When RUPCO began developing Energy Square at the site of a former bowling alley in Kingston, New York, the goal was to incorporate space for a creative arts center along with space for 57 rental apartments. But the goal of making the building "net zero for living" was always in the back of leaders' minds. 
 

With expanded child tax credits providing additional dollars for qualifying families, NeighborWorks network organizations doing tax preparation are working to get the word to as many families as they can. Staff and volunteers want to ensure eligible clients receive that money, along with the earned income tax credit, a tax break for low- to moderate-income earners, says Kori Hattemer, director of Prosper Programs for Foundation Communities.

"It's hard to gain assets or manage money without a basic understanding of financial capability," says Lucien Blackwell, equity sales associate for an international investment banking firm and instructor for a course on credit at the upcoming NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI) "Money makes the world go round." 

There were already obstacles when it came to building homes on the Navajo Nation. Accessing water and electricity, for instance. Or the ability for would-be homeowners to find a mortgage. Native Partnership for Housing (NPH), a NeighborWorks network organization working to create a path to affordable homeownership, had an additional obstacle: Finding the right construction crew to do the job.

In 1999, Ron and Karen Maldonado were the first. "We were the first mortgage for what was then Navajo Partnership for Housing," Ron Maldonado explains. The couple had moved from Tucson, Arizona, where they lived and worked, to Karen's homesite on the Navajo reservation where she grew up. 

Before the pandemic, when Junie Celestin, student loan counselor at Urban Edge, saw clients with loan debt, she was helping them get out of default. During the pandemic, with a moratorium on student loan interest and payments, the questions she's getting have changed.

Last year, when The Unity Council couldn't put on the annual Dia de los Muertos festival in person because of the pandemic, the Fruitvale community felt their losses more acutely, says Itzel Diaz-Romo, interim director of development and communications for the NeighborWorks network organization.

At Daimaru, once a hotel and more permanent housing run by Little Tokyo Service Center, residents were struggling. Many of them worked in the restaurant industry, and the pandemic hit their places of business hard. "So many closed," says Nancy Alcaraz, director of resident services. 

When Carmella Selifis started kindergarten this August, she was ready. She knew how to recognize her name. She knew how to stand in line. She had listened to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and had seen caterpillars turn to butterflies in real life. "She was fully ready and excited," says her mother, Karly Kumo Selifis.