Building Grassroots Leadership in South Carolina

By Hillary Rowe Wiley,
NeighborWorks America
public affairs and communications
advisor, Southern District

NeighborWorks America began in 1968 as a result of resident leaders who took up a charge to improve their neighborhoods (history here), so it makes sense that resident empowerment is still a crucial component of what we do.  One of the best ways we have found to promote resident leadership is to strengthen ties between local groups so they can develop their own networks, share and build best practices, and ultimately work toward solutions for complex challenges.

Last weekend NeighborWorks America’s Southern District, in collaboration with South Carolina Associations of Community Development Corporations (SCACDC) sponsored a Grassroots Leadership Institute (GLI) in Greenville, South Carolina. In keeping with our goal of engaging a variety of public and private partners, our partner SCACDC attracted the support of the City of Greenville, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, TD Bank, GCRA and Homes of Hope.

The GLI attracted around 150 diverse grassroots leaders, ranging in age from young adults to retired citizens, all banding together to experience “Empowering Your Community from the Ground Up – with Real Solutions for Real People in Real Neighborhoods.”

Classes taught residents a variety of skills, including how to build safer communities, promote healthy living, develop political clout and strengthen personal leadership skills. Panelists included Southern District Director Donald Phoenix, South Carolina State Representative Chandra Dillard, and SCACDC President and CEO Bernie Mazyck. “Connecting with the community - being in conversations with emerging leaders to retired residents, sharing best practices and learning from folks at the grassroots level is the foundational work necessary to stabilizing and transforming communities,” said Phoenix.

Donald Phoenix with Rep. Chandra Dillard and Bernie Mazyck

During the event, I spoke of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale’s leadership principle: “looking for the gold” or positive in every situation. I chose this theme because I know community development can focus on everything that isn’t working – blight, drugs, poverty, all the things that can undermine a neighborhood’s stability and success. As a result, sometimes we forget to look at community assets. All too often we get into what is known as the failure habit – which is focusing on and complaining about everything and anything that’s not working. This can lead to feeling overwhelmed or burnt out, so it’s important to celebrate successes and focus on the positive.

I hope that as a result of the institute, many community leaders will return to their neighborhoods with new connections and new knowledge that can support their projects, and with expanded sense of possibility for what their communities could become. So far, what we heard at the conference supports this goal. One local pastor who had just returned to Greenville after a four-year stint in England, was initially unsure of the GLI saying he knew few people in Greenville and did not yet feel part of the community. However, by the conclusion of the institute he was fired up saying, “This was great! Now I’m connected to so many people, and I now know what to do to help create and change community on a level that’s very different from my traditional pastor role. Thanks so much. This was really great!”

I am proud what we’ve achieved already and I look forward to the stories and photos we’ll be gathering from all the local successes.

Will the Foreclosure Crisis be With Us Another Two Years?

By Marietta Rodriguez
Director, National
Homeownership
Programs & Lending

With signs of a turnaround in housing appearing in various industry reports such as those from the National Association of Realtors for pending home sales, and from the National Association of Home Builders via its new home sales index, it’s not difficult to think that the foreclosure crisis is behind us. But it isn’t.

Recently I was on a panel at the National Association of Real Estate Editors spring meeting discussing the housing market alongside representatives from Bank of America and FNC, Inc., and we agreed that the foreclosure crisis won’t end for another two years – according to the most positive forecasts.

Mortgage rates are likely to remain very low for the foreseeable future and that’s good for housing and for ending the foreclosure crisis. However, what we really need to do in order to find the end more quickly is make it easier for qualified buyers to purchase homes and for homeowners in distress to find solutions that don’t end in foreclosure.

Neighborhood Housing Service of
South Florida educates a potential homebuyer

On the purchase side, NeighborWorks America supports efforts to make homeownership as accessible as possible without creating undue risk in the system. We support the availability of low down payment mortgages which enable homebuyers who are already saving to purchase a home more quickly. Additionally, we support underwriting that keep loans within the reach of deserving buyers. Finally, we think that homebuyer education is a critical piece of the process. Education is what prepares people for the true costs of homeownership, and helps them make sustainable choices.

Family outside their home
in Great Falls, Montana

On the foreclosure front, we’ve established partnerships that connect homeowners to the help that they need to find an alternative to foreclosure. For example, by partnering with local governments we are able to direct our efforts into neighborhoods that are at the greatest risk of foreclosures, and making those resident aware of options for assistance. We are also facilitating better homeowner communication with servicers through the HOPE Loan Port, which tracks individual requests for loan modifications. Servicer outreach centers are another key tool for stemming foreclosure, because they allow homebuyers to receive in-person advice on how they might keep their home. However, as I told the audience at the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference, all servicers could do more.

The housing market won’t rebound until the foreclosure crisis is behind us. However, by improving the availability of mortgage credit and homebuyer education, we can minimize the impacts of the crisis and make sure it ends within two years.

Achieving Excellence in Affordable Housing

By Stacey Epperson
President & CEO of Next Step Network

Some of you may have read my recent interview in Forbes, and I’d like to give a little background on the transformation I talk about there. Less than five years ago, I was the executive director of Frontier Housing in northeastern Kentucky, and one of manufactured housing’s worst critics. I adamantly disliked the industry, from its perceived shady dealers to its poor quality materials, and actively steered residents away from purchasing its homes. So when counselors began to tell me that those in need of affordable housing often opted for manufactured units, I refused to listen. When colleagues told me that they struggled to build more homes than the number manufactured housing dealers shipped into the county, I refused to listen. When my own staff admitted to living in manufactured homes or using them for temporary housing, I still refused to listen. It was not until Frontier’s housing production began to slip that I finally confronted the situation: the manufactured housing industry represented a worthy opponent, and Frontier would need to rethink its tactics in order to compete.

Phyllis Kelly, Isonville, Kentucky, one of the first to
join Frontier’s mobile home replacement program-and
a big influence on my transformation. Read more.
Source: Next Step Network, LLC

My transformation was guided by NeighborWorks America’s executive leadership program, Achieving Excellence in Community Development (AE). During the first week, the class examined the case of a nonprofit that could not compete with local loan sharks that offered quality choices along with less complicated rules and quicker results. I came to a staggering realization: the manufactured dealers were the loan sharks in the story. Frontier was treating clients as a unified group, not as customers with individual preferences. An exciting question soon emerged from the subsequent discussion: what if manufactured housing was the solution, not the problem?

Returning to Frontier with the AE focus on honesty and performance-driven change, I began to move away from old ways of thinking and critically assess the situation. I set an AE performance challenge for Frontier to triple the number of customers served while cutting production time in half and maintaining a loan delinquency rate below 5%. To meet this challenge, I restructured Frontier to run more efficiently and effectively, assigning staff to cross-department teams that made the best use of their strengths and encouraging them to adopt a unified commitment to measurable results.

Next Step® manufactured home built
to meet Energy Star standards
Source: Next Step Network, LLC

When I went public with the performance challenge, I did not receive an encouraging response; in fact, many individuals cautioned me to “not go there” and that while “modular housing was ok, I should stay out of the manufactured field.” Although I remained confident that I was on the right path, I had also learned from the AE program to pay attention to the criticism and to constantly seek out new opportunities for growth. So, we made changes and then we changed again. By listening to the voices of dissent and continuing conversations with those in the field, I learned of Warren Buffet’s purchase of Clayton Homes and realized that, in lieu of competing with the manufactured housing industry, Frontier could align with it. We eventually teamed up with Clayton Homes to become Kentucky’s first nonprofit dealer of manufactured housing.

In the end we met our goals, and even exceeded them. We tripled total housing production and our loan fund while cutting in half the time needed to get clients into a new home. Further, we have worked to improve the image of the manufactured housing industry, and encouraged other nonprofits to form similar partnerships. We've also established the Next Step® Network in 2010, a social venture that mobilizes a national network of nonprofits to provide affordable housing solutions tailored to the needs of their communities.

Gibson Family, Morgan County, Kentucky.
With help from Frontier, they replaced
their deteriorating 1-bedroom mobile home
with a 4-bedroom, Energy Star certified
manufactured home. Read more.
Source: Frontier Housing, Inc.

I credit Achieving Excellence for helping me challenge my own ideas about the manufactured housing industry and prompting me to restructure my organization. The program also opened my mind to the partnerships that have propelled Frontier and the Next Step Network to a new level of service. With the support of groups like CFED, I’ve been able to expand our efforts even further. Our program has not only been a success for us as an organization, but for families who’ve benefitted from having exceptionally good, viable, green housing at prices that would otherwise have been unaffordable.

For more information, please contact us:
www.nextstepus.org
Office: 502.992.9417
Email: nsinfo@nextstepus.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NextStepUS
Twitter: @NextStepUS

Vermont’s NeighborWorks Organizations: The Power of a Network

By Deborah Boatright,
Northeast Regional Director,
NeighborWorks America

I had the pleasure of spending NeighborWorks Week 2012 in Vermont, crisscrossing the state while visiting all five of our network affiliates. Each one is doing excellent work in challenging communities under inspired leadership. But it is what they are doing together that truly distinguishes them, and is a model for the region and the country.

Vermont's five HomeOwnership Centers have worked together for more than a decade to provide services statewide through the NeighborWorks Alliance of Vermont. This framework was critical last summer when Tropical Storm Irene struck, causing devastation everywhere. A dozen towns were totally cut off as nearly every river in Vermont flooded. Rebuilding efforts still loom large. The Alliance's NeighborWorks Week event was to restore a flood-damaged teen center and was featured by the USDA.

Vermont NWO volunteers load a heavy piece
of debris onto a truck. Photo courtesy
of Windsor Windham Housing Trust

Tropical Storm Irene was impetus for NeighborWorks Alliance of Vermont to undertake long-term planning for statewide disaster response, with NeighborWorks America’s support. As part of this effort, each organization now has video-conferencing cababilty to make collaboration easier. Already, the state's only two certified reverse mortgage counselors are planning to meet virtually with seniors from any location.      

The trust and mutual respect among Vermont’s NeighborWorks organizations (NWOs) runs deep within the organizations and was readily apparent throughout my visit. They are thriving in the nexus of independence and interdependence. Different NWOs take the lead based upon their capacity and expertise. Collaborations are based on strength and shared interest.

Champlain Housing Trust established a Mobile Home Lending Program to repair and replace mobile homes (over 15% destroyed by Irene) and received a prestigious Cornerstone grant to strengthen operations of six Community Land Trusts, including those at three other NWOs.  NeighborWorks Western Vermont's H.E.A.T. Squad, aggressively conducting energy audits and rehabbing homes under a multi-million dollar Department of Energy grant, will soon be statewide. Central Vermont Community Land Trust and Gillman Housing Trust are part of a national pilot aimed at keeping seniors in their homes. 

Brattleboro Food Coop
Photography by Ann Wright, courtesy of Windsor Windham Housing Trust

All the Vermont organizations embrace green. The expansive Brattleboro Food Coop complex just built by Windham & Windsor Housing Trust (WWHT) includes a green roof, a pellet-fueled boiler, and 24 units of affordable housing. It is another example of how Vermont’s NeighborWorks organizations are forging new partnerships well beyond the housing world.

I believe that the continued growth and impact of community development depends on its relevancy in areas such as health, employment, and education. It is all about taking part in strengthening our quality of life. The Vermont NWOs are leading the way by creating new pathways to sustainability and greater impact; and we are proud to support their success.

Making Scattered Site Rental Work

Reposted from the "Stabilize" blog of the NeighborWorks America Stable Communities program.
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Shelterforce discussed the thorny issue of managing scattered-site rentals by nonprofits in its winter 2011 issue, noting that it "has long been considered a very tough nut to crack for nonprofit housing groups." The lack of efficiencies of scale lead to higher costs for travel and time, maintenance for non-uniform household items, fewer units sharing equipment like laundry facilities, and security. One property manager estimates that management costs 25 to 30 percent more than traditional rental units.

So why do it? The glut of single-unit homes on the market means they're available, and mission-driven nonprofits also see it as an important. By putting these homes to good use, they make an impact on local neighborhoods. As quoted in the story, “Scattered-site rentals provide nonprofits with a strong physical presence and stakeholder role within a neighborhood, enabling them to be more involved in local political lobbying and neighborhood change,” says Benji Power of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida.

NeighborWorks America has developed the comprehensive Scattered Site Rental Toolkit: Business Planning for Development & Management to assist nonprofits that want to provide affordable housing and stabilize neighborhoods through such rentals.

Does your organization have experiences — successful or otherwise — with this type of work? What advice would you share?