Unprecedented. Difficult. Heartbreaking. The words that come up when people discuss 2020 are rarely positive. But as a pandemic and economic hardships spread across the United States, NeighborWorks network organizations moved quickly, created new partnerships, worked long hours and offered new services to help residents in their communities. As we begin a new calendar year, we asked a few leaders across the network to share some of their thoughts about the year we just completed, and about the year ahead.

In the early 1980s Pastor Jim Dickerson was working with a group of volunteers to help families realize their dreams for a better life. Always key to their dreams was stable, affordable, quality housing. 

In Texas, Foundation Communities, a NeighborWorks organization, is working hard to keep residents housed with the help of an emergency fund. So far, they've helped more than 700 residents with rental assistance. A grant from NeighborWorks America, in partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation, made a difference. 

There are no roads to Bethel, Alaska. That's the case for many villages that are considered "rural" in this wilderness state, and that means that housing can be complicated. For Bethel, population 6,500, the need for housing has become more critical in recent years, and a NeighborWorks organization is trying to help.

Marietta Rodriguez, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America, believes nothing is worse than doing nothing. That was the theme of a NeighborWorks campaign during the housing crisis of 2008. At the time, Rodriguez was NeighborWorks' vice president of National Homeownership and Lending Programs. Now at the helm of the organization, Rodriguez spent the week of Sept. 15 – the anniversary of the day Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008 – sharing lessons from that period. She continues to share those lessons, which follow, in her own words:

"It's important to create space to have difficult conversations," says Marietta Rodriguez, president and CEO of NeighborWorks America. Rodriguez joined such a conversation this week as part of a panel of leaders, all women of color, to discuss racial inequity and allyship – a relationship where individuals work to foster inclusion and support marginalized people or groups, instead of standing by silently.

These are unparalleled times, but NeighborWorks America remains committed to creating opportunities for people to live in affordable homes and strengthen their communities, says Kim Drayton, principal member of Thrive Inspire Inc. Drayton led a course on remote homeownership counseling during NeighborWorks' Virtual Training Institute, offering pointers to help housing counselors embrace remote counseling. 

Chief executive officers from three major community development intermediaries, including NeighborWorks America, talked about renewed commitments to racial equity, new partnerships and allocating resources in the time of a pandemic as part of a virtual panel hosted by NeighborWorks. The CEOs, all people of color and together for the first time in a forum like this, shared their thoughts on the state of community development in front of 70 executives from NeighborWorks network organizations based in the Northeast.

Brenda M. Torpy, founder and chief executive officer of Vermont's Champlain Housing Trust (CHT), a NeighborWorks organization in Burlington, contributed an essay to the newly released book, "On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust." Torpy shared thoughts about her work on the book and about the way community land trusts offer a creative affordable housing solution.