Five Questions With: Sharon Conard-Wells

"Over the past 10 years the economy has considerably impacted our decision-making as well as our work. "

Sharon Conard-Wells is the longtime executive director of West Elmwood Housing Development Corp., a community organization that serves the West End neighborhood of Providence. Founded in the 1970s, the nonprofit development corporation now works to build community ties through creation of affordable housing and programs that encourage homeownership.

PBN: What is the mission of the West Elmwood Housing Development Corp.?
CONARD-WELLS:
The mission is to promote the development of healthy, sustainable communities through housing services to help individuals and neighborhoods meet their affordable housing needs in the West End neighborhood and other parts of Providence and Rhode Island. It strives to fulfill this mission by building and renovating homes, attracting resources into the neighborhood and investing in the diverse people who live in, work in and support the community. It accomplishes these goals by offering a variety of programs and services related to real estate development, economic development, home ownership development, including lending, community building and organizing and through strategic alliances.

PBN: How has the work of the group changed in the past 10 years, since the housing crisis and recession?
CONARD-WELLS: /b> Over the past 10 years the economy has considerably impacted our decision-making as well as our work. The tightening of credit and changes in underwriting guidelines for first-time homebuyers required retraining of counselors and familiarizing ourselves with significantly varied program guidelines. Foreclosure counseling requests skyrocketed for a couple of years. While there has been some leveling off of foreclosure requests, the need is still high. The last few years, we’ve seen a resurgence of homebuyer education class participation. There is also a difference with the foreclosures. Before, the clients had typically not taken homebuyer education and there were many more victims of predatory practices. Now, most clients have had a personal or family problem or are victims of the economy – losing hours or their actual jobs.
Also, anecdotally, things seemed to be changing for the better in some neighborhoods prior to the housing/foreclosure crisis. Home values were increasing and people wanted to improve their homes. Owners had equity and we could comfortably make second mortgages. We had just begun to offer a green loan product and related services. Today, people are underwater with their home equity, struggling to keep their homes or just plain nervous. Loan requests are for repairs more than improvements.
We have really expanded our work to try to address the determinants of poverty by looking at food, access to healthy food and impacts on child development, families and neighborhoods. Working with partners, tenants and neighbors we began community gardening. This effort has blossomed into a full blown initiative. The Sankofa Initiative seeks to connect families from other countries with foods that are culturally relevant; first at the gardens, then at our outdoor market and next year with rental apartments and community space connected to an urban farm and composting. Staffing changes have also occurred and we have redesigned some programs and curtailed others, such as our youth programs. We also have drastically curtailed lending.

PBN: The organization provides financing for homeowners. How does this work? Is the organization responsible for any losses on loans?
CONARD-WELLS:
Early in the housing crisis we stopped offering home purchase mortgages. In mid-2014, we drastically curtailed all lending and are in the process of redesigning our lending products. Our West Elmwood NeighborWorks Home Ownership Center is a U.S. Department of Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution to which grants and other investments are made for the purpose of helping borrowers who cannot obtain a traditional loan to maintain or repair their homes. The loans are reviewed and approved by a loan committee that establishes lending criteria considering ability and willingness to pay, debt-to-income ratios that are more lenient than traditional lenders and alternative credit sources. We have a loan loss reserve pool. And, because these are character loans, staff typically attempts to maintain a relationship with the borrower that can be valuable for early response if a problem arises.

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PBN: What are some of the recent community development initiatives in West Elmwood?
CONARD-WELLS:
WEHDC has just begun construction of Sankofa Apartments, 50 new-construction low-income rental units in the West End. The $15 million development abuts Westfield Lofts and Westfield Commons, both brownfield, historic adaptions of mills as affordable rental housing. Sankofa Apartments is part of the Sankofa Initiative which includes Sankofa Farm and the Sankofa World Market. In addition to scattered community gardens and compost sites, the largest farm area will be at Sprague Street, adjacent to one of the Sankofa Apartment buildings. Sankofa World Market is in its second season as an outdoor market. Long-term goals include creation of a year-round indoor market. For the past three years, WEHDC has conducted a foreclosure recapture rehabilitation project to put foreclosed properties back on the market for new home owners. We have worked in Providence, Cranston and Pawtucket.

PBN: What are some of the plans for the next year?
CONARD-WELLS:
Next year West Elmwood Housing will resume our lending activity, complete development of the Sankofa Farm and begin planning for the indoor phase of Sankofa World Market. We will also continue our collaborative community development work to address social determents of poverty. There are some new and exciting partnerships that we expect will be in place as well. These new partnerships will increase our capacity to fulfill our mission and accomplish our outcome statement.

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