Susan M. Ifill has been NeighborWorks America's executive vice president and chief operating officer for just over a year now – and what a year it's been! She brought with her more than 35 years of nonprofit and private sector experience, most recently serving as CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City Inc., a NeighborWorks organization.
The application looked official. There was letterhead. And there were catch phrases like "specialized counselors" and "hardship." But a client who was assisted by Housing Partnership for Morris County stopped just short of working with the company, which would have charged him $1,300 just to begin a loan modification process. The client sought a modification due to financial stress caused by COVID-19.
Carrie Davis, president and CEO of Wealth Watchers, Inc., a NeighborWorks organization, began helping Black farmers during the 2008 housing crisis, encouraging them to use their land to grow food to keep families and neighbors fed – and to provide extra money to offset job losses when factories shut down. In 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic and the economic crisis that accompanied it, she is again encouraging backyard farmers to let the land help with both food and finances.
When Evelyn Harrison learned her apartment building in Southeast Washington, D.C., was being sold she was shocked. "We were surprised because we never heard anything about it," says Evelyn.
Durham Community Land Trustees (DCLT) has a mission not unlike that of many NeighborWorks organizations: To create affordable housing opportunities. But each organization approaches that mission a little differently, and DCLT is no exception. The organization is furthering its mission with a new, innovative project, involving accessory dwellings and community land trusts.
Unprecedented. Difficult. Heartbreaking. The words that come up when people discuss 2020 are rarely positive. But as a pandemic and economic hardships spread across the United States, NeighborWorks network organizations moved quickly, created new partnerships, worked long hours and offered new services to help residents in their communities. As we begin a new calendar year, we asked a few leaders across the network to share some of their thoughts about the year we just completed, and about the year ahead.
In the early 1980s Pastor Jim Dickerson was working with a group of volunteers to help families realize their dreams for a better life. Always key to their dreams was stable, affordable, quality housing.
It's not coming until just after Christmas, but one thing that Nevada HAND senior living residents will be able to receive this month is the new COVID-19 vaccine. Staff and medical staff will receive the vaccine, too. In case there are side effects, half the staff and residents will be inoculated in December, and the other half will be inoculated two weeks later.