As the nation mourns former President Jimmy Carter, who died last month at 100, countless people have shared stories of his impact – among them, people in the housing community and at NeighborWorks America.
In the 1970s, the organization that would eventually become NeighborWorks was looking at ways to stabilize neighborhoods. Carter was focused on neighborhoods, too. Even before he became president, he came across the housing model that had been the focus of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. – as NeighborWorks was known in its early days. It was the same groundbreaking housing model inspired by Pittsburgh’s Dorothy Mae Richardson and her neighbors, centered on gathering a cross section of the public and private sectors to preserve neighborhoods.
Carter found the model to be “an efficient, proven way to stabilize neighborhoods through a partnership of families, financial institutions and governments.” He made that remark during a 1976 speech at Brooklyn College. But Joanie Straussman Brandon, vice president of NeighborWorks’ northeast region, remembers the quote from someplace else. “It was in my orientation notebook” when she first joined NeighborWorks, she says.
In the same Brooklyn speech, Carter called neighborhoods and families “the living fiber” that holds our society together. “Until we place them at the very top of our national policy, our hopes for the nation, and our goals for our private lives, will not be attained … If we are to save our cities, we must revitalize our neighborhoods first. If we are to save our country, we must give our families and neighborhoods a chance.”
A bipartisan U.S. Congress agreed, drafting the Housing and Community Development Act, which included a Congressional charter for Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. In 1978, Carter, by then the president, signed that law and brought NeighborWorks as we know it into being.
Margo Kelly, who held multiple positions at NeighborWorks and was one of the organization’s first employees, doesn’t recall who from NeighborWorks attended the official signing – most likely Bill Whiteside, NeighborWorks’ first CEO. But she recalls a later visit from Carter at NeighborWorks’ offices on G Street, to meet with the organization’s leadership. After that meeting, he stopped by the conference room where staff had gathered – “maybe because we all knew he was in the building,” Kelly recalls. “He grinned widely and said kind words about the importance of our work.”
“It was strange but kind of cool seeing the secret service walking around and checking out the office and room before Carter could enter,” adds Jeffrey Bryson, who worked at NeighborWorks for 37 years, and served as interim CEO.
Steve Tuminaro, who helped shape NeighborWorks’ public policy for two decades, also remembers that visit. “He demonstrated a keen knowledge of the work of our organization – indicating that our reach and impact had already exceeded his own expectations – which were significant – when he signed the legislation approving the creation of the corporation.”
Post presidency, as he shined a spotlight on affordable housing, Carter continued to inquire after NeighborWorks’ progress. In the late 1980s, NeighborWorks managers stayed at the same Boston hotel as Rosalynn Carter, exchanging greetings in the small dining room. “That was that – until the next morning when we walked in for breakfast, she got up from her seat and quickly approached us, saying that she had spoken with ‘Jimmy,’” Tuminaro says. He’d told her he was familiar with the organization, “fondly recalled signing the legislation creating the organization and asked her to extend his greetings to us.”
In 2010, Tuminaro was seated beside Carter at a luncheon honoring the Carter Work Project. “Due to his easy-going, unassuming style, the fact that I was talking with a true world leader seemed to fade away – and I was just sitting, chatting with ‘Jimmy.’” Their wide-ranging conversation included NeighborWorks, and the former president “was inquisitive about what NeighborWorks America was doing and asked some pointed questions about our growth and expansion of activities.”
From the charter-signing in 1978 through today, NeighborWorks has grown and changed to meet the times, adding more on-the-ground network organizations, including three in Georgia. For more than 45 years, no matter who was in power, NeighborWorks, as a nonpartisan nonprofit, has continued to do the work of striving to ensure that families can live in affordable homes and that every community is a place of opportunity. The late President Ronald Reagan acknowledged the growth of NeighborWorks during his own terms in office, and designated the first National Neighborhood Housing Services Week, the precursor to NeighborWorks Week.
“President Carter knew that keeping people housed in strong neighborhoods is fundamental for people to thrive,” says NeighborWorks President & CEO Marietta Rodriguez. “We are ever grateful for his foundational support, along with the members of Congress who crafted our charter, and we join the rest of the country in mourning his passing and celebrating his ever-enduring legacy, which is so tied to that of NeighborWorks America.”
The public is invited to pay respects as President Jimmy Carter lies in state at the U.S. Capitol.
