Even before unprecedented federal funding became available for environmental technology, NeighborWorks network organizations had taken climate impact into account as they worked to find ways to heat and cool homes. 

"It's important as a nonprofit community development organization to be both aspirational and a leader," says Kevin O'Connor, chief executive officer of RUPCO, which joined the U.S. Green Building Council in 2005. 

For NeighborWorks America's recent symposium, "Co-creating an Equitable Future at the Intersetion of Health, Housing and Community Development," leaders created a series of case studies to help show how netowrk organizations are centering voice. Following is the study on Fifth Avenue Committee in Brooklyn, New York, showing how relationships with residents propel new partnerships for creative health and housing solutions.

At the beginning of January, a young, single father of three arrived at Community Service Programs (CSP) of West Alabama, Inc. He was seeking rental assistance.

He had no transportation, was in between jobs and had little family or social support, shares Elisha Maston, housing counseling supervisor. "During our time with him, we discovered that he not only faced eviction, but multiple utility disconnections."

When I was a kid, the center of my small, rural, Hudson Valley town featured an ice cream shop with a sticky, walk-up service window and a tiny, one-register grocery store where they carried one of practically everything. Today, the grocery is an antique store, and it sits a stone's throw from a new marketplace that peddles organic, farm-sourced products of a certain aesthetic, accordingly priced.

With a national network of community-based organizations and its strong partnership with the Wells Fargo Foundation, NeighborWorks America continues to support housing counseling services for renters and homeowners facing distress.  

When affordable housing and community development organizations look at climate resiliency, they approach it from many different angles. Some focus on solar. Others focus on landscaping, HVAC systems and building new homes that can withstand the storms to come.

The majority of NeighborWorks network organizations have initiatives that address the interconnection between affordable homes and healthier living. Some of these projects include food pantries, exercise classes and community gardens. Programs like these are important, but there are also opportunities to have an even greater impact on a community's health by partnering with health industry organizations, according to Romi Hall, NeighborWorks America's director of healthy homes and communities.  
 

The majority of NeighborWorks network organizations have initiatives that address the interconnection between affordable homes and healthier living. Some of these projects include food pantries, exercise classes and community gardens. Programs like these are important, but there are also opportunities to have an even greater impact on a community's health by partnering with health industry organizations, according to Romi Hall, NeighborWorks America's director of healthy homes and communities.  
 

When judges presented Charles Webb, chef and an owner of Hudson & Packard, with the title "Second Best Pan Pizza in the World," staff at Hudson River Housing celebrated, too. The pizza, created for the 2022 International Pizza Expo, was unique, made with duck confit, queso Oaxaca cheese and molé negro.