NeighborWorks America

NeighborWorks America
Nonprofit - Congressionally Chartered
Industry Affordable Housing and Community Development
Founded 1978
Headquarters Washington, DC, USA
Key people

Paul Weech, President and CEO

Jeffrey T. Bryson, General Counsel/Secretary

Thomas R. Bloom, Acting Chief Financial Officer

Chuck Wehrwein, Chief Operating Officer
Products CounselorMax
Organizational Assessment Services
Success Measures
Training
Financial Capability
Financial Coaching
US $312,437,291 (FY 2010)
Slogan NeighborWorks America creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and st rengthen their communities.
Website www.nw.org

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, doing business as NeighborWorks America, is a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization that supports community development in the United States. The organization provides grants and technical assistance to more than 240 U.S. community development organizations.NeighborWorks America provides training for housing and community development professionals through its national training institutes.[1] Since 2007, NeighborWorks America has administered the Congressionally created National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program.[2]

The NeighborWorks network comprises more than 240 community development organizations working in nearly 4358 urban, suburban and rural communities across the country.

The Neighborhood Reinvestment board of directors consists of the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System,a member of the Chief Counsel Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision and a member of the Board of the National Credit Union Administration. The chairman of the board is the Comptroller of the Currency, Mr. Thomas J. Curry.[3]

History

Early origins of the nonprofit NeighborWorks® America are traced to 1968, when Dorothy Mae Richardson, a Central North Side resident of Pittsburgh, started a campaign for better housing in her neighborhood.[4][5][6][7] Dorothy Mae Richardson worked with city bankers and government officials to convince 16 financial institutions to give out conventional loans in the community.[8] Her legacy was an organization named the Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Pittsburgh.[9] Eventually, Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh became the national model for community-based housing initiatives throughout the country.[10][11][12] In 1970, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board,became involved with Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) of Pittsburgh, and started expanding the program by training savings and loan officers for urban areas nationally.[13]

In 1978, Congress chartered Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, with a mission to recreate Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh's housing program throughout the nation's cities.[14]

In 1984 the first Neighborhood Housing Week[15] (now called NeighborWorks Week) was congressionally established. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed a national observance.

During the 1980s the Ad Council worked with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and created “NeighborWorks.”

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation began doing business as NeighborWorks America in 2005.[16]

In 2007, Congress selected NeighborWorks America to administer the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. In a continuing effort to assist in recovery from the housing crisis, in 2009 NeighborWorks launched the Loan Modification Scam Alert campaign and Stable Communities Initiative. In June 2011 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with NeighborWorks America, launched the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program to assist homeowners across the country at risk of foreclosure.[17]

There are now more than 240 NeighborWorks organizations operating in urban, suburban and rural communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In the past five years, NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $19.5 billion in reinvestment in these communities. NeighborWorks America has become a leading trainer of community development, financial capability and affordable housing professionals. NeighborWorks America has helped more than 1.7 million homeowners through our congressionally funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. [17]

Community Leaders

In honor of its namesake, NeighborWorks America nationally offers the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership.[18]

Dorothy Richardson continued to live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as an active community member and supervisor of the Pittsburgh Housing Clinic, until her death on April 28, 1991 at Allegheny General Hospital. She lived to 68.

She graduated from Allegheny High in 1940.

Leaders in NeighborWorks History

  1. Bill Whiteside, First Executive Director of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation from 1978 to 1990
  2. George Knight, Executive Director from 1990 to 2000, Inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame[19]
  3. Ellen Lazar, Executive Director from 2000 to 2003
  4. Kenneth Wade, CEO from 2004 to 2011
  5. Eileen Fitzgerald, CEO from 2011 to 2014

Notes

  1. ↑ http://nw.org/network/aboutUs/aboutUs.asp
  2. ↑ "NeighborWorks Sends $67M to Agencies for Foreclosure Counseling". DSNews.com. Retrieved June 20, 2011. |first1= missing |last1= in Authors list (help)
  3. ↑ "U.S. Code". Cornell University Law School. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  4. ↑ Roger Stuart (February 1967). "Our Housing Crisis:CASH carries the ball in War". Article. The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "RightsGroup in Blast at Rosenbloom". Article. November 1967. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  6. ↑ "2 Blacks Added to Housing Authority Board". Article. November 1968. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  7. ↑ "Housing Group Reelects Officers". Article. October 1974. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  8. ↑ Squires, Gregory (1992). Redlining To Reinvestment (Conflicts in Urban and Regional Development). Temple University Press. p. 288. ISBN 0877229856.
  9. ↑ "2 advocates of better housing are outlived by efforts". Article. June 1991. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "Dorothy Richardson". Article. June 1991. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  11. ↑ "City Woman's Volunteer Work honored with National Award". Article. November 1997. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  12. ↑ James Erickson, David (2009). The Housing Policy Revolution: Networks and Neighborhoods. The Urban Institute Press. p. 260. ISBN 0877667608.
  13. ↑ "Philadelphia City Planning Commission Report". Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  14. ↑ "FDIC Law, Regulations, Related Acts". Retrieved 21 December 2012.
  15. ↑ Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley. "National Neighborhood Housing Services Week". Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  16. ↑ "Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation".
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 http://www.neighborworks.org/About-Us/What-We-Do/History
  18. ↑ "Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership". Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  19. ↑ "Five Who Shaped the Industry". Affordable Housing Finance. Retrieved 29 August 2011.

External links