NeighborWorks® America Delivers

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Every day, a network of 240 loosely affiliated nonprofit organizations is creating housing opportunities in communities across the nation. Although each nonprofit has its own locally focused activities, it is also a chartered member of NeighborWorks® America — a network that generates an array of on-the-ground initiatives to make communities stronger.

Neighborhood residents in South Chicago plant a community garden during NeighborWorks® Week in June 2006. Courtesy of NeighborWorks® America

Established by Congress in 1978, NeighborWorks America is a public nonprofit corporation directed by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, a Director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a member of the National Credit Union Administration board, and the Director of the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision. Its purpose is to mobilize public, private, and community resources to revitalize neighborhoods.

Membership in the NeighborWorks network gives eligible nonprofit organizations access to resources designed to strengthen local efforts to improve the affordability of housing, the vitality of economies, and the quality of community life. These efforts are well-illustrated by the following examples:

• In 2005, Neighborhood Housing Services of Dimmit County in Carrizo Springs, Texas provided 72 families with pre- and post-purchase counseling; helped 9 families purchase a home through homeownership counseling and downpayment, closing cost, or financing assistance; and owned or managed 12 rental apartments for low-income and elderly residents.

• Neighborhood Housing Services in Fairbanks, Alaska and its partner, the Northern Schools Federal Credit Union, started a program in which eligible families open a savings account reserved for the purchase of a home. After six months, the credit union matches each dollar the families save with three dollars in home purchase funding.

• Pocatello Neighborhood Housing Services (PNHS), in Pocatello, Idaho, collaborates with five local credit unions, each of which contributes $20,000 or more to a fund from which PNHS makes loans to customers for home purchase and rehabilitation. Credit union members are eligible for downpayment and closing cost assistance as well as third-party counseling for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program, which serves 250 customers annually.

• In Tucson, Arizona, the Primavera Foundation preserved seven historic adobe homes and built three new units in Barrio Historico, a project recognized with a Best of the Best Practices Award from HUD in 2000.

• Neighborhood Housing Services of Boise, Idaho teaches youth who live in the multifamily housing it owns or manages to use money wisely through saving, spending, donating, and investing. This community-based organization also runs a foreclosure-prevention program and enlists corporations to sponsor house raisings for low-income families.

• Homewise, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has helped more than 1,300 people purchase homes and has provided financial and technical assistance for home repair to over 600 homeowners. Homewise has trained and counseled more than 3,000 people seeking homeownership and has built more than 150 affordable homes. In 2005, Homewise’s revolving loan fund brought $8.7 million into the community and leveraged $22.5 million from conventional lenders and other sources.

• The Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corporation, in Mayville, New York, rehabilitates about 100 housing units annually, eradicates lead hazards, educates homebuyers and new owners, and adapts or repairs homes for disabled and frail elderly residents.

In his April 2007 testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services, NeighborWorks CEO Kenneth Wade summarized the network’s achievements of the past five years. Through its chartered member organizations, NeighborWorks helped 100,000 low-income and minority families become homeowners, provided homeownership education and counseling to 317,000 families, trained 50,000 community development practitioners, owned and managed more than 63,500 affordable rental units, and facilitated nearly $9 billion of investments in distressed communities.

On the Ground and Prepared to Act

Volunteers from MANNA, a DC housing organization, refurbish a neighborhood during a NeighborWorks® Week event. Courtesy of NeighborWorks® America

In addition to these ongoing activities, the network has the coverage and flexibility to respond quickly to crises. Almost immediately following the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2005, network members arranged shelter for evacuees, temporary housing, supplies, searches for missing family members, a donation drive, and a food bank. They helped victims register for Federal Emergency Management Agency aid, find jobs, and resume their educations. The umbrella corporation deployed emergency funds and launched the Power of Ten campaign, setting housing and financial education goals to achieve in the region by 2010. With $100 million in hand, NeighborWorks expects to leverage $1 billion in investments in the Gulf Coast region by 2010. By adding 10 chartered organizations, 10 housing resource centers, and 10 strategic partnerships in the region, the network intends to serve 100 communities, help 100,000 families preserve or achieve homeownership, sponsor 100 training scholarships for nonprofit leaders, build or rehabilitate 10,000 affordable homes, and train 1,000 resident leaders. Hence the name: Power of Ten.

The network is also positioned to make a timely response to the rising rate of foreclosures. NeighborWorks has built a strong core of foreclosure prevention programs and counselors, developed research-based solutions, and reached at-risk homeowners. To build on these accomplishments, NeighborWorks joined forces with the Ad Council to launch a national public service announcement (PSA) campaign to urge at-risk homeowners to call the Homeowner’s HOPE hotline at 888-995-HOPE to learn how to find help. The PSAs, which can be reviewed at www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=435, began appearing in June 2007.

Read more about NeighborWorks’ foreclosure prevention initiatives at www.nw.org/network/neighborworksprogs/foreclosuresolutions/default.asp and the Power of Ten campaign at www.nw.org/network/gulfrecovery/power.asp. For more information about NeighborWorks’ member organizations, programs, and achievements, visit the website at www.nw.org.