Early origins of the nonprofit are traced to 1968, when Dorothy Mae Richardson, a Central North Side resident of Pittsburgh, started a campaign for better housing in her neighborhood. Dorothy Mae Richardson worked with city bankers and government officials to convince 16 financial institutions to give out conventional loans in the community. Her legacy was an organization named the Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh. Eventually, Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh became the national model for community-based housing initiatives throughout the country. In 1970, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, became involved with Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh, and started expanding the program by training savings and loan officers for urban areas nationally. In 1978, Congress chartered Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, with a mission to recreate Neighborhood Housing Services of Pittsburgh's housing program throughout the nation's cities. In 1984 the first Neighborhood Housing Week was congressionally established. President Ronald Reagan proclaimed a national observance. During the 1980s the Ad Council worked with Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and created “NeighborWorks.” Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation began doing business as NeighborWorks America in 2005. In 2007, Congress selected NeighborWorks America to administer the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program. In a continuing effort to assist in recovery from the housing crisis, in 2009 NeighborWorks launched the Loan Modification Scam Alert campaign and Stable Communities Initiative. In June 2011 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in partnership with NeighborWorks America, launched the Emergency Homeowners' Loan Program to assist homeowners across the country at risk of foreclosure. There are now more than 240 NeighborWorks organizations operating in urban, suburban and rural communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In the past five years, NeighborWorks organizations have generated more than $19.5 billion in reinvestment in these communities. NeighborWorks America has become a leading trainer of community development, financial capability and affordable housing professionals. NeighborWorks America has helped more than 1.7 million homeowners through its congressionally funded National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling program.
Community Leaders
In honor of its namesake, NeighborWorks America nationally offers the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership. Dorothy Richardson continued to live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as an active community member and supervisor of the Pittsburgh Housing Clinic, until her death on April 28, 1991 at Allegheny General Hospital. She lived to 68. She graduated from Allegheny High in 1940.
Leaders in NeighborWorks History
Bill Whiteside, First Executive Director of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation from 1978 to 1990
, Executive Director from 1990 to 2000, Inducted into the Affordable Housing Hall of Fame
