The small staff of Neighborhood Housing Services recently received a thank you letter from Lucy Williams, a senior resident of Marrero, for their help in repairing the extensive storm damage to her house.
“Without your help I would not be in my house now,” Williams wrote. “As you know I was almost in foreclosure but your staff helped me get past that and…[get] my house repaired…and now I am living in a beautiful house.”
NHS, which has been providing a variety of housing services to lower-income homeowners and first-time homebuyers in New Orleans since 1976, saw a huge increase in demand after Katrina as hundreds of families turned to them for help.
“The damage done by the flooding presented a scope of work that far exceeded our staff capacity and traditional service delivery model,” said NHS Executive Director Lauren Anderson.
The Greater New Orleans Foundation saw NHS’ work as integral to its mission of improving housing in the city after the storm. In 2008, GNOF gave a $200,000 grant from its Community Revitalization Fund to NHS, allowing NHS to greatly expand its services and capacity.
NHS had partnered with the Tulane School of Architecture to design houses that would fit in New Orleans’ typically small lots while incorporating elements of green building design. The grant from GNOF allowed NHS to hire an architect and develop a Design/Build Center where community members could access the expertise of NHS, Tulane, and GNOF in designing, financing, and building their new homes and renovations.
Over the past two years, NHS has renovated 89 homes and assisted more than 200 families in becoming first-time homebuyers. They have graduated 549 people from their 12-hour homebuyer class, originated and closed 148 second mortgage loans, and provided either pre- or post-purchase homeownership counseling to 1,527 individuals.
To see NHS continue in its vital and expanded services to the community, GNOF’s Community Revitalization Fund gave a second $200,000 grant to NHS in 2010 for general operating support.
“At the same time we seek to grow the capacity of local organizations, we must learn from those organizations that are already doing so much to help our community,” said Liza Cowan, program officer at GNOF. “NHS can help us to identify best practices for blight remediation and neighborhood revitalization.”
Recently, a mapping project of NHS has been used by neighbors in Freret and the 7th ward to fight blight. They use the maps to locate the owners of blighted properties, then contact them and refer them to NHS’ services. This neighbor-oriented approach has resulted in the improvement of many properties in the two neighborhoods.
NHS is also piloting a program to reduce and prevent violence at Walter L. Cohen High School. Led by local actress and NHS staff member Troi Bechet, this program, called “community conferencing,” has reduced violence significantly.
Erin McQuade, NHS’ Resource Development Director and Marketing Committee co-chair, is particularly excited about the organization’s contractor mediation program. “We will choose and watch contractors so you don’t have to,” said McQuade. “We want to get the word out about this service because we could help a lot more people not get scammed.”
For a small, sliding scale fee, NHS will oversee the entire process of a home renovation. They begin with helping the homeowner select a reputable contractor through a bidding process and continue with close monitoring throughout the renovation, ensuring that the work gets done to the homeowner’s satisfaction.
Letters such as the one from Lucy Williams suggest that NHS is succeeding in bringing satisfaction to low-income homeowners throughout the New Orleans region. Williams’ letter concludes, “All my friends come over and just can’t believe how beautiful my house is now. I just want to thank you again so much for your help. I am forever grateful.”
