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NeighborWorks America An Introduction October 2020 NeighborWorks America An Introduction Table of Contents Introduction to NeighborWorks America .............................................................................................. 1 NeighborWorks America’s Strategic Plan ................................................................................. 4 Creating opportunities to live in affordable homes. ............................................................................ 5 Homeownership Strategies ....................................................................................................... 5 Sustainable Business Initiative.............................................................................................. 6 NeighborWorks Compass™ .................................................................................................... 6 Down Payment Assistance Programs .................................................................................... 7 Homeownership Preservation Strategies ................................................................................. 8 Foreclosure Prevention .......................................................................................................... 9 Lending Support ......................................................................................................................... 9 Shared Equity Homeownership ............................................................................................... 11 Rental Housing Development and Asset Management ........................................................ 13 Capital Corporations ............................................................................................................. 16 Strength Matters® ................................................................................................................. 17 Resident Services ................................................................................................................. 17 Aging in Place ........................................................................................................................... 18 Financial Capability .................................................................................................................. 19 Creating opportunities to strengthen communities .......................................................................... 24 Responding to COVID-19 ......................................................................................................... 25 Community Initiatives .............................................................................................................. 27 Building Resident Leaders ...................................................................................................... 28 Middle Neighborhoods ............................................................................................................ 29 Healthy Homes and Communities .......................................................................................... 29 Rural Initiative and Native Strategies ..................................................................................... 31 Capital Needs Assessment .................................................................................................. 32 Native Strategies .................................................................................................................. 32 USDA 502 Direct Mortgages ................................................................................................ 33 Measuring Community Impact through Success Measures ................................................. 33 Disaster Recovery .................................................................................................................... 34 Supporting a strong network of strong organizations ....................................................................... 36 Regional Infrastructure ............................................................................................................ 36 Organizational Health Tracking System.................................................................................. 36 Professional Development and Leadership Training ............................................................. 37 Excellence in Governance .................................................................................................... 38 Achieving Excellence ............................................................................................................ 38 VISTA Program .......................................................................................................................... 38 Social Enterprise Development ............................................................................................... 39 Strategic Investment Fund ...................................................................................................... 39 Support for Capacity Building, Strategic Planning, and Leadership Transitions ................. 40 Race, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion ..................................................................................... 41 Strengthening the housing and community development field ....................................................... 41 In-Person Training .................................................................................................................... 41 Online Training ......................................................................................................................... 42 Professional Certificates and Certifications ........................................................................... 43 NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) .............. 43 National Industry Standards (NIS) ....................................................................................... 44 Consortium for Housing and Asset Management (CHAM) .................................................... 45 Driving operational excellence and stewardship............................................................................... 45 Financial Oversight and Audits................................................................................................ 46 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................ 47 Introduction to NeighborWorks America NeighborWorks America, formally known as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, is a Congressionally-chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to creating places of opportunity in communities across the country. For over 40 years, NeighborWorks has been building the technical skills and organizational capacity, supplementing resources, and amplifying the reach of local nonprofit organizations working to improve their communities. Housing is a critical component of our national infrastructure. For families, a home represents the most basic building block of safety and stability. Research has consistently documented the important role that a home plays in almost every dimension of a child’s life, linking health, education, and opportunity for the future. For communities, affordable housing is a key element of a strong economy. In fact, a 2018 University of Chicago Booth School study found that the shortage of affordable housing in major metropolitan areas costs the American economy about $1.6 trillion a year in lower wages and productivity. NeighborWorks America works to meet this vital need, weaving together the fabric of local infrastructure through investments in housing, community development, and economic development. These investments are all the more crucial as our nation responds to the immense challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. NeighborWorks America supports a network of nearly 250 local and regional nonprofit housing and community development organizations, which provide on-the-ground support to families and communities in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These organizations are developing service-enriched rental housing to address affordable housing needs, spearheading community stabilization and engagement activities to revitalize neighborhoods affected by economic downturn or natural disasters, working to rebuild pathways to improved credit, savings, and sustainable homeownership for low- to moderate- income families, and providing an array of other community-focused services related to health, education, and workforce development. NeighborWorks America supports the NeighborWorks network and the broader community development field through: • Grants: In FY 2019, NeighborWorks awarded nearly $100 million in core grant funding to network organizations. Using this flexible NeighborWorks capital as a catalyst, organizations leverage additional sources of financing to multiply their local impact. In FY 2019, NeighborWorks’ network members reported more than $9.65 billion of investment in their communities, securing $64 of investment from other sources for every $1 provided by Congress to NeighborWorks America. 1 | P a g e • Technical assistance: NeighborWorks offers multiple grant, capacity building, and peer exchange opportunities designed to help network organizations expand their work, pilot and replicate new approaches, build new partnerships, and improve their performance and governance. NeighborWorks Relationship Managers located throughout the country are