For immediate release: June 19, 2017
Contact: Mia Batlle, miab@nhssf.org, 786-237-2114
Miami – After 16 years as President and CEO, Arden Shank informed the Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) Board of Directors that he will be leaving the organization in early 2018.
Shank is well-respected on both the local and national level. Locally, in addition to his leadership at NHSSF, he was instrumental in creating the South Florida Community Development Coalition and the Community Reinvestment Alliance of South Florida. Nationally, he is a board member of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Community Advisory Council.
NHSSF Board Chair Patricia Algaze said, “The Board is grateful to Arden for his leadership and dedication, which has helped NHSSF grow and stabilize during a tumultuous period for the South Florida housing market. Our goal is to hire a new President and CEO that has the same dedication to our community as Arden. Because of Arden, the organization is in a good position to attract a leader who can build on our track record of success and chart our future.”
A small sample of NHSSF’s achievements under Shank’s leadership includes:
- Becoming a chartered member of the NeighborWorks network.
- Becoming certified as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) so the organization could provide affordable mortgages to low and moderate income homebuyers. In the past two years, NHSSF has received $3.5 million from financial institutions in down payment assistance and lending capital to support lending activities.
- Expanding our service area to include Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
- Becoming a licensed Real-Estate Brokerage and opening Homeownership Realty, LLC.
- Responding quickly to the foreclosure crisis by adding foreclosure prevention counseling as a line of business allowed the organization to provide approximately 11,000 families with guidance from trained counselors on how to avoid foreclosure.
- Partnering with Fannie Mae to open the first Mortgage Help Center in the nation in 2010. The Mortgage Help Center was staffed by NHSSF employees and represented the first time that Fannie Mae worked directly with mortgage borrowers.
- Helping to stabilize neighborhoods by securing, along with numerous partners, more than $120 million in federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding that led to the acquisition, rehabilitation and resale of 1,700 homes in South Florida.
- Producing over 2,700 new homebuyers since 2003 while thousands of families have received homebuyer education and utilized one-on-one counseling and financial fitness services.
- Managing and dispensing over $6 million in down payment assistance grants through the NeighborhoodLIFT program. Two hundred families received $30,000 down payment assistance in a 5 year forgivable grant.
- Forming the 79th Street Coalition for Change, a collaboration of Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida, the 79th Street Corridor Initiative, residents and stakeholders working to make social and economic advancements in the 79th Street Corridor.
- Being recognized as a leader in community development nationwide by being selected to participate in Partners in Progress and Community Progress Makers.
- Growing the organization’s staff from 4 to 20 people.
NHSSF has created a search committee and hired Raffa to conduct a national search to identify Shank’s successor. Raffa is a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm dedicated to strengthening and supporting the nonprofit sector and delivers an array of services for nonprofits including executive transition and search services.
Shank shared, “I’m humbled to have served South Florida’s neighborhoods. Our organization has helped thousands of families stay in their homes during the market crash and assisted thousands of others become homeowners. I’m grateful to our committed board and staff for working with me to provide avenues to economic and social opportunity for all in South Florida.”
About Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida
Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida (NHSSF) is a local nonprofit organization that collaborates with residents and other stakeholders to stabilize neighborhoods and develop sustainable housing. A chartered member of the NeighborWorks® network, NHSSF is amongst a nationwide network of 245 trained and certified community development organizations at work in more than 4,400 communities across America. NHSSF is a certified Homeownership Center, a HUD approved counseling agency and has adopted the National Industry Standards for Homeownership Education and Counseling. NHSSF provides a full spectrum of homeownership services in English and Spanish to assist potential buyers in reaching their homeownership dream. www.nhssf.org.
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