NeighborWorks organizations have spent the past few weeks drafting new policies and communications in the wake of the COVID-19 virus and figuring out ways to share them quickly with their staff, their community, other agencies and one another.
For weeks now, Sara Olson, communications and development director at Avesta Housing Development Corporation has been honing her plans as she followed the spread of the virus from country to country, until it reached the United States. "We could see that Covid-19 was slowly moving in this country and would eventually make it to our region," she says. "We didn't hear of other people planning for it before it arrived, so we quietly reviewed our communications and crisis plans in preparation."
She found support from fellow public relations officers in Maine. She also touched base with her regional public affairs and communications manager from NeighborWorks America, who took steps to connect NeighborWorks communications specialists with each other.
"My daily focus has changed drastically since COVID-19," Olson says. "We're trying to figure out how to keep staff and residents safe while continuing our essential operations."
Meanwhile Don Falk, CEO of Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) in San Francisco, was trying to figure out how to set new policies to protect TNDC's staff of 450 and the communities they served — everyone from seniors in housing to kids in afterschool programs, "There is an overwhelming amount of information being conveyed back and forth," Falk said by cell phone as he was checking on staff and operations. "There's so much to organize. We're accustomed to emergencies that happen suddenly and they're a big event, like flooding or an earthquake. But this is different, because we can see it coming, but we don't know exactly what's coming."
Falk says he's been exchanging ideas and information with a number of other housing organizations, including East Bay Asian Local Development, another NeighborWorks American network organization. "We're trying to balance three things: the needs of our populations, the needs of our staff and our critical business function," he says. "People asked to work on-site are torn between concern for their own personal safety and very deeply held values about serving other people. It's hard for people. There are so many issues and questions."
Organizations have been connecting through email, phone calls and webinars.
Carol Gordon, a tenant at one of TNDC's properties, says she's been keeping updated through notices on her seven-story building's bulletin boards and in the elevator. They've staggered the timing for floors to pick up produce deliveries from foodbanks, she says. And in-person lectures have moved to the phone. "Right now there's one on deep breathing and a bilingual one for COVID-19 set for Tuesday."
"It's been a lifesaver to have such a close network of community developers and nonprofit housing organizations in the Bay Area," says Charise Fong, chief operating officer at East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation. "We've been able to lean on each other very quickly and share information and emergency response tools as this crisis ramped up."
Fong says she's been in constant contact with her counterpart at TNDC. "We've known each other for years and are always sharing resources and providing encouragement. This time was no different."
Across the country, in Montana, they are watching the developments, says Sherrie Arey, director of NeighborWorks Great Falls. She was still in the office the week of March 24, though most of her staff was working from home. Montana had fewer cases than network organizations in California and New York, so Arey says she is watching how other organizations prepare their communities.
"We know it's going to eventually hit Montana. We've been thinking, when it hits here, what do we need to learn from."
Most of her research, she says, has been into the 2008 housing crisis. She attended a meeting about lending and foreclosure prevention and lending hardships. "We want to figure out opportunities to help when those things hit Montana like they're already hitting the coast," she says. "We're planning what's going to happen in the next month."
Her notes have grim reminders of what could be needed ahead. "Things around substance abuse, rental assistance, foreclosure counseling, emergency loans. What are our opportunities to help small businesses and workforce development?"
She says they're reaching out to other organizations to figure out payment modifications and other plans "so we don't need to reinvent the wheel."
In rural states with smaller populations, the communities often live paycheck to paycheck, even in the middle class, she says. "Things like this devastate us in a different way than in the cities. With NeighborWorks Montana, trying to figure out how to lead the way to recovery for our state. It's a big state with a small population. But the problems are just as big as when this happens in Seattle, Los Angeles or Dallas."
Ayer says she expects all of us will continue to learn as we go. "I think creative partnerships will be part of the success stories when we get to the other side."
NeighborWorks America held several webinars and town hall meetings over the last two weeks to help foster the exchange of information.
Bruce Luecke, president and CEO at Homeport in Ohio, searched for a silver lining — and found one. "We're primarily a face-to-face provider of services," he says. "As we look at situations like this, while we never want to go through it, it also brings up opportunities for us to utilize new technologies … in order to not only serve the people that we serve, but to expand the [number of] people that we serve."
NeighborWorks recommends that organizations consult CDC guidelines as they make their decisions about what to do next. Falk, of TNDC, also offers these lessons learned:
- Information isn't the same as informed, Falk says, meaning "just because we put out information — via email, written documents, all-staff Zoom meetings, conference calls etc. — doesn't mean that people fully grasp it."
- Frame and reframe. The situation changes frequently enough that every day we have to be aware of how the world is evolving and be prepared to modify yesterday's decisions or directions, Falk says.
