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.

The Challenges of a Hot Market - An Interview with Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire

This blog is reposted from StableCommunities.org.

Often we hear about long term vacancies as the consequence of the foreclosure crisis, but in some areas, the speedy return of the market has resulted in other problems for those in need of affordable housing. The Stable Communities Initiative recently sat down with Dawn Lee and Beena Khakhria of Neighborhood Housing Services of the Inland Empire to hear how the return of the housing market is impacting San Bernardino and Riverside Counties in California.

Stable Communities: How has the real estate market in the Inland Empire changed over the past few years?

Dawn Lee, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer: We were a market hard hit, harder than most, with the foreclosure crisis.

Before the crash, people came to the Inland Empire for affordability. During the boom years, they were building in the area like crazy. With the building boom we also saw rising prices, sometimes tripling over short periods. And people were buying because they felt like “I’ve got to buy a house now because prices are going to keep rising.” Then the housing crash came as well as a failing economy and a high level of unemployment.

Beena Khakhria, Director of Real Estate: In 2007, we saw a huge decline in home values which led to a lot of foreclosures and people walking away from their homes. It crippled our counties. A lot of neighborhoods were like ghost towns. There were squatter issues, people destroying homes, it was really bad. As we saw the market go down, we saw investors come out of the woodwork. The crash had made investment in real estate even more palatable for investors. It wetted their appetite and they devoured.

Around 2010 and 2011, we started to see a lot of REOs come onto the market, but without adequate systems to in place to handle REO sales. While systems to handle REOs were being mastered short sales came on and many realtors jumped on the short sale bandwagon.

SC: Was there a moment when the market hit equilibrium before tipping to the sellers’ advantage?

Beena: There was a short period of time when buyers were able to get into the market and purchase homes, from December 2011 to April or June of 2012. That was a buyers’ market, but it lasted less than six months. After that, our buyers quickly lost out. If you were coming in with 3 percent down and asking for a contingency period and inspections then you were going to lose in the bidding process.

SC: What is the current climate of your housing market?

Beena: Now it’s a seller’s market. Inventory is low. In some places where we want to penetrate there just aren’t any homes.

Dawn: It is very much a seller’s market right now. For some buyers who come to us, this is the 20th or 30th house they have bid on. But the sellers are going after cash offers where the money will be a sure thing for them. That leaves our buyers stuck.

For us, we offer homes to first time buyers and “move-up buyers” with incomes in the low to moderate range. While others working in this space may have properties sitting, we don’t. We’ll list a house and we will get offers in a matter of hours or days. Recently, a home that we were selling appraised at $275,000, the buyer had some delays in their financing and by the time the deal was complete their house had increased in value to $289,000.

At the same time, rents are going up and often rents are more expensive than buying.

SC: Can you share the story of a family you have been working with?

Beena: One family, Maria and George*, started their search with NHSIE Realty in July of 2012. As a young family, they faced the challenges of finding housing that accommodated the needs of their four children; ages in 12, 10, 7 years and 6 months. Maria was pre-approved at a purchase price of $165,000, solely on her income. Her father had gifted them closing costs and partial down payment. George had been unemployed due to a work injury and was going through physical therapy to re-enter the workforce. They had also completed an 8-hour pre purchase class and were going to utilize our down payment assistance.

By the end of October they had submitted at least 25 offers. The rapid decline in available inventory and increasing home prices began to push them out of neighborhoods they had chosen. The agents and sellers were not prepared to work with first time homebuyers utilizing FHA or any city/county down payment assistance programs. Their offers were bid out by investors each time.

SC: What is NHSIE doing to respond to the shifting market and help families like these?

Dawn: As an organization, we have taken advantage of the REOs where we could and have made those homes available to prospective buyers.

A strategy that works for us, and we wish we could expand, is the purchase of homes through First Look programs. If there is a pool of houses that are available for a period of time exclusively to nonprofits, we have a better chance of securing them for first time home buyers who will be owner-occupants.

Another program we have is Opening the Door to Home Ownership, a fee based service for people who are struggling the most. To qualify, you have to have been looking and submitting offers unsuccessfully for three or more months. We match houses from the First Look programs with a buyer’s needs and get the buyer out of the highly competitive market. We renovate the home with the intention of selling the house to the prospective, pre-selected buyer. The program comes with lots of one-on-one coaching and education to ensure the buyers are making good choices and will be sustainable homeowners.

For all our programs, we screen our families and cross qualify to ensure the property is a good fit. We provide one on one coaching, pre-purchase education and home maintenance class.

Beena: We strongly believe that buying a home is a stressful period, and when the buyer feels they are competing with others, it can become a bad situation in their personal lives. We are able to be patient with buyers and allow them to complete the purchase process. We currently have two clients who have struggled with securing financing for up to 5 months. Going through normal channels, they would have had to cancel their contract well within the negotiated contract periods.

SC: How have the key housing challenges in these counties changed over time?

Beena: We are seeing challenges in securing portfolio. We are finding that when we are buying from the First Look programs, the margins we want aren’t there. It hasn’t been easy to find the right deals that make the strategy feasible for us to purchase these homes.

SC: How have you and your staff adapted in the face of market changes? What have you learned from these rapid shifts?

Dawn: We have learned to be flexible. Before, if you were in the foreclosure department, that’s all you did. If you were in the homeownership department, that’s all you did. We have made changes that allow us to be more responsive, now all of our staff are cross trained and cross certified. We are all housing advisors, not foreclosure or homeownership counselors.

We have also trained or hired more broadly skilled staff. We will always maintain foreclosure prevention services, but we see in response to the market that we need people who can offer a variety of services to the same client.

SC: What advice would you give to other organizations trying to monitor their housing markets and adapt to shifting challenges?

Beena: Watch your market. Be very attentive to the trends and understand the challenges your buyers are facing.

Dawn: Be flexible. Evaluate what is out there and always look for new opportunities. Even if you have developed a policy or plan that is focused, don’t be afraid to adjust. Use the data you find. Listen to your market. None of this will last forever but think about how you can be impactful right now. Treat every client as if they are a member of your family.

One of the biggest challenges is visibility. As a nonprofit we are strapped to market our organization. People don’t know we are here. Most people don’t see themselves as people who need the assistance. We want them to know that we are here and we can add value to the process.

Beena: Do a lot of marketing, customers need to know who you are and the value added services you provide.

SC: Any final words of wisdom?

Dawn: This is a unique moment in time. It will be a shame if we can’t do more at this moment, and we know we’ll get back to a point when the market is flooded.

* These names have been changed to respect the family's privacy.

The Data on Affordable Rental Housing is Mixed at Best

By Eileen Fitzgerald
Chief Executive Officer
NeighborWorks America

NeighborWorks America underscored its commitment to affordable rental housing this week at the launch of the 2013 State of the Nation’s Housing report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University.

I had the privilege of joining Eric Belsky, the director of the JCHS, and a panel of experts to talk about housing. While homeownership continues to draw the most attention, what is going on in the rental housing market demands attention.

The information on affordable rental housing in America is mixed at best, and for millions of households the data are troubling. According to the report, the number of renter households severely burdened by their monthly rent payment increased by 2.6 million between 2007 and 2011. Between 2001 and 2011, the number grew by 6.7 million. According to the State of the Nation's Housing report, which cites consumer price index data, rent increases have been far outpacing overall inflation.

As a national community development corporation that helps a network of nonprofit affordable rental property owners, we think these numbers are further proof of how important it is to continue supporting the development of affordable rental housing.

The NeighborWorks network owns or manages more than 102,000 rental homes. These locally owned and managed nonprofit corporations are committed to building more affordable rental homes, and to buying more properties that may become market rate after affordability provisions related to their development expire. More than ten percent of affordable rental homes are taken out of the affordable ranks each year.

NeighborWorks America will continue to be there for the NeighborWorks network by providing an average of $15 million in flexible capital to these owners of affordable rental housing. But our funding for affordable rental homes needs to be leveraged with long-term private sector funding. Affordable rental housing can’t be created and sustained by just one source of capital.

I urge everyone who cares about affordable rental housing to download the latest State of the Nation’s Housing report and to watch the recorded webcast (see above) of our discussion of the report on Wednesday, June 26.

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.

Federal Home Loan Bank and NeighborWorks America

This blog post is republished from the Federal Home Loan Bank for Communities website.

The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) has been the catalyst for many achievements during its history, but one of its more notable efforts is also one that’s unknown to many people outside of the affordable housing industry.

This year, NeighborWorks America is celebrating its 35th anniversary as one of the country’s preeminent leaders in affordable housing and community development thanks, in part, to the FHLBanks. In the early 1970s, a community leader named Dorothy Richardson began pushing for more reinvestment in the inner-city neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. Eventually she connected with FHLB Pittsburgh and other lenders to create a revolving loan fund. The success achieved in Pittsburgh attracted attention from others across the country, which led to the creation of the Urban Reinvestment Task Force in 1973. Five years later, Congress chartered the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation which is known today as NeighborWorks America.

Curt Heidt, 
vice president of external relationsFHLB Des Moines

FHLB Des Moines has partnered with NeighborWorks America since its earliest days and continues to work closely with the 17 NeighborWorks Network groups in the  FHLB Des Moines district. Prior experience with NeighborWorks organizations provided Curt Heidt, vice president of external relations, FHLB Des Moines, and Gary Dodge, director of community investment, FHLB Des Moines with community development education. Both previously served as executive directors of Neighborhood Finance Corporation in Des Moines, which subsequently became a chartered member of the NeighborWorks Network and is now a Community Development Financial Institution member of FHLB Des Moines.

Leon Gray,
NeighborWorks America
management consultant

In 2006, Heidt received the Visionary Partner Award from the regional staff of NeighborWorks America in honor of his efforts to create innovative partnerships and solutions to the affordable housing challenge. In addition, Leon Gray, a NeighborWorks America management consultant in the Midwest Region, serves on the FHLB Des Moines Advisory Council and many executive directors of NeighborWorks Network organizations serve on advisory boards in the Des Moines and other FHLBank districts.

“I began my community investment career as a volunteer for NeighborWorks organizations in the 1980s. NeighborWorks America is an outstanding organization and one that FHLB Des Moines is proud to partner with both nationally and regionally,” Heidt said. “NeighborWorks America provides critical resources to community-based groups across the country to help them be more successful.”

John Santner, Midwest Region director for NeighborWorks America, said the organization is proud of its long relationship with the FHLBanks. He noted that NeighborWorks America gives an annual award in honor of Dorothy Richardson that serves as a perpetual reminder of the organization’s roots and ties to the System.

“Our partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, as well as with the FHLBank System, is critical to our ability to meet the needs of NeighborWorks Network organizations,” Santner said. “By partnering with organizations, like FHLB Des Moines, NeighborWorks is able to leverage our funding for a much greater impact on community revitalization and affordable housing efforts across the country.”

FHLB Des Moines and NeighborWorks America work together in a variety of ways that benefit both organizations and the many groups they partner with in the region. Nationally, the FHLBanks ensure member banks are connected to non-profit organizations in their communities. For NeighborWorks America affiliates, partnerships with local FHLBanks help them to learn about FHLBank programs and also give their own programs and events a wider audience. Detailed information on the impact of NeighborWorks Network organizations in the FHLB Des Moines region of Iowa can be found at nw.org/impact.

Check out the infographic to view the partnership’s impact.