For Immediate Release

February 7, 2025

Contact: Douglas Robinson

202-760-4054

[email protected]

Close to 1,300 Affordable Housing and Community Development Professionals Come to the NeighborWorks National Training Institute in Philadelphia Amid Affordable Housing Headwinds 

Philadelphia, PA — Nearly 1,300 affordable housing and community development nonprofit leaders will arrive next week in Philadelphia to attend the NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI) Feb. 10-14. Homeownership promotion, rental housing development and rental housing management are among the popular courses as professionals from across the country seek the tools to help their neighbors navigate elevated mortgage rates, home prices, insurance and rents. 

“The NTI is a mobile university. It offers intensive learning opportunities for leaders from nonprofit, financial services and government organizations who are committed to building residents’ financial capability and sustaining affordable housing as foundations for strong community economic development,” said Doug Sessions, senior vice president of Training at NeighborWorks America. 

NTI attendees will examine a future filled with new challenges and opportunities, including how to improve resident engagement and increase awareness of  assistance programs and other first-time homebuyer initiatives available from local nonprofit organizations. A January 2024 survey from NeighborWorks America found that 48% of adults who have been renting for seven years or more believed that there was a lack of first-time homebuyer programs for them. Housing counselors are the best equipped professionals to help potential homebuyers identify programs that could help. 

The NeighborWorks Training Institute in Philadelphia is supported by a variety of partners, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Citizens, TD Bank, Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and Regional Foundation. 

In addition to the training institute, NeighborWorks network organizations work every day to serve Pennsylvania:

  • HACE (Philadelphia).
  • Housing Development Corporation MidAtlantic (Lancaster).
  • Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Berks (Reading).
  • NeighborWorks Northeastern Pennsylvania (Scranton).
  • NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh).
  • New Kensington Community Development Corporation (Philadelphia).

In fiscal year 2024, NeighborWorks network organizations in Pennsylvania generated more than $147 million in total direct investment and provided 13,233 housing and counseling services to Pennsylvania’s families. 

For more information about NeighborWorks America, visit about us.

About NeighborWorks America

For more than 45 years, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp., a national, nonpartisan nonprofit known as NeighborWorks America, has strived to make every community a place of opportunity. Our network of excellence includes nearly 250 nonprofits in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and on Native lands. NeighborWorks offers grant funding, peer exchange, technical assistance, evaluation tools and access to best-in-class training as the nation's leading trainer of housing and community development professionals. NeighborWorks network organizations provide residents in their communities with affordable homes, owned and rented; financial counseling and coaching; community building through resident engagement; and collaboration in the areas of health, employment and education.