As communities struggle to find balance and recover from the impacts of COVID19, high unemployment and social injustice, NeighborWorks organizations are working to balance the need for change and support equality while also keeping residents united and safe.
Kelleigh Gamble, CEO for Neighborhood Housing Services Birmingham Inc., talks about recent days, and his expectations and hopes for the weeks ahead.
What's happening: "COVID-19 is where the entire story kind of starts. When the cases started rising, people started realizing we needed to change what we were doing. We were able to move to the online space, and we were still doing workshops on homebuyer education and still doing one-on-one credit budget counseling. People were still transitioning to home ownership because of the low interest rates. We were feeling really good about what we were doing. When the incident with Mr. Floyd happened in Minnesota, that took a lot of the wind out of our sails. As a black CEO, this is impacting me really deeply.
"As you know, Birmingham was one of the touchstone places for the civil rights movement back in the day. That Sunday, we had a really good turnout for a peaceful protest at Kelly Ingram Park, right across the street from the Civil Rights Museum and the 16th Street Baptist Church."
Impact: "Later on in the evening, there were elements within that protest that weren't thinking about the larger community. The area across the street from my office was looted heavily. They knocked down windows. They knocked down doors. We were hit with some bricks and some graffiti."
Response: "My fraternity brothers of Omega Psi Phi came out the very next day and we started cleaning off the graffiti on the side of the building. We pulled together and we were able to get all of that scrubbed off. Even with some broken glass and graffiti, we ain't going anywhere. We've been here since 1976. It's going to take more than that to get rid of us.
"We're checking with our tenants in our apartment complexes to make sure they have PPE [personal protective equipment] and letting them know that if they want to get tested for COVID, they can be tested."
Message of hope: "My dad said, ‘Tough times don't last; tough people do.' During this time of unrest, during this time of hurt, it's incumbent upon all of us – black, white, whatever our backgrounds are – to take the time to get to know the people you've worked with for a long time. Understand that this struggle isn't just a struggle that jumped off with George Floyd; this struggle has been going on for hundreds of years. It's time to understand who your neighbor is better, and to listen, to have those conversations."
How to help: "As people continue to need us and reach out to us, we're being proactive and engaging. We're sharing through our social media platforms about resources available." NHS of Birminghams's website has more information about it's work.
06/16/2020
