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When Harold Nassau first joined NeighborWorks America in 2000, the focus was more on single-family housing than on building the apartments people would come to call home. But very soon, multifamily housing became more central to the NeighborWorks network. So did caring for, assessing and developing those properties. 

Our Native Partnership Gathering, held during the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Chicago, was a chance for network leaders working with Native communities to learn from each other, to build relationships, to share strategies and – perhaps most of all – to talk story. One of my goals in the 15 months I've been director of Native American Partnerships and Strategy (NAPS) has been to help expand our investment and deepen our impact in Native communities.

On a street in Dover, Delaware, where drug deals once took place midday in plain view, students are now serving ice cream. Mint chocolate chip. Cookie dough. Confetti cotton candy. Kids request their flavors and sit with grandparents at The Scoop on Loockerman, a new shop that provides both dessert and community change.  

During a Native-focused event at the recent NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI), participants were quick to point out that if you’ve seen one tribe, you’ve seen exactly that: one tribe out of the diverse, 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S. Their communities are diverse, too.

In 2020, a storm hit central Virginia that left residents without power for several days. One of Piedmont Housing's properties was without heat, and residents couldn't travel to replenish supplies or charge their phones. So when staff at the Charlottesville nonprofit, together with the community, had a chance to put in protections for residents as part of a redevelopment project, they did. The result will be seen in a new community resource center, part of a larger redevelopment of Friendship Court, recently renamed by residents as Kindlewood.

Over a dozen years, LIFT – which stands for Let's Invest for Tomorrow – has helped more than 25,000 people in 81 communities buy homes of their own by providing down payment assistance to

In 2020, a storm hit central Virginia that left residents without power for several days. One of Piedmont Housing's properties was without heat, and residents couldn't travel to replenish supplies or charge their phones. So when staff at the Charlottesville nonprofit, together with the community, had a chance to put in protections for residents as part of a redevelopment project, they did. The result will be seen in a new community resource center, part of a larger redevelopment of Friendship Court, recently renamed by residents as Kindlewood.

Community-based organizations (CBOs) that serve neighborhoods uniquely affected by the nation's long history of institutional housing discrimination are at the forefront of efforts to mitigate that history's effects and foster greater equity. However, little is known about how that history has shaped the work done by these groups or the unique challenges they have faced in doing it.