In 2024, NeighborWorks Capital launched a new lending program to deploy low-cost, long-term capital to NeighborWorks network organizations to empower them to expand their homeownership initiatives in communities across the country. Wells Fargo provided $8.5 million for the launch of this program, and network organizations were selected for funding through a competitive invitation-only application process.

While the world was in the global COVID crisis together, individual struggles varied widely, especially among those struggling to stay in their homes. “Maybe they lost their job during the pandemic because the organization they were working for shut down and they didn't have the type of job that allowed them to go virtual,” shares Tonya Tyler, vice president for national initiatives operations at NeighborWorks America. 

Lee Anne Adams

Lee Anne Adams has more than 20 years of experience working with community development organizations on the design, implementation and evaluation of community-based economic development in the U.S. and Latin America. Her previous roles with NeighborWorks America include the interim vice president of operations and the senior director of Project Reinvest. Prior to joining our National Initiatives Division, Lee Anne spent six years with the NeighborWorks Training Division. 

Marietta Rodriguez

Marietta Rodriguez knows what it’s like to be a new homebuyer because she was one. "I was 25 and living in a high-cost area," she says. “There was absolutely no way I could buy a home without someone holding my hand and walking me through it.” The folks holding her hand were from a NeighborWorks network organization that provided counseling and financial assistance to first-time homebuyers. Soon, Rodriguez went to work for the organization that assisted her so that she could help more people in her hometown.

Often when people speak of Black wealth, they talk first of homeownership, and that's certainly one path to get there, explains Sheila Anderson, senior director of NeighborWorks America's Western Region. "But that's not the end all for building wealth." To truly increase wealth and assets in Black households and communities, we must think more broadly, she says.

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