Additional Funding for Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program

By Jeanne Fekade-Sellassie
director, NeighborWorks America National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program

Today, NeighborWorks America announced that $70.1 million has been awarded to 30 state housing finance agencies (HFAs), 17 HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, and 72 community-based NeighborWorks organizations to provide counseling to families and individuals facing the threat of foreclosure.  Just one month after the seventh round of National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling (NFMC) Program funds were appropriated, communities across our country will be able to put the funds to immediate use.

At a time when foreclosures continue to affect communities around the country and unemployment rates remain high, the need for the NFMC funding is critical.  Demand for these funds far exceeded the amount of funding available; eligible applicants requested over $105 million in NFMC grant funds.



In total, more than 1,200 nonprofit counseling agencies and local NeighborWorks organizations across the country are expected to be engaged in the NFMC Program as a result of these awards.  These organizations provide invaluable, free assistance to families at risk of losing their homes, determine client eligibility for the Making Home Affordable programs, help clients understand the complex foreclosure process, and identify possible courses of action so their clients can make informed decisions and take action.

To date, more than 1,560,000 families in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam have received foreclosure counseling through the NFMC Program.  It is estimated that 193,000 families facing the threat of foreclosure will be directly assisted with this seventh round of funding.

In addition to the grant funding, the NFMC appropriations provide funding to train foreclosure counselors and to administer the program.  With these funds, NeighborWorks has conducted over 156 local, regional, and national trainings and has provided over 12,100 training scholarships and over 23,000 course completion certificates to individuals attending these trainings.  Nearly 5,800 participants have completed one or more of the three foreclosure e-learning courses developed with NFMC funds: Foreclosure Basics, Understanding and Applying Loss-Mitigation Tools, and Using Effective Practices to Improve your Foreclosure Counseling Program.  NeighborWorks expects to train 2,000 counselors with the seventh round of NFMC funding.

Learn more at http://nw.org/network/foreclosure/nfmcp/round7.asp 

How Tax Prep Sites Help Recruit New Clients

By Darren Hamm,
deputy director, NHSGC

The yearly obligation to file taxes is often a rare opportunity for people to really reflect on their finances and to connect with community organizations that can help them year-round. This can help save them money and help nonprofits reach new clients.

Last year Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland (NHSGC) started a financial capability program and this tax season marks the second year of our first Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which helps Cleveland residents of lower incomes receive free help filing their taxes. We chose to run this VITA site because, if you’re talking about asset building, there’s really nothing more direct than saving someone $450 in tax prep and having their refund— often 50% of their annual income—invested in the local environment (utilities, groceries, car repair, tuition) or helping that person pay down debt.

So far this season, NHSGC has assisted in returning more than $750,000 in income tax returns to more than 400 people throughout northeast Ohio, further saving these taxpayers more than $160,000 in filing fees.  This is great for the residents and it’s also an important way for NHSGC to reach new clients.

We identify potential clients by having VITA site tax filers complete surveys on how they will use their refund, their biggest challenges financially and other such questions that can assess their financial capability. We then connect tax filers to services that can address those needs. Sometimes the services are ones we provide and other times we connect tax filers to our local partners. Our hope is that those who haven’t worked with us yet will remember we are here if need arises.

Volunteers from Charter One Bank and Darren Hamm, NHSGC

This approach has already paid off for us and for our new clients. In the past few months we’ve assisted tax filers with foreclosure, helped them register and take homeownership courses, and apply for home repair loans. We’ve been able to help these new clients because they share many characteristics with our current clients, such as geographic location. However, as a group, the new clients/tax filers are more likely to rent than own and they generally have more modest incomes, so we keep that in mind when explaining our services.

Overall, we feel it’s been a successful tax season and we hope to maintain relationships with clients in the coming year.  To close out, we’re hosting a Super Saturday event on April 13 in partnership with Charter One Bank. Tax filers will have their taxes prepared, learn about opportunities to save their tax refund, and be entered into a Cleveland Saves drawing for opening up a savings account on site.

Mountain Housing Opportunities: Building Homes as a Community

This blog is part of our 35th Anniversary Celebration series, highlighting NeighborWorks member organizations which are celebrating milestone years marking either their membership in the network or their incorporation as an organization.

By Brittany Hutson, NeighborWorks
America Public Relations fellow

Twenty-five years ago, a group of 10 volunteers completed seven home repairs in seven months for seniors in the Asheville area. These repairs included roof and porch repairs, replacing furnaces, correcting electrical hazards, and water and sewer problems. Out of this effort was born Mountain Housing Opportunities, a community development corporation based in Asheville, North Carolina, that builds and improves homes, neighborhoods, and communities for people of Asheville and Buncombe County. Several of those volunteers served on the original board of directors of Mountain Housing, including Executive Director Scott Dedman. Today, the organization completes 150 emergency home repairs each year for families with children and elderly and disabled homeowners.

In the early 1990s, Mountain Housing moved into developing single family homes and affordable/workforce apartments, and later townhomes and condominiums for first-time homebuyers.  Since the financial crisis, Mountain Housing has temporarily stopped producing multifamily homes for homeownership.

Self Help Homeownership families work together to frame a house

“We are building single family homes and have expanded our production of apartments since the rental market continues to expand dramatically,” says Dedman. As part of the organization’s single family home development effort, Mountain Housing worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development office to start a Self-Help Homeownership program, where families spend approximately 20 hours per week building their own homes for about eight months. “We build six homes per years with families through that program,” explains Dedman. Production for apartments averages about 60 per year. To date, 535 apartments have been completed.

Two members of the six Self Help HomeOwnership
families measure wood to cut for their home

Mountain Housing became a NeighborWorks charter member five years ago, and since then, Dedman says the organization has dramatically grown in production and services. For example, after becoming a member, Mountain Housing began a down payment assistance program that provides an average of 25 to 30 homebuyers per year with loans for as much as $15,000 per home.

Since Mountain Housing earned a LEED Gold certification for a building completed in 2010, they have been incorporating even more green features into their developments. Dedman is also proud that Mountain Housing has helped more than 4,500 families and individuals. “We’ve saved people’s homes and lives through emergency repair,” he says. “We’re providing families with children and elderly and disabled folks a safe and attractive apartment in good neighborhoods. We’ve helped families move up in their quality of life.” 

Learn more about Mountain Housing Opportunities at http://www.mtnhousing.org 

Joining forces: Habitat and NeighborWorks in Michigan

NeighborWorks America recently announced that Habitat for Humanity of Michigan is now part of our network of chartered members. This is an exciting opportunity for two nationally recognized affordable housing organizations to expand services in a state that has suffered greatly in recent years.  To bring you more of the story, Alexandra Chaikin, online media project manager at NeighborWorks America, interviewed Sandra Pearson, president and CEO for Habitat for Humanity Michigan.

Sandy Pearson, president and CEO
Habitat for Humanity Michigan

What does Habitat for Humanity of Michigan do?

We serve 75 local chapters of Habitat operating in all 83 counties of Michigan. We offer families and individuals access to services like financial capability, homebuyer education and debt management. In 2009, we became a full service company offering mortgage origination, servicing and collections; and we are a licensed lender. This gives us a platform that will allow us to work with financial institutions in new ways to help them meet their goals to serve people who don’t qualify for conventional mortgage products and, ultimately, the goal for us is to provide financing for low-income people who want to buy a home, but who cannot qualify for traditional mortgages. The ability to work with financial institutions and investors in new ways to bring more capital to all that we do allows us to take families who want to be homeowners further down the path to achieving their goals.

How did you first hear about NeighborWorks America?

My first experience with NeighborWorks was when I worked at Michigan State Housing Development Housing Development Authority. When families were ready to buy a house, I helped get them financing. There were only three places that could serve nontraditional applicants with lowest incomes: Habitat for Humanity, the USDA 502 direct program and a NeighborWorks affiliate in Toledo, Ohio which had a loan pool. That program in Toledo actually inspired the statewide loan fund program I’m working to fund here in Michigan.

You went to an organization in Ohio to help people in Michigan?

I will go anywhere. I’m working with a company in California right now. If I can’t get it in Michigan, I’ll go someplace else.

What are the advantages of becoming a member of the NeighborWorks network?

This is a huge personal goal for me. One of my initial goals was becoming a chartered NeighborWorks member because we could really partner to help more families. We can refer clients to each other, provide more financing options and do more in areas like financial capability, homebuyer education and debt management.

Habitat for Humanity's Women Build program helps women
learn construction skills and build homes and communities. 

When you have Habitat for Humanity and NeighborWorks America, the two largest national affordable housing organizations, working together, the possibilities are beyond what you could imagine. It’s going to be the biggest thing I’ve ever been involved in in 20 years of affordable housing.

Can you say more about the loan fund you’re developing?

Capital is scarce these days and particularly so here in Michigan, so we’re interested in closing the gap between need and availability. Habitat for Humanity Michigan has established a structure for the Habitat for Humanity Michigan fund. The goal is a $20 million mortgage purchase loan pool, which I’m working now to get funded. We will establish a revolving loan fund that financial institutions and other capital investors may invest in to bring more capital to finance mortgages and home repairs. Funds will directly benefit individuals and bring more capital to allow affiliates to partner with more families in more ways than ever. Staffing for the loan fund is statewide which frees local staff and volunteers to focus on what they do best.  Basically the fund is tapping into a network of community development experts and private sources of funding to allow more efficiencies statewide and therefore help a greater number of people.
I’m also working on program with the state housing finance agency and a state bank to create a sort of secondary market for the loans. This will increase organization’s cash flow and their ability to relend to other families. I anticipate that the loan fund will happen by June of this year.

Who will benefit from this loan fund?

 Loans will go directly to anyone served by NeighborWorks America, Habitat for Humanity Michigan or the USDA 502 direct program. Since Habitat for Humanity Michigan serves all 88 counties of the state, the benefits essentially are open to anyone who qualifies and comes to us or to NeighborWorks America or the USDA 502 direct program. There is potential for this to expand to other states.

Any closing thoughts?

Millard Fuller, Habitat's founder said “The poor do not need charity; they need capital. A hand up and not a hand out.” In my mind, this partnership works toward that statement – a catalyst to bring capital to more people.

Providing Pathways Out of Poverty in the Grand Canyon State

This blog is part of our 35th Anniversary Celebration series, highlighting NeighborWorks member organizations which are celebrating milestone years marking either their membership in the network or their incorporation as an organization.

Reneé Bibby,
marketing coordinator,
Primavera Foundation

More than 28,000 individuals are homeless in Arizona, with 1 in 100 people homeless in Pima County and the Tucson Metropolitan Area. This is double the national average of 1 in 200.

Thirty years ago, Tucson, Arizona like the rest of the country, was experiencing a rapid rise in homelessness. To address this issue, Nancy Bissell and Gordon Packard organized a group of friends and neighbors and created the Primavera Foundation. Their initial goal was to provide for the emergency needs of those in our community who were homeless.

Currently celebrating its 30th year of providing services to the Tucson area, the Primavera Foundation has expanded with a variety of programs, to respond to the complex challenges and diverse needs of the community. Today, Primavera offers a full spectrum of programs that provide multiple affordable housing options, job training, employment opportunities, financial and homeownership education, and neighborhood revitalization. Primavera also provides specialized services for veterans while continuing to address social and economic justice issues. These programs and Primavera’s team of over 1,000 volunteers have helped to create a vibrant grassroots effort to address the underlying causes of poverty in the community.

Rosa Borbon is raising her granddaughter, Mary Rose. Rosa
served on the Las Abuelitas grandparent council, providing
crucial design input into the plans of the Las Abuelitas project.
Photo credit: Primavera Foundation

“Primavera’s job is to meet people wherever they are on their pathway out of poverty,” said Peggy Hutchison, Primavera’s chief executive officer.

A new project under construction for Primavera is Las Abuelitas. This 12-unit community is for low-income grandparents raising their grandchildren and will open in August. It will also include a community center, basketball court, a playground, private gardens within the units, and a community garden.



“Primavera’s job is to meet people wherever they are on their pathway out of poverty,” said Peggy Hutchison, Primavera’s chief executive officer.


 “We were approached by grandparents who had very unique concerns about raising their grandchildren and asked for a solution,” explains Hutchison. “Primavera decided that this was not only an opportunity to help 12 families, but a chance to empower other grandparents and revitalize the neighborhood.” 

Additionally, Primavera is still working to address the needs of individuals. One example is a program participant named Bill McNamee, an ex-offender, who was homeless and in need of employment. After a stay at the Primavera men’s shelter, McNamee moved into Primavera’s rental housing program while participating in Primavera’s workforce development program, Primavera Works. He has now secured a full-time job and is looking forward to joining Primavera’s financial and homeownership education classes. 

Bill McNamee, currently employed as a host at Waffle House,
poses with Waffle House Owner, Gabby Llovet.
Photo credit: Primavera Foundation

“Bill is a great example of how people can grow if given the right opportunity,” says Hutchison. But there are still an abundance of people to assist. Hutchison says a benefit of being a NeighborWorks America charter member is that “NeighborWorks is always willing to support progressive visions and programs.”

“The collaborative partnership that NeighborWorks brings to community development organizations throughout the network is immeasurable,” she adds.

Learn more about Primavera at http://primavera.org