unique to hundreds of mobile park communities around the U.S., homeowners living in mobile home communities own the house they live in, but rent the land that the home sits on. This leaves the homeowners vulnerable to owners of the mobile park land choosing to sell the land right out from under them – effectively evicting them from their communities.

However, Pathstone and other NeighborWorks network members are working to organize mobile home residents and establish a financial process that allows owners to buy the land. NeighborWorks partners with ROC USA, a corporation created to help resident led corporations to buy their manufactured home communities from private company owners. NeighborWorks America CFO, Michael Forster is on the ROC USA Board of Directors.

NeighborWorks America recently recognized Montana resident, Tammy Hoth, with a Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership for her work in organizing her neighbors and successfully purchasing their mobile home community, establishing long-term affordability.

NeighborWorks Organization Seeks to Help Seniors in Contest from Tom’s of Maine

In what is increasingly becoming commonplace for community-based nonprofits, Neighborhood Housing Services of Boise, a member of the NeighborWorks network, is competing for a “favorite” grant from a socially responsible for-profit company – Tom’s of Maine.

The NHS of Boise is competing for part of $150,000 from the environmentally conscious company, which is an independent but wholly-owned part of the global Colgate family of companies. NHS is hoping to use the grant that it could receive from Tom’s 50 States for Good competition to finance its Rake Up Boise campaign, an initiative that involves coordinating more than 6,000 volunteers to rake and winterize the yards of more than six hundred senior citizens and/or disabled people.

Tom’s of Maine is just one of a number of for-profit companies and their foundations that are combining “favorite” voting and grant making. For example, The Home Depot Foundation is currently engaged in an “Aprons in Action” campaign where consumers are asked to vote for their favorite Team Depot Project. A search around the Internet turned up “favorite” fund raising programs from Pepsi, Subaru Discovery Channel’s Planet Green and more.

With financial and in-kind support for community-based nonprofits not expected to grow this year or next, fund raising approaches that engage an organization’s friends and its friend’s friends, is one way nonprofits are working to attract new volunteers and financial resources.

Meanwhile, if you care about helping seniors take care of their homes cast a vote for NHS of Boise. Voting ends September 13.

NeighborWorks America Kicks Off NeighborWorks Training Institute in Atlanta



Pictured above: An attendee at a past
NeighborWorks Training Institute
 captivates the audience with her
thought-provoking question. 



Today, NeighborWorks America kicked off what is expected to be the second largest NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI) in the NeighborWorks history! More than 2,000 community development practitioners are expected to attend this week’s Training Institute in Atlanta, August 8-12, 2011.

During the Atlanta NTI, attendees will participate in over 100 training and certification sessions offered – from foreclosure intervention counseling and Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECM) counseling to an introduction to Factory Built Housing and Green Building Science. 

In addition to the training courses offered, the NTI will feature a day-long symposium on August 10 focused on “Ensuring Safe, Healthy Homes and Communities for Seniors.” It will bring together thought leaders and industry experts to introduce and explore real-world strategies for creating healthy, vital communities that include seniors as a growing and important segment of our population.  The Symposium is made possible with generous support from The Atlantic Philanthropies.

As people get older and live longer, affordable housing providers need to consider what services they should provide — including transportation, healthcare, safety precautions, home maintenance and social and financial services — that will better serve the seniors in their communities.

Topics that will be covered during the Symposium include:

• Successful programs that make homes for seniors safer, more affordable and an asset to the surrounding community
• Partnering with health and social service providers to ensure seniors are receiving the care they need to continue to be active, productive members of your community
• Design and benefits of multi-generational communities
• Resources for effective home rehabilitation, retrofitting and weatherization

To follow the Symposium discussion on Twitter, search for the Twitter hashtag #seniorhousing to view panelist and attendee comments throughout the day. 

For more information about the Atlanta NTI, please visit www.nw.org/training, or contact Erin Angell Collins, 202-220-6317, eangell@nw.org. 

The next NeighborWorks Training Institute will be held December 12-16, 2011, in Washington, D.C. 

NeighborWorks Lending Efforts Get a Boost from Over $16 Million in CDFI Funds

Efforts to increase access to affordable lending products got a boost recently when 19 members of the NeighborWorks network received over $16.9 million as part of grants made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institution program. Combined with grants from NeighborWorks America, local governments, foundations and the private sector, these small- and medium-sized nonprofit businesses continue to lend in their local communities, and provide access to affordable loan products and services to low- and moderate-income borrowers.

“CDFI funds play a critical role in the NeighborWorks network’s efforts to create strong communities and sustainable affordable housing,” said Eileen Fitzgerald, CEO of NeighborWorks America. “They offer appropriate lending products to low and moderate income homebuyers and local businesses at a time when other financial institutions have limited products available.”

The CDFI funding awarded this year will enable nonprofits like Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation of Detroit Lakes, Minn., to add capital to its first- and second-affordable mortgage loan pool, which will help low-income households purchase affordable single-family homes. CDFI funds will also enable the National Council on Agricultural Life and Labor Research Fund in Dover, Del., to increase lending in five distressed counties in its service area. And finally, CDFI funding will enable the Honolulu HomeOwnership Center to make down payment assistance loans and capitalize a loan loss guarantee fund.

In addition to the 19 grant recipients in this latest round of financing, there are 73 other NeighborWorks organizations with certified CDFI operations. NeighborWorks organizations use these recent CDFI grants and prior grants to increase access to credit in a variety of ways, including:

• Provide down payment assistance to qualified first-time homebuyers who have successfully completed homeownership education classes
• Provide capital to support the construction and project management of affordable homes for sale
• Provide capital to support business loan products

For more information about NeighborWorks organizations with certified CDFI operations, please visit www.nw.org or contact Erin Angell Collins, 202-220-6317, eangell@nw.org.