Presenting NHC’s COVID-19 Housing Resource Center

I am pleased to present to you NHC’s COVID-19 Housing Resource Center , an online platform designed to provide you with information on COVID-19 from every facet of the housing industry. We have gathered and organized information from federal, state and local resources, as well as from our members and others across the housing and community development sectors, and relevant national and local press – so that you are never more than one click away from the information you need. You can access it  here today. An online webinar that demonstrates the site is also available here.

Our goal for the site is to allow you to sort through hundreds of different resources by topic area, such as For Homeowners or For Homeless Service Providers, as quickly and efficiently as possible. You can filter by state, as well, so if you are looking for information relevant to Renters in California, you can do that easily. As of right now, there are links to over 400 different resources, which will become thousands thanks to our growing research staff and to all of you – who we hope will continue to send us resources you have created or found helpful, so we can include them on the site.

Another exciting feature of the site is our Frequently Asked Questions section, which draws from dozens of FAQ pages and organizes over a hundred questions and answers by subject matter. If you want more on the issue, you can simply click on the answer and go directly to the original site in a new tab on your web browser. Finally, we are developing a Best Practices page that will collect and share emerging best practices on how best to deal with the challenges presented from COVID-19. This will include best practices for supporting residents during this time, effective property management, servicing loss mitigation, and many others. Your help on this section is critical. Please share your best practices with us at  Covid19Staff@nhc.org.

This site is the product of the tireless work of a team of outstanding staff and consultants, led by NHC Senior Policy Advisor  Bob Simpson, Policy Advisor  Gina Metrakas, Marketing and Communications Manager Andrea Nesby and Policy and Research Associate  Quinn Mulholland. The site will continue to be updated and expanded by our team, along with research assistants from Harvard University and the University of Chicago, among others. It was developed by an amazing team of web designers at  Electric Pulp in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. All of this was made possible with the generous support of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. Without all of them, this audacious project, completed in less than six weeks, would not have been possible.

Over the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to improve and expand the site to include more advocacy resources, blog posts and much more detailed consumer support information. It’s just a part of our core mission here at NHC, where we have been defending the American Home since 1931. Membership is the foundation of everything we do.   If you are not yet a member, you can join today . Individual membership is as little as $50 for those under 35, with numerous other opportunities for your organization or company to join and support NHC. We also appreciate referrals for new memberships. All of us are struggling with shrinking budgets and growing costs. Our aim is to make your work easier, and all of our work, more impactful. We hope that this COVID-19 Housing Resource Center makes a difference.

Stay safe and healthy,

David