Lori Gay has led California’s Neighborhood Housing Services of Los Angeles County, a NeighborWorks network nonprofit with a focus on revitalizing neighborhoods, for three decades now. During that time, she’s helped her community through adversities that have included the mortgage crisis, fires, earthquakes, riots and a pandemic. For the past five months, Los Angeles County has been in the spotlight again as wildfires ripped through Altadena and the Pacific Palisades. We asked Gay to share a few thoughts about leading during times like this.

The supply of affordable rental homes is at a crisis point in communities across America, with millions of renters paying one-third or even half of their income on rent. The cost of homeownership is climbing too, as national median home prices ratchet higher, and mortgage rates stay stubbornly close to 7%.

Building and creating homes. That’s the foundation of the mission of NeighborWorks America and its network of excellence. And when we build homes, we also build America. 

“The NeighborWorks network continues to be one of the top builders of affordable rental and for-sale homes,” says Michael Butchko, vice president of Business Intelligence at NeighborWorks. “They are a critical part of this country’s infrastructure.” 

Network leaders representing 48 states and Puerto Rico gathered in Washington, D.C., last week for the annual NeighborWorks Executive Symposium (NES). The two-day event, Reshaping Tomorrow: Investing in People & Transforming Communities, was a time for candid conversations and peer learning as the leaders talked about the most important issues facing their community development nonprofits.

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