When Yolanda Winstead became president of DHIC, Inc., at the end of June, she was already familiar with the Raleigh, North Carolina, organization. After all, she'd worked there nearly 20 years earlier.
"I stayed in pretty close contact with DHIC," says Winstead, the third leader in the NeighborWorks organization's 47-year history. "For me, the evolution of getting my start here, growing professionally and returning to use the skills and the things I've learned to continue the great work of DHIC is surreal. Maybe this was the path my life was supposed to follow. Everything I got to do once I left DHIC prepared me to come back."
Winstead is originally from Wilson, North Carolina, about 45 minutes east of Raleigh. As a child, she knew little about housing and community development as a field. She’d grown up near a church-sponsored apartment community, but it wasn’t a sponsored apartment community to her; it was just where her friends lived.
She went on to major in architecture at N.C. State's School of Design, but after a year, she decided to study business instead. After college, she worked as a loan officer with the N.C. State Employee's Credit Union. The most gratifying part of the job was assisting people with applying and getting approved for mortgage loans. Next came her job at DHIC as housing services coordinator, and then a project manager in real-estate development operations. She went on to leadership positions at other organizations, including the Community Affordable Housing Equity Corporation (CAHEC) and Greystone Affordable Development, where she served as senior acquisitions manager and vice president of finance, respectively. She was able to see housing development not just in Raleigh, but in other states across the southeast.
All along, Winstead continued to follow DHIC's work. CAHEC even served as the equity investor in a few of DHIC's Low-Income Housing Tax Credit properties, she says. She also stayed in touch with then-CEO Gregg Warren and some of the staff. Warren was a mentor to her, she says. When he announced his retirement, he encouraged her to apply for his position. "I have always been committed to the mission and work that DHIC does in this community," she says.
She came back to a strong team at an exemplary NeighborWorks organization that joined the network in 2000. "I like to tell them they don't need me, but hopefully I can help them frame out what we're going to aspire to be."
Winstead says that as she settles into her new position, she sees the next evolution of DHIC as figuring out the best way to scale up while applying a racial equity lens – a way of ensuring a level playing field – to the work. "Quality, safe and affordable housing is the foundation for success, and we are uniquely positioned to extend our impact by focusing on areas of health, education and economic opportunities for residents," she says.
She admits she hasn't figured out how to get the rest of the way there yet. "It's easier to fund bricks and mortar," she muses. "But we are committed to finding new and innovative ways to get the other important work done as well."
In the NeighborWorks network, 44% of the executive directors and CEOs identify as women. NeighborWorks America has women in its top three positions, as well: chief executive officer, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer. This March during Women's History Month, a time for celebrating the vital role of women in history, NeighborWorks will also highlight the trailblazing women who play a vital role at the organization and in the network.
In Winstead's own organization, women make up the bulk of the leadership team that includes Yvette Holmes, vice president of resource development and partnerhsips; Sharon Lorden, chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration; Natalie Britt, vice president of real estate development; and Sheila Porter, director of the Homeownership Center. Women make up 40% of DHIC's board of directors, and the board was led by a woman until the recent term change.
A change in delivery
Starting as president or an organization – even a familar one – during COVID-19 has had its tricky spots, Winstead says. It's meant trying to take care of residents and trying to take care of staff. "We're still doing as much work as ever and we're doing it in the middle of a pandemic," she points out. The stress level is high as staff members continue to take care of themselves while also serving clients. "Our leadership is constantly thinking of ways to help our team perform their jobs remotely, while also maintaining morale and the synergy that comes from being together."
Meanwhile, they stay in close contact with property managers and site staff. "We have to adjust how we get services to residents and how we communicate with them. We're just trying to adapt and do the work we do, but in a way that recognizes the impact of this pandemic on our residents and on the folks that help us deliver our services," says Winstead. One example is the pivot the homeownership center staff made from delivering workshops in person to virtually, which led to an immediate increase in participation.
A current project includes setting up vaccinations for older residents. "We went from social distancing
to 'let's ramp up testing' to 'let's get everyone vaccinated,'" says Yvette Holmes, who is responsible for DHIC's community relations and public-facing programs. The organization has been working with Wake County and service organizations to get residents in their senior communities vaccinated on site.
They've also conducted direct outreach to residents 62 and older living in family sites, connecting them to pop-up vaccination clinics in the community. This effort resulted in more than 400 residents being vaccinated. As the vaccine becomes more readily available in North Carolina, the focus is turning to home-bound individuals and those with limited access to transportation.
DHIC has more than 2,800 units in the organization's portfolio, with another 900 units in the pipeline. Winstead laughs a bit as she says this – the number is equal to about a third of their existing portfolio.
But development activities have been scaling up, she says, as they've expanded the real estate development platform beyond using just the 9% tax credit program to include tax-exempt bond transactions with 4% tax credits. The projects needed to be larger in order to be financially feasible.
"Each bond-financed development is twice as large as we've done prior," Winstead says. "We're placing more units in service at a faster pace." It's a balancing act, she says, between juggling and managing the growth and being able to do the service work they want to do. At the core of that balance is community engagement.
Holmes says the organization is serving more than 4,100 residents, 1,000 of whom are school-age children. Through partnerships, "we have an effective model that delivers service coordination to residents in our senior communities, and our focus now is to scale our model to address the service needs of those living in our family communities, with an emphasis placed on our youth."
Innovative work
Winstead says that among the organization's most innovative acheivements are the partnerships they're making, whether it's working with partners on vaccinations or talking with faith-based organizations about repurposing unused property.
There's been an uptick in interest from organizations wanting to use their assets to help Wake County's dearth of affordable housing opportunities. DHIC is helping make that possible, refurbishing and rehabilitating 297 units for seniors at Capital Towers with The Presbytery of New Hope. That project led to another development, Milner Commons, a future senior community planned for a church campus that's no longer in use.
The project is settled along one of Raleigh's bus rapid transit routes, says Holmes. "Absent the partnership, I don't know that we'd be able to afford the land to develop affordable housing along this key gateway into the city."
"These are different partnerships that we might not have pursued in the past," Winstead adds. They're also working jointly with a commercial developer to create a mixed-use development on two surplus parcels of county-owned land. One will be developed for office space and retail shops, and the other DHIC will turn into affordable housing.
"I think that's the area of innovation for us," Winstead says. "Figuring out who to partner with and how to partner to scale up what we're able to do and what we're able to provide."
Again, she says, DHIC is applying a racial equity lens through REDI – for Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion – to everything. "In the past, we tended to think that because of the nature of our work, we already had that lens," she says. "But there's so much more that needs to be done."
The shortage of affordable housing is estimated at 60,000 units for Wake County, which includes the city of Raleigh. To help alleviate the crunch, the city passed an $80 million housing bond in November. Holmes helped lead an advisory committee on the community bond effort, engaged the community on the subject, and more. The bond passed in November with more than 70%support from Raleigh voters. She still sees "vote yes" signs in yards.
DHIC is doing its best to meet demand, with models like Washington Terrace. Holmes says when the
organization purchased the property in 2014, with support from the city of Raleigh, it set them apart from work they'd been doing in prior years.
"Everyone wanted to know: ‘What are you going to do with this property, originally developed in 1950, and more importantly, what's going to happen to the people living there?'" Holmes says. Redevelopment while people were in place was new for them, but as people watched, DHIC became a trusted partner. The first two phases are complete and provide more than 234 apartment homes for families and seniors, a community building and garden, an on-site childcare facility, and a full suite of service coordination offered in partnership with the Strong Families Fund. Plans for future phases are underway.
In NeighborWorks organizations, the communities themselves have a voice. "Throughout the redevelopment process, we relied on input from residents and key stakeholders to help shape the vision for Washington Terrace. By doing so, we learned a great deal about community needs and the significance of preserving history and a sense of place," says Holmes.
With regard to her own history, Winstead noted, "The work that I was able to take part in during my first tenure at DHIC grounded me in this mission to serve others and served as the baseline for the work that I did at other organizations. As I settle into my new role, my goal is to help our staff harness their ideas to not only deliver more housing choices and services, but to also innovate and [to] preserve an aging housing portfolio while honoring our obligation to residents throughout our communities."
