Forty-five years after founding, Pennsylvania group helps future homebuyers achieve ‘financial freedom’

When visitors walk into the NeighborWorks America offices in DC, one of the first images they see is a floor-to-ceiling painting of Dorothy Mae Richardson, along with the quote, “I believe people get their roots down when they own their own houses….take pride in them. That, in turn, is good for the whole city.”

Dorothy Mae Richardson

These wise words can be generalized to cities everywhere, but in 1968, Richardson – the “founding mother” of NeighborWorks America -- was speaking specifically about Pittsburgh, where she enlisted bankers and government officials to support her block club’s efforts to improve her neighborhood. Together, they persuaded 16 financial institutions and a local foundation to put up the loans needed to create opportunities for affordable homeownership. They named the program Neighborhood Housing Services, and it served as the model for other programs that followed -- today known as NeighborWorks organizations.

Forty-five years later, the NeighborWorks network encompasses more than 240 such organizations, and the group founded by Richardson is still going strong, known as NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. The dynamics of the community, however, along with the services needed by residents, have changed – and the organization has adapted along with it.

“More people own their own homes here now, thanks to our efforts,” says Margie Howard, education specialist with NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. “But we’ve realized that more than homeownership education and counseling are needed.  Residents also need help keeping their homes in good shape, staying out of foreclosure and managing their budgets to make it all affordable. In particular, we are serving a growing number of low-income, single heads of household. Race isn’t the issue here; economics is.”

While the organization has offered financial education for youth for the past five years, recent support from the Heinz Endowments has made it possible to expand its efforts to include the entire family, combating generational poverty.

 “We saw that parents weren’t teaching their children about money management – mainly because they themselves didn’t learn it,” Howard explains. “You see lots of instances of a mom spending $300 on shoes for her child, yet there’s a shortage of food in the house, or maybe the family is about to be evicted. It’s not just about teaching parents how to budget; it’s about changing attitudes and behavior around money.”

Youth don’t get financial education in the schools either, says Howard. “Schools are test- rather than life-skills-oriented.”

One of the youth financial-education classes

The organization’s youth financial-education program enrolls participants as young as 14 up through age 25, with instruction provided in four, one-hour classes. The program’s practical approach encourages participants to analyze real-life spending choices, such as getting ready for prom.

“The average girl realizes it will cost about $3,000 for a one-day event; for boys, it’s more like $1,000.  Many are okay with these figures when it’s their parents who foot the bill,” explains Howard. “But then they are asked what will happen if their mom has been laid off, or is working a minimum-wage job. How will she afford that while keeping up with the bills? Some of the students find ways to cut back like having a friend style their hair or using a parent’s car instead of renting a fancy one. Others decide to skip the prom altogether. The goal is to teach them to analyze their wants vs.  their needs. We see how their thinking changes when they realize they might have to pay for things themselves.”

The key, says Howard, is to separate spending from emotional triggers, starting with tracking where the money is going with a daily log. Ideally, major spending decisions should be made collectively, by the entire family.  Although teenagers typically prefer to attend workshops with youth from their own age group, family members from different generations are encouraged to come to one of the workshops together. Howard recalls one time when a 10-year-old girl came with her mother to a class because she didn’t want to go to the gym with her brother. After the workshop, the little girl went up to the instructor and proudly reported that she had her own bank account. The teacher asked what the girl would do with the savings, and she replied, “I want to have a princess birthday party.”

“A 10-year-old is breaking the cycle by planning ahead to make sure she has the money she needs to meet her goals,” says Howard. “We’ve created a saver!”

Long-term results from the financial-capability workshops are still being assessed, but the anecdotes are promising. One recent evening, for instance, Howard was approached at a community event by Essence Howze, who completed the organization’s financial-education program five years before, when she was just 16. Always ambitious, Howze first began earning money at age 9, manning a refreshment stand in front of her home. “I would sell iced tea and lemonade to joggers,” she laughs.

Essence Howze

However, self-teaching could get her only so far. When she was in 10th grade, Howze saw a flyer on a bulletin board, promoting NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania’s youth financial-education program. Howze enrolled, and the practical skills she learned, she says, enabled her to open her own savings account and enter community college, where today she is a sophomore studying business management. Always ambitious, she has supplemented her studies with extracurricular activities such as an internship with The Salvation Army’s Career Development Center, and recently started her own business -- which she calls “Silver Linings,” through which she helps others overcome personal barriers like those she faced during a troubled family life.

“Taking the NeighborWorks financial-education course gave me my financial freedom. It helped me avoid so many mistakes, and now I’m helping others,” Howze says, recalling how she showed her college roommate how to read the “fine print” when a credit card company tried to sign her up. “I refer back to the materials I got in those workshops all the time. It wasn’t just financial management I learned..it was empowerment.”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. 

Youth in San Francisco's Chinatown transform historic alleyways

Youth lead a tour through San Francisco's Chinatown
alleyways.

Step off the main roads of San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood and you’ll find yourself in a labyrinth of alleyways.  At each turn there is history: opium dens, a barbershop where Frank Sinatra used to get the perfect cut and thousands of other, untold stories from one of America’s oldest ethnic villages.  You’ll also see something you wouldn’t expect: teenagers leading tours with expert proficiency, sharing their story of how they cleaned up these neglected public spaces.

Back in 1991, Norman Fong, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center (which is celebrating its fifth year as a NeighborWorks network member), reached out

to local youth and asked them how they could help the community.  Their response was simple: Clean up the local alleyways that had been neglected by both the city and the community.  Chinatown’s historic alleyways are not considered public infrastructure, so the city would not take responsibility for their care; over time, they began to overflow with refuse and waste from the restaurants and businesses that filled the area.  Since traditional open space is limited, these students immediately saw an opportunity to improve the lives of their fellow citizens and went to work.

Students clean the alleyways. (Photo
by James Ng)

Fong’s inaugural group of eight Galloway High School students in the “Adopt-An-Alleyway Youth Empowerment Project”  started by grading the alleyways just as they were in school, with marks of A, B, C, D or F.  They worked to have a local newspaper publish the grades, alerting the public to the dire state of their own space.   Then they got to work: washing walls and roads and sweeping away dirt and debris. Soon the community took notice.  Individuals began walking the alleyways again and local restaurants that had been dumping oil and refuse into the alleys began to take care of their waste properly.

A few years later, Fong set up a meeting at the city’s department of public works bureau of street use and mapping to discuss the alleyways.  Although the city had spent the previous several decades dodging the work of cleaning these alleys, the amazing progress of the students could not be ignored. The city commissioned its own master plan allowing the students an opportunity to expand their work and partner with the local government. Jointly, Chinatown CDC and the student volunteers worked to develop a master plan for the city’s entire network of 41 alleyways, describing the current state and the work needed to make them a place the community could use again.  They went door to door visiting with local businesses and residents to make the case for their plan, and in 1998 the city adopted the guidelines authored by students.

Murals now beautify many of the alleyways.

The students’ master plan went beyond cleaning the alleyways to include initiatives to reduce illegal parking, improve pedestrian safety and access for the disabled, add green features and include more beautification efforts like murals.  Since adoption of the plan, five phases featuring the renovation of 11 alleyways have been completed.  The public space transformed by the work of these youth benefits the community overall, including more commerce for local businesses that rely on the millions of tourists who visit each year.

Beyond their work creating clean and safe public spaces the youths have also started a small business that leads tours of the alleys.

Fong believes that the youth of a community are more than the future, but also very much the present. “The youth know what needs to be done like everyone else, but they took on the responsibility to do it and the results speak for themselves,” he says.

Written by Jason Powers, national public affairs and communications adviser for NeighborWorks America.

Atlanta group helps homebuyers save ‘green’ with green housing

Whether housing is affordable is determined by so much more than its purchase price or monthly rent. High energy costs also can be a heavy financial burden on families whose incomes already are stretched. According to the national Green & Healthy Homes Initiative, low-income households typically spend 14 percent of their total income on energy costs, compared with 3.5 percent for other households.

Resources for Residents and Communities (RRC) in Atlanta, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a NeighborWorks network member this year, hopes to help homeowners reduce their costs by incorporating an array of green features in its new single-family development, Legacy Pointe.

Legacy Pointe will be a small subdivision within Atlanta’s Reynoldstown community consisting of eco-friendly, pre-fabricated homes for purchase.

“The uniqueness is the development will be mixed-income,” says Jill Arrington, CEO of RRC. “The [homes] that will be affordable will be held in a community land trust to keep them perpetually affordable.”

To earn its “eco-friendly” label, Legacy Pointe will feature energy-efficient LED lighting in the common areas, pervious concrete (highly porous material that allows precipitation to pass through and re-charge ground water levels) in the parking  lot and landscaping that requires very little watering.  Each home also will include separate lines for hot and cold water (thus reducing waste) and temperature controls that reduce reliance on the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.

“We didn’t have to turn on the HVAC unit in our model home at all this summer,” Arrington says. “Even last winter, we never had to turn on the heat.”

The first model home in Legacy Pointe was assembled so
quickly it was like "magic."

With such features, it’s no wonder the Reynoldstown community is already abuzz about the new development.  Arrington recounts the day in 2010 that New World Home, a national green home builder and RRC’s partner in this effort, built the first house that inspired the idea of Legacy Pointe.

“They rolled everything in at 7 that morning, [put] the structure in place, and by 5 p.m. that day they locked it with a key,” recalls Arrington with a laugh. Reynoldstown residents were slightly surprised by a house that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.  “If you left early that morning, you saw a vacant lot.  So when you got home later that night and saw a house sitting there, it would have freaked you out.”

Reynoldstown, which sits less than 10 minutes east of downtown Atlanta, began experiencing growth in its housing market after RRC redeveloped the community in the late 1990s.  Mitchell Brown, RRC’s COO, notes that homes in the community are in high demand.

 “Reynoldstown is now one of the hottest neighborhoods in Atlanta. The average house is priced at $225,000 to $250,000, but they’re selling for around $300, 000,” he says.  “RRC has helped turn the neighborhood around to be a place where people want to live.”

Zach and Anastasia (shown with their daughter, Penelope)
purchased the first model home in Legacy Pointe.

This probably explains why the first model home for Legacy Pointe sold before the actual development is even complete.  The lucky homebuyer?  A client in RRC’s homebuyer education class.

 “The fact that we can provide a quality home for a relatively affordable price to clients in our homebuyer education classes is a win-win,” says Arrington.

As Reynoldstown continues to grow, RRC remains committed to ensuring its residents can stay in the community, in homes that are affordable.

“One of the goals of our founding CEO, Young Hughley Jr., was to provide units of permanent affordability,” explains Arrington. “Legacy Pointe is just one of the projects we have in the works to do this.”

Written by Constance Troutman, public relations specialist for NeighborWorks America. 

Veterans in trouble need more than ceremonies and discounts

My father and mother at my daughter's
wedding -- his last public event before
he died.

When my father died in August, the funeral home director suggested to my mother that a military honor guard attend his memorial service, in recognition of his deployment with the Army in World War II. The two young men did not treat the assignment as routine or strange, as I would imagine it would be, to “intrude” on such a private event for someone you never knew. After the trumpet was sounded and the flag folded, one of them knelt in front of my frail, aging mother, looked her directly in the eye, and in a soft voice, thanked her – and my father – for his service. It was beautiful, and touching, and I was thankful for the recognition of a life well-lived.

Veterans and soldiers still in active duty are frequently honored in ceremonies such as this, and with special discounts at restaurants and theaters. But those small, albeit appreciated, gestures don’t quite seem to synch with the statistics I come across in my position at NeighborWorks America. Consider:

• An estimated 13-17 percent of homeless individuals are veterans (a statistic hard to come by, since they are difficult to find, and thus count). No matter what number you choose, it’s far more than their 7-9.5 percent share of the overall adult population. When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducted its last “point-in-time” survey (one night in January, repeated ever year, in more than 3,000 cities and counties), it found 62,619 homeless veterans.

• Many veterans who are not homeless are nonetheless “precarious.” Among the estimated 21.8 million veterans in this country, more than 1.5 million spend over half of their income on housing – well above the recommended maximum threshold of 30 percent. A similar number live in poverty.

• Among the most recent veterans – 18-24-year-olds returning from Iraq or Afghanistan – unemployment was 30.2 percent in 2011 (compared to 16.1 percent for non-veterans the same age).

According to a recent survey conducted by NeighborWorks America of 1,000 adults, veterans are like the rest of us; 92 percent regard homeownership to be an integral part of what the “American dream” means to them.  To help them (and others) achieve that goal, many members of our network -- as well as the 3,000+ organizations that turn to us for training -- are staffed with counselors that offer coaching on financial management, navigating the home buying process and – for those who find themselves in trouble – mitigating foreclosure. For those 2 million-plus veterans who are struggling to merely survive, however, more focused, “aggressive” assistance is needed.

First challenge: tracking them down

“We spend a lot of time just trying to find these individuals,” explains Jamie Ebaugh, a social worker and director of supportive housing for NeighborWorks member Southwest Solutions in Detroit. “In the military culture, asking for help is often perceived as weakness. In addition, the traditional VA way of operating is for veterans to come to them. And then, in some cases – such as women who have been sexually assaulted during their service [estimated at one in three] – there is a lack of trust.”

Ronnie, who served in the Army for eight
 years and found help adjustingto life at
home again, from Primavera Foundation.
He remains at home with hiswife Denise.

Paul Andrew, director of the Project Action for Vets at Tucson’s Primavera Foundation, another NeighborWorks member, describes similar challenges. To find these often “invisible” individuals, his organization posts ads in bus stops, liquor stores, laundromats and public parks, and deploys outreach workers to look under bridges and comb the “washes” (dry river beds).

Women (about 10 percent of veterans) are a different story, however. “We don’t find them in the washes,” explains Andrew, who was raised by an uncle in the military and whose son was posted to Iraq while in the National Guard. “Women are more likely to live in cars (often with their children) or ‘garage hop,’ sheltering with friends until their welcome is worn out. They are harder to find.”

The root causes of increased homelessness among veterans are complicated as well. Some enter the military from troubled or rootless backgrounds, turning to the service to escape dysfunctional families, find a “direction in life” or as a last resort to finance school or job training. They may not have experience in living and managing their affairs on their own. As reported by Stars and Stripes last month, a new report in the American Journal of Public Health concluded that members of the military are more likely to be targets for predatory lenders as a result.

“Many of them, when they first come out of the service, aren’t good at managing a checkbook, paying bills, negotiating with a landlord…they’ve never had to do that. They enlisted right out of high school,” explains Ebaugh, whose organization – like many other NeighborWorks members – provides coaching in financial management among its services.

Others become physically or mentally disabled during their service, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance abuse.

Ebaugh’s own niece is a case in point. “She served in Iraq for four years,” he says. “She came back, got her own place to live in and started a dog-training business. But then the Fourth of July came, with all of the fireworks. The noise triggered her PTSD and she ‘crashed.’ She lost her house. I asked her, ‘why didn’t you call somebody?’ She said she thought she could handle it. I got her into professional help, and now she is doing better. She is seeing a therapist and living out of her business.”

For many veterans, their problems are exacerbated by weak social-support networks, broken down during extended periods of duty, and the fact that military training is not always perceived as transferable to the civilian workforce.

Second challenge: bridging to stability

Among the programs offered by Southwest Solutions is Piquette Square, an apartment project with 150

Joe Roth, a formerly homeless vet now
living and volunteering at Piquette Square.

affordable units where formerly homeless veterans can live as long as they want, as well as receive mental-health counseling, treatment for substance abuse, job training and other support services.

“The need is huge,” says Ebaugh. “Piquette Square was filled the day it opened (in 2010), and if we opened up another one we could fill it again. We estimate there are probably at least 3,000 homeless vets just in the Detroit area.”

Most of the vets Ebaugh and his team serve are from the Vietnam era, in part because there often is a “lag” before serious problems develop.  “At first, returning soldiers turn to family members,” he explains. “It can take a while before PTSD begins to manifest itself, as well as for the vets to exhaust their known resources – including the goodwill of their family and friends. A place like Piquette improves family dynamics significantly, by taking the pressure off. Once they have a home of their own, their families are more willing to re-engage.”

Over the next few years, Ebaugh anticipates seeing more vets from the more recent wars, as those conflicts wind down and more and more of those soldiers try to integrate back in. “We expect to 10,000 returning vets in Michigan alone during the next year,” he says. “The key will be to provide them with supportive services right away, along with the tools they need to find jobs. Employment is the key to preventing homelessness.”

Both Southwest Solutions and Primavera are able to do their work thanks to an escalating commitment by the VA to ending homelessness among veterans, including partnerships with nonprofits at the grassroots level. Three years ago, it launched the Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program, in which grants are awarded to private cooperatives and nonprofits such as Primavera and Southwest Solutions to seek out very-low-income veterans to help them and their families transition to permanent housing.

“There are a lot of services available to veterans,” says Andrew. “They just have trouble connecting with them. Navigation can be a nightmare.”

The challenges are daunting, and although Andrew estimates about 15 percent of veterans in the Primavera “system” drop out for reasons that are not always known, dramatic successes are possible. He tells the story of one female veteran who came to Primavera while living with her three children in her car, after seeing one of the organization’s bus stop ads. She had recently lost both her job and home, and was in “deep crisis mode. When you’re in crisis, your ability to plan is nil to none. You have to approach your situation in little pieces, one step at a time.” After a thorough screening, Primavera matched her to stable housing and placed her in a job with a large call center in Tucson. The children were back in school within three months.

Ebaugh agrees, and adds his own keys to successfully helping veterans in perpetual crisis:

• Remember that they won’t usually come to you. You have to develop a plan to find and engage them. It’s particularly effective to involve the veterans themselves:  “One vet can take you to 10 other vets.”
• Treat them with dignity. Veterans are very proud. Play to that, rather than making them feel belittled. Seeking help is not a weakness; it’s merely getting the “leg up” you need.
• Allow vets to teach you too. When they feel comfortable enough with you, they will open up to you with stories that may be heartbreaking, but often very inspiring. 

“Families who know someone who served in the military ‘get it.’ But many others don’t realize how life-changing the experience is. War, and serving in the military itself, changes people in really deep ways, both good and bad.”

Ebaugh is right. I am very fortunate that two years before my father died, I took the time to record an interview with him (using a “home kit” from StoryCorps), in which I asked my dad at length about his stint overseas during the war – why he enlisted, how it changed him, whether he would encourage young people today to join the military. I had never really taken the time before to listen to tales that seemed, as a child, to be “ancient stories that didn’t relate to me.” But once I asked, and listened, I was amazed at his resilience, his insight into the dynamics shaping the world today, and the person who was also my father.

Veterans in trouble deserve more than a day in their honor, or a discount at the movie theater. They need our focused attention and commitment, every day of the year.

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!

Pathfinder Services evolves in surprising directions to meet Indiana’s changing needs

Of all of the organizations we have researched for this anniversary series, Pathfinder Services of Huntington, IN, has evolved the most dramatically over its 47-year history (the last five as a charter member of NeighborWorks America). And it is among the most diverse as it reaches across sectors – housing, education and job creation to name just a few – to serve its community and fund its programs. Its story is a tale of flexibility, nimbleness and a willingness to take calculated risks.

The roots of the organizations extend back to 1966, when it began as a local affiliate of the Indiana Association for Retarded Children. At the time, a movement was sweeping the country to de-institutionalize people with developmental disabilities – allowing them to live at home, instead of being warehoused in “asylums.” A group of parents in Huntington recruited supporters and funding, then opened a school (“mainstreaming” had not yet arrived to public education) and a sheltered workshop that offered training and employment.

The organization grew rapidly in the following years, including its first foray into housing, when it opened a halfway house for individuals transitioning to independence. But it wasn’t until the early ‘80s that the organization began to widen its focus to serve the community at large – first, persons with all types of disabilities, and then the broader “collective.”

Transitioning from a focus on disability to broader community development 

John Niederman (light green jacket) mixes with local residents.

“The change in orientation began when the ‘movement’ (for disability rights) began focusing more on integration,” explains John Niederman, who has served as president of the organization since 1985. “Inclusion became a core value, and research showed that too often, people in the community thought of us as ‘that place down the street.’ One of the best ways to integrate is to develop assets – to plug ‘service gaps,’ if you will – that benefit the community as a whole.”

Just before Niederman’s arrival, the organization changed its name to Pathfinder Services, reflecting that broader mission. “We see ourselves as providing the pathways to improve residents’ lives,” he explains. Today, its services include:

• Affordable child care.

• Employment generation, including interview coaching, job training and placement assistance.  In fact, through its “outsource manufacturing” division, individuals with disabilities and others in need of a stable working environment provide businesses with services ranging from assembly to packaging. It’s a win-win-win for all involved: Businesses receive quality work at reasonable cost, Pathfinder earns revenue that funds its programs and employees are able to support themselves while gaining valuable skills. (Pathfinder is a bit of a trailblazer when it comes to creatively leveraging its core competencies to generate income – including product sales and consulting. A future blog post will focus on this topic; sign up in the field to the right of this feature to receive articles in your inbox!)

• Training in personal financial management, including educational courses and assistance in setting up individual development accounts (IDAs) to encourage savings. Reflecting its highly responsive organizational culture, it offers a tailored version of its IDA program customized for newly re-settled refugees, to help them buy a home, start a business or go to school. (Surprisingly, nearby Fort Wayne is thought to have the largest number of Burmese refugees in the United States!)

• Housing-related services ranging from development of low-income housing, homebuyer training (including a recent session offered in Burmese) and assistance with home rehab.

Niederman is proud of the fact that in 1996, Pathfinder became the first and only organization in Indiana to receive funding for its housing initiatives from the newly established rural component of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and is one of the USDA’s highest-volume partners when it comes to assisting low- to moderate-income individuals apply for rural-oriented "502 direct mortgage loans."

Building social connectedness

A sign promotes one of the
block parties organized by
Pathfinder staff

One of Pathfinder’s more recent community-development initiatives is an outreach program to foster “social connectedness” in targeted neighborhoods. The organization started in an urban neighborhood of Fort Wayne, with the help of a grant from the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development, funded by JP Morgan Chase Bank.

Pathfinder focused on one particular zip code with a population of 17,000, where residents broke into small groups to identify quality-of-life goals on which they most wanted to focus; those that attracted the most support were selected. A strategic plan was drafted to guide the democratically chosen steering committee, which meets every other week. The committee decided that it will not run its own activities, but will instead support and promote existing neighborhood groups and associations through mini-grants and a Facebook page that keeps everyone informed, connected and involved. Pathfinder provides staff to help coordinate the effort and acts as a fiscal agent, working to help identify funding sources.

With “aging in place” a growing trend for older communities, the organization is now moving into the Drover Town neighborhood of rural Huntington, with the encouragement of the town's mayor..

“We received a planning grant from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority to develop ‘communities for a lifetime,’ which means making it possible for residents to stay there as long as they want, regardless of age or disability,” explains Jan Baumgartner, community connections director and recipient of a professional certificate in neighborhood revitalization from NeighborWorks America. Increasingly, research is showing that resiliency through social connections is as important as factors such as affordable housing when it comes to the feasibility of aging in place. Consider, for example, a new study from the University of Michigan that found that people who felt connected to their neighbors suffered significantly fewer strokes.

Each community must be approached differently, says Baumgartner, with residents choosing what to focus on and how to operate.

“We’re a facilitator…an enabler,” says Baumgartner. “We’re here to help the people who live in our service areas tap into the resources they need to fully exploit their own strengths.”

Written by Pam Bailey, communications writer for NeighborWorks America. She would love for you to post your own stories and comments!