Nobody wins when the family feuds.

Let me tell you a story about a house. 

Not just any house — but the big house. The house where my cousins spent summers running barefoot through the yard, where Sunday dinners stretched late into the evening, filled with laughter and the smell of southern cooking and my great-aunt’s White Diamonds perfume. A house full of memories, history and love. 

And then, it became a legal battlefield. 

Ashley Hagen and her husband raise cattle and small crops on a farm they purchased through a “contract for deed" in rural South Dakota. Their land included a small home, where they lived with their three sons. “We kept plastic on the windows and even then, you could feel the breeze,” Hagen says. “The foundation was crumbling.”

In 2024, NeighborWorks Capital launched a new lending program to deploy low-cost, long-term capital to NeighborWorks network organizations to empower them to expand their homeownership initiatives in communities across the country. Wells Fargo provided $8.5 million for the launch of this program, and network organizations were selected for funding through a competitive invitation-only application process.

While the world was in the global COVID crisis together, individual struggles varied widely, especially among those struggling to stay in their homes. “Maybe they lost their job during the pandemic because the organization they were working for shut down and they didn't have the type of job that allowed them to go virtual,” shares Tonya Tyler, vice president for national initiatives operations at NeighborWorks America. 

Lee Anne Adams

Lee Anne Adams has more than 20 years of experience working with community development organizations on the design, implementation and evaluation of community-based economic development in the U.S. and Latin America. Her previous roles with NeighborWorks America include the interim vice president of operations and the senior director of Project Reinvest. Prior to joining our National Initiatives Division, Lee Anne spent six years with the NeighborWorks Training Division. 

Marietta Rodriguez

Marietta Rodriguez knows what it’s like to be a new homebuyer because she was one. "I was 25 and living in a high-cost area," she says. “There was absolutely no way I could buy a home without someone holding my hand and walking me through it.” The folks holding her hand were from a NeighborWorks network organization that provided counseling and financial assistance to first-time homebuyers. Soon, Rodriguez went to work for the organization that assisted her so that she could help more people in her hometown.
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