NeighborWorks® America’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) held a convening in Miami Beach this month, part of the NeighborWorks Training Institute. The lessons from panel discussions to in-depth conversations will last long after the event.  

NeighborWorks® America’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) have a significant impact on the nation’s housing and on businesses.

In Tulare County in the Central San Joaquin valley, above the almond blooms and rows of orange trees, sits the Tule River Reservation. 

Ashley Hagen and her husband raise cattle and small crops on a farm they purchased through a “contract for deed" in rural South Dakota. Their land included a small home, where they lived with their three sons. “We kept plastic on the windows and even then, you could feel the breeze,” Hagen says. “The foundation was crumbling.”