Three Students Recognized for Contributions to Homeownership and Community Development

NeighborWorks

December 6, 2004
Contact: Becky Fleischauer, 202-220-2360; bfleischauer@nw.org

“Youth Are Key to Closing the Homeownership Education and Counseling Gap”

(New Orleans, LA) – In the first partnership of its kind, the nation’s largest housing and community development organization, NeighborWorks, will join Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to grow a new generation of African-American citizens prepared to increase homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods.

Recognizing the persistent homeownership and wealth gap between white and non-white families and the talented change agent represented in our youth, NeighborWorks and HBCUs are harnessing college and university students’ ideas and energy on behalf of affordable housing and community development. On December 14, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation CEO Ken Wade will recognize three HBCU students for their essays entitled “Taking Matters into Our Own Hands: How African-Americans can Reduce the Homeownership Gap.” Wade will present the awards during the NeighborWorks National Training Institute in New Orleans--the largest gathering of homeownership and community development advocates in the nation.

Awardees Recognized

From left: Ken Wade, Neighborhood Reinvestment CEO; first place award winner Jennifer Slaton; second place winner Stephanie Woodard; third place winner Mark Hall; Don Phoenix, Neighborhood Reinvestment southern district director; and Marshall Crawford, Neighborhood Reinvestment management consultant.

While nationally, more than 70 percent of Americans own their own home, the homeownership rates for African-Americans is less than 50 percent, and even lower in New Orleans. This gap represents millions of families that are eager to assume the responsibilities of homeownership.

With the first college opening its doors in 1837, there are currently just over 100 historically black colleges and universities nationwide. HBCUs continue to nurture many African-American professionals, recently extending their student recruitment to include Hispanics and other minorities. HBCUs have educated leaders like Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes, Barbara Jordan and Samuel L. Jackson--people who've made extraordinary accomplishments.

First place award winner Jennifer Slaton, an urban planning graduate student at Alabama A&M University, interviewed a series of African-American professionals who daily help people reach the American dream of homeownership and documented what worked and what is needed to close the homeownership gap. One of Slaton’s key findings was a “rental legacy” passed on from family to family and a culture of budgeting that assumed mortgage payments were out of reach and a preference to shop rather than save money for a house. Slaton urged fellow students and community development leaders to focus on empowering residents with financial fitness and homeownership counseling that demonstrates what is possible when consumers are informed and become their own agents of change. View Slaton Essay [PDF]

Second place winner Stephanie Woodard, a Dillard University student majoring in political science, and third place winner Mark Hall, a political science major with a minor in urban studies at Morehouse College, also stressed the value of taking responsibility for neighborhoods and throwing off old ideas that keep individuals from realizing their full potential. View Woodard Essay [PDF] View Hall Essay [PDF]

“The ideas, entrepreneurial spirit and intellect demonstrated by these three students’ essays are truly remarkable,” said Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation CEO Kenneth D. Wade ― the organization’s first African-American CEO, who oversees the NeighborWorks network. “With motivated, smart students like Jennifer, Mark, and Stephanie taking the lead, I have every confidence that the wealth and homeownership gap that has been so persistent will be replaced with empowered, informed, wealth-building citizens creating vibrant neighborhoods that truly serve their residents.”

Wade said the benefits of homeownership multiply overtime. “For families, owning a home is an opportunity to get ahead — to start building wealth they can use to send the kids to college, to invest in a small business, or to finance a secure retirement,” Wade said. A survey of consumer finances found that low-income homeowners had a net worth 12 times that of renters at the same income level. Other studies found that children of homeowners are more likely to graduate from high school and college and more likely to go on to own homes of their own. Research also shows that home ownership keeps communities attractive, safe and vital, generating higher property values, stable employment and other economic activity.

Creating homeownership opportunities is a central strategy of community development in New Orleans and across the nation. “The ‘can-do’ spirit of these students and the innovation present in their ideas and thinking is outstanding,” said NHS of New Orleans executive director Lauren Anderson. “Increasing homeownership in distressed areas stabilizes populations and housing markets, creates stakeholders for revitalization, and builds the wealth of low-income households. These students are the key to closing the stubborn homeownership and equity gap across the nation.”

To ensure more families have those opportunities, NeighborWorks® Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling (NCHEC) will triple the number of counselors certified across the nation — increasing national capacity to serve more than two million individuals each year by 2007.

If you would like to receive media credentials to attend and cover the Training Institute or NeighborWorks/HBCU awards presentation, please alert Becky Fleischauer at bfleischauer@nw.org or 202-220-2360.

New Orleans NeighborWorks® Training Institute At-a-Glance

December 13-14
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Institute courses begin – tracks include affordable housing; asset management; community building and organizing; economic development; construction; homeownership and community lending; management and leadership; and, neighborhood revitalization.

Highlights:

Bridging The Digital Divide
Financial Fitness: Teaching Money Management Skills
The Cutting Edge: New and Unique Community Development Programs
Homebuyer Education and Counseling Methods
Essential Tools of the Trade: Neighborhood Analysis and Planning for Action

12:00 p.m. (December 14)

Luncheon speaker -- Doug Smith, “On Values and Values: Thinking Differently about We…in an Age of Me.”

6:00 p.m. (December 14)

Awards presentation – Three students from historically black colleges and universities will receive awards for their essays on “Taking Matters into Our Own Hands: How African Americans can reduce the homeownership Gap.” NeighborWorks has partnered with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to grow a new generation of informed, empowered black citizens. This is the first partnership of its kind to harness HBCU youth ideas and energy on behalf of affordable housing and community development.

December 15
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Institute courses continue – tracks include affordable housing; asset management; community building and organizing; economic development; construction; homeownership and community lending; management and leadership; and, neighborhood revitalization.

Highlights:

Understanding CRA Rules (banking rules for serving low- and mid-income families) and Making Them Work for You
Reading a Neighborhood: What a Block Walk Can Tell You
How to Develop Difficult Neighborhood Projects
Using the Community Development Block Grant Program

December 16
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Symposium -- “Unleash the Power of Your Board” – Tools and tips to help board members improve their leadership, maintain high standards for performance and accountability, and deliver better results

Institute courses continue – tracks include affordable housing; asset management; community building and organizing; economic development; construction; homeownership and community lending; management and leadership; and, neighborhood revitalization.

Highlights

Green Affordable Housing
Energize Your Local Economy with a Bustling Public Market
Beginner to Intermediate Foreclosure Prevention
Getting Things Done in Neighborhoods Through Strategic Collaborations

About NeighborWorks

The NeighborWorks network is a nationwide network of more than 230 community development organizations working in nearly 2,700 urban, suburban and rural communities across America. These organizations engage in revitalization strategies that strengthen communities and transform lives. Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation provides financial support, technical assistance and training for the NeighborWorks network. In the last five years alone (FY 1999-2003), NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $7.3 billion in reinvestment and helped more than 300,000 families of modest means purchase or improve their homes or secure safe, decent rental or mutual housing.