At Avenue CDC in Houston, Texas, as in other places across the United states, everything changed overnight. As COVID-19 spread, employees went from working in an office to working at home, from building strong homes and communities to feeding those communities, too.

When she first started working as a homebuying educator in 2006, "it was a buyer's boom," says Gabriela Luna, now an educator and housing counselor at Tejano Center for Community Concerns in Houston, Texas. "Everyone was buying. There was so much support from all banks."
 

A new deck for a retired veteran. An overgrown yard, weeded and tamed. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, NeighborWorks Green Bay is joining with Neighborhood Associations and the city to work on these projects and more. It's part of their Good Neighbor Week, held Sept. 21 to 27, the week leading up to National Good Neighbor Day. 

Elizabeth Alonzo-Villarreal works with a staff of eight at NeighborWorks Laredo, where she serves as CEO. But together, the staff helps about 1,000 others each year. So when the staff switched from working in a central office to working from home at the start of COVID-19, the organization utilized grants from NeighborWorks America to help things run more smoothly as they continued to provide homebuyer education, financial capability training and foreclosure prevention counseling.

Training isn't just a way to keep certifications current; it's a way to keep knowledge current. And as current events continue to create moving targets for affordable housing and community development professionals – with eviction moratoriums, unemployment, rental relief, and a kaleidoscope of grants and programs – housing counselors, educators and trainers need to keep up.

With the expiration of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, renters across the country are wondering what to do as eviction moratoriums and expanded unemployment end. This puts rental counselors in a challenging spot. 

In New Orleans, Louisiana, COVID-19 hit fast and early, following on the heels of Mardi Gras season. The city saw another coronavirus spike at the beginning of July. Meanwhile, the city has seen protests, largely peaceful, as people have cried out for racial equity.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Florida is described as "a surging state," which is not what the president of a housing nonprofit — or anybody else — wants to hear. At Rural Neighborhoods Inc., a NeighborWorks network organization in Florida City, Florida, they are working to keep residents safe.

You can't shelter in place if you don't have a place to shelter, says Stacie Birchett, vice president of external affairs at the Better Housing Coalition. The Richmond, Virginia-based NeighborWorks organization is working to ensure their residents are able to keep their housing during a time when many are losing jobs or working fewer hours due to COVID-19.