Roy Nash, President and CEO, NeighborWorks Waco

Challenge: The 2008 housing crisis was devastating for Waco, Texas. As more houses went into foreclosure, residents were evicted and affordable housing and mortgage loans became difficult to find.

Dana Totman, president and CEO, Avesta Housing
 
Challenge: More than 40 years developing and managing affordable housing has taught Avesta Housing that building a large room, putting in some tables and chairs and labeling it “community room” is not enough. But what does it take to build and sustain community in affordable housing?

Jim King, President and CEO, Fahe

Challenge: Central Appalachia had an estimated 100,000 units of substandard or overcrowded housing. Housing nonprofits serving the area could only produce 2,000 units annually. The organizations thus needed to change the way they did business to meet the challenges in the impoverished region.

Lesley Krone, Community Engagement Consultant, NeighborWorks Boise

Rick Goodemann, CEO
Jennifer Prins, former Director of Community Development
Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership

Mark Dahlquist, Executive Director, NeighborWorks Pocatello

Lorna Bourg, President, Southern Mutual Help Association

Challenge: Many small-scale fishers suffered severe financial losses after BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They are vitally important to the Louisiana economy and culture and needed capital to restart their businesses, but they lacked access financial support.

Patrick McNamara, CEO
Jaime Joshi, Communications Coordinator
Housing Partnership, Inc.

John Fowler, President and CEO, Peoples' Self-Help Housing

Challenge: To rehabilitate a dilapidated former camper park in the California beach town of Carpinteria, which became housing of last resort for low-income households living under conditions of extreme poverty.