Latest / ChangeMakers with Katie Goar / Episode 108 | Part Two: Frank Woodruff, Executive Director, Community Opportunity Alliance

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Episode 108 | Part Two: Frank Woodruff, Executive Director, Community Opportunity Alliance · ChangeMakers with Katie Goar

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This is change Makers with Katie Gore finding the right
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: solutions for the affordable housing community.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to my conversation with change maker Frank Woodrup,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: the executive director of the Community Opportunity Alliance. We've been
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: exploring his journey to becoming a champion for community based development. Frank,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: we wrapped up part one discussing the Storied Communities initiative.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: So can you take us behind the curtain and tell
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: us how all that came together?
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And as I said, like we are research agenda,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: trice and nurture the identity of the field one really
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: really really really important, if not the most important piece
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: of the fields identity, it's how it serves the residents
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: of the place that mission calls a concert. And so
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: we set out about a year and a half ago.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I guess it was to just the approach it from
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: a research lines like how are organizations? How do they
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: not necessarily good or bad? But how do they what
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: are the tools they use to engage residents and how
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: do residents precede those tools? Residents one that are engaged
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: with the organization already and residents that are not engaged
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: with the organization, how do how do we how do
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: we get to them, how do we get them to
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: tell their story? And so we we set up a
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: research effort in for places Richmeen, California, in the Rio
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: Grand Valley near the Mexican border, Memphis and Detroit and
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: identified for organizations and those places to partner with UH
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: and we'm hired local literary artists to help to go
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: out and interview our residents about how they perceive the
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: local organization. And I will say kind of the punchline
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: is that we I would say we at the national level,
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: We'll speak for myself. I'm going to appreciate how perceptive
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: residents are about how these organizations change over time and
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: how the resources that they have effectual they're able to do. So.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: For example, one of the findings is that in some
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: from the research from the Story Communities Project is that
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: in some places residents could witness organ an organization changing
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: based on where it's money was coming from. So as
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: it'd got more complicated sets of resources, the organizations with
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: the way it engaged with the community changed and that
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: is something that we kind of see anecdotally from kind
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: of where I sit. But to know that the residents
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: themselves witness that as well tells us something about how
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: connected the fates of residents and organizations really are.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: It's an interesting perspective because you're personalizing it, you're highlighting projects,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: and you're also showing this success record. It's a great
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: platform for you guys to use.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the rebranding. You mentioned it, and
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I'm curious to know what the thought was behind it
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: and how that has taken hold in what you're doing today.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Do you want to share some of that with us?
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: So it all kind of started in the summer of
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty. It's a time that maybe some of us
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: in this worker can remember vividly. But let me ask you, Katie,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: do you know a movie? Are you? Sam? You with
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: the movie? The Disney movie?
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  Speaker 2: I am not. I have a lot of kids movies
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: in my repertoire, but not that one.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Now that one, well, let me say I have probably
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: seen I have two kids, five and three, and I
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: have seen that movie more times than maybe all your
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: our listeners combined, especially but for those who haven't seen
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: any emails as it's a Disney movie about the Madrigal
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: family who has special powers or gifts. Miracles that were
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: given to the families of Weila. Their grandmother who kind
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: of plays the matriarch and protagonist in this movie, and
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: they were given to her, which she was a young
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: mother refugee settling in a new land after her husband's demise.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: But throughout the movie, the miracle that her family had
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: been given is gradually fading, so the Abuela is really
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: desperate to preserve it, and you know, she chastises her
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: family's every mistake. They thinking that her family's lack of
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: perfection is what's causing the miracle to die. So her
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: grandson drops a plate or her tea, her coming of
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: age granddaughter refuses to marry the boiler is choosing suitor
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: or the granddaughter of super strength can can no longer
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: lift a pack of donkeys and carrying us down right,
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: it's least anythings. So the as the movie goes, it
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: goes along the tighte. The viewers comes to realize that
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: the tighter that the Aboila's fist is squeezing around her family,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: weaker the miracle is becoming. So the movie's climax, the
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: Aboila realizes that her obsession is with the gift is
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: what's causing irreparable harm to her relationship with her children
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: and grandchildren, to strong family. And as the family deteriorates,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: sod of the gifts. And so the boiler realizes when
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: she realized that she is in fact the one causing
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the miracle to die, she admits to her granddaughter, you know,
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  Speaker 3: in my darkest moment, I was given a miracle, a
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: second chance, and I became so afraid to lose it
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  Speaker 3: that I lost sight of who the miracle was for.
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  Speaker 3: And I feel like in the summer of twenty twenty,
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  Speaker 3: we had kind of a moment like that. The big WE,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: the big community development we. Anyways, the community organizations that
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: are certain communities we're talking about are incredible gifts to
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: the people in places that they saw. You know, they
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: create how wondership and wealth for families for generations at none,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: they provide homes for the homeless. They've been neighborhood leaders
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: in opposing racism and un capitalism, and they even get
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: like the biggest financial institutions in the world to kind
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: of cross those red lines, right the But the miracle
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  Speaker 3: kind of isn't that necessarily The activities that these organizations do,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: the miracle is the communities themselves, of the institutions they
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: have chosen to build their future. And I feel like
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: in the summer of twenty twenty that almost laid and
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: there for us. And so we at the MESSIDA at
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: the time embarked on a strategic shift to focus more
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: on the system, to focus more on the systems that
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: impact of this work in a much more focused way.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: And ultimately that I'm kind of materializing to what we
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  Speaker 3: call the field building strategy. And so, you know, we
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: think that fighting fragmentation in the field of community based development,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: you know, it creates cohesion with in the field and
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: enhances innovation, it builds, it builds capacity, raises visibility of
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: the field to funders and policy makers. And so that's
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: what we try to do. We tried to, as I
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: said before, it nurture the identity in the field so
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that it can me stronger to serve the community. Diesels
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: made to serve. And so, you know, fast forward a
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: little bit, we make that make strategic decision. We've you know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: did different kinds of intro capacity building stuff. We did
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: by laws, We hired consultants to kind of help us learn.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: We had some turnover at the forward level and we
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: changed our brand to support our revision, and so we
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: transitioned in and that went public with it early twenty
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: twenty four from the seat to the community opportunity.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: So what have you seen as being the response to that.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Are people actually leaning in more for the collaboration piece
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: and the community development partnerships or are you seeing the
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: brand still try to get its footing. What is your
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: introspective view here for how this has rolled out this year.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit of both. We are
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: still trying to push the brand. I think it's a
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: it's a long term effort to get our peers and
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: friends yet to be to see us differently. I think
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: it helps that I've been here so long, right, so
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: for some for someone who kind of only interacts with
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: the organization on rare occasion, you know, you know, having
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: a consistent kind of face I think helps. So there
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: are there are there are challenges to that, but I
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: would say like we've had some really big wings this
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: year that they are ultimately good for the field. Like
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: we've we've been fighting really hard the last two years
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: for changes to the home program or mentioned earlier, the
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Home Block grant program. How is changing. The rules are
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: what's called the rules are the regulations for how that
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: program operates, and the regulations that have been proposed and
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: we hope will be finalized by the end of the
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: year or shortening soon into next year will much more
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: friendly to community based development organizations. And we've played we
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: played a big role in that, and I'm really proud
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: of that work. Wilton again, that it comes out, it
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: comes comes out in our favor. We're able to get
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: a how to visically the Army insurance issue. I think
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: that's kind of how we met right in the New
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: York Times, right, that's would the New York Times before,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: and so you're getting visibility for an issue we think
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: he really really cares about that think helps our brand,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: and then the brand helps it. So we're in the
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: early stages, but so far, so good.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Good job on getting some clarifications and some changes on
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: the home program. It's uh, it has been overly complex,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: let's say it like that, over the years, so any
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: flexibility or streamlining there is going to be much appreciated.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: So good job on that. I'm glad you brought up
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: your leadership because you've been there for a while. And
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the Alliance is making great strides under your leadership. So
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  Speaker 2: as the organization has evolved, what would you brainstorm what
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: would you dream if you could take the Community Opportunity
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  Speaker 2: Alliance like over the next ten years, where would you
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: like to see it go in the next decade.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: So there are a couple of pieces. One piece of
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  Speaker 3: a field building strategy for the Alliance. For us, that's
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: really important is the money, right, So our goal is
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: to grow substantially, but not dramatically, about double R size
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: in the next three years. And part of that is
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: engagement in private philanthropy. So on my wish list is
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: for major private philanthropy to re engage in the field
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: of community development in a way that it hasn't in
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: over a decade. Party philanthropy fund CDCs to do stuff,
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  Speaker 3: but they're not necessarily as much as we would like
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: invested in the identity of the field as a whole.
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  Speaker 3: That's can be a little bit squishy, but it's really,
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  Speaker 3: I think, really important. So ten years from now, let's
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: say I'm still here, it's the year we're twenty thirty
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: five or something. Ten years from now, I would like
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  Speaker 3: to say be able to say that the community Opportunity
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Alliance played a really important leadership role in the field
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: of community development, having a visibility that is not had
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  Speaker 3: in decades. Our organization was founded after the fall of
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: what we call a predecessor organization, an organization called the
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: National Congress for Community Economic Development NCCD, who played that
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  Speaker 3: role for CDCs, and when they died in two thousand
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  Speaker 3: and five, there was currently a vacuum in the field
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  Speaker 3: level visibility for community development that has been gone for
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: fifteen years or more, and we are working to bring
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: that identity back because the consequences of not having that
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: identity are played out in that eighty twenty dilemma that
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: I mentioned. Deeper in those inequities that we talk about
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: is the fact that organizations led by people of color
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: in this field, and organizations that represent communities that are
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: largely operated by people of color do worse on every
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: single financial metric that matters real estate development. And that
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: is a consequence of the system that's been built that
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: supports this field. And so you know, on my wish
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: list are or again doubling inside dealing with some inequities
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: and greater visibility for the field as a whole, because
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: it means and it turned it. The fact of matter
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: is whether or not in the alliance is around or not,
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: or whether or not in the home program is an
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: or the CDVG program is around, whether or any of
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: that stuff exists, the work of neighbors and community members
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: coming together forming an institution saying this place can do better.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: That spirit's always going to be there. The question is
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: is what the system will look like that surrounds that spirit.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: And I like that your organization can try to tackle
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: some of those inequities and structural problems at the same
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: time while building capacity on a larger footprint. It's one
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: thing to build that capacity internally at the local level,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: but you're able to say, hey, wait a minute, why
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: would des Moines struggle if Youngstown has already figured it out?
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  Speaker 2: And so you're able to toss those best practices around
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: and also learn from regulatory hurdles, because let's be honest,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: sometimes one community gets told no about what can happen
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: with the funding. But yet you've got another community that
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: has already built it with the same funding, and your
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: alliance group is perfectly poised to make some of those
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: inequities as well happen. So a great framework to make
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: this work. So tell me as we close out. I
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: appreciate you taking the time, but what would be something
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: for our listeners that you would like for them to
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: know as a major takeaway for the alliance about what
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: you're doing or what your future looks like. What could
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: you give them as one last takeaway?
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: We haven't talked about the elephant the room, right, which
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: is the election. The consequences of that election are substantial
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: for the purposes of our conversations, say, it's going to
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: be incredibly substantial for affordable housing regardless of how the
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: elections go in November. There is going to be a
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: congressional debate, let's call it early in the new year,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: about what to do with Texas that will impact the
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: loan and commuting tax credit, new markets, test create history,
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: I mean a tax incentive used by community development to
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: do a variety of activities. So I think I would
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: like our listeners to be tuned into that because because
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: that fight is going to happen regardless of the results
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: of the election. But I don't think the conversation is
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: quite as simple as build Baby, Build. While supply is
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: absolutely necessary, the communities that the housing goes into also
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: also need to be tended to, and I think you
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: know that kind of most commonly comes through and kind
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: of like the topic you've had on here, but you've
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: talked about on this podcast before about nimbiism and not
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: in my backyard, but the kind of antidotchy nimbism is
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: community based development. Right. These are developers building the housing
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: that have connections to the communities where it's being built.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: And so I would just like to as we as
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: we hopefully start to have a real nuts and bolt,
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: nitty gritty debate affordable housing supply going into twenty twenty five,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: I hope that community based development and the organizations that
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: do that work are front and center in that conversation.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you have Congress Congress who is
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: controlling the purse and yet it's impacting their communities by
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: which they're voting because CDBG is one of those signature
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: programs for them in their community, for them to go
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: back and attend the ribbon cutting and attend the improvement.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of tension there on what gets cut,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: what gets funded, and how it impacts those local communities.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: So this is going to be an interesting race on
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: all fronts to watch.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: It will be, you know, and affordable housing has that
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: dynamic is absolutely true. It's also true that affordable housing
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: has become surprisingly bypart is an issue. I mean, the
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: Low income Housing tax credit improvements of the program is
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: broad bipartisan support. Same thing with the Neighborhood Homes Investment
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: AT which is a top credit targeting affordable housing as well.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: It has not been enacted yet, but we've been part
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: of a campaign to pass it for a number of years,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: but again bipartisan support. Newmark is tax credit which is
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: an economic development tool, also bipartisan support. So there can
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: be fights over the appropriations in any given years, and
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: we can and do right like to criticize those elected
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: that don't necessarily see our way, see the way, see
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: things the way we see them. But the same time,
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: regardless again, regardless of how the elections turn out, there's
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: real opportunities for housing as part of this text debate
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: next year, and I think I think we are going
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: to be ready for it.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: For those of us who have been in this for
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: a few decades, we have seen the trend and it
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: used to be arguing over the need, and the need
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: is known on both sides. So now it is down
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: to solution making and funding. And that's a good conversation to.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Have, absolutely and good enough.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: What a better GID.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: I'm probably gonna.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Use that one.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: That's a really good go for it. Well, Frank, thank
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: you for taking the time again. I've been talking with
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Frank Woodruff, the executive director of the Community Opportunity Alliance.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me, and thank you
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: for putting a wearable housing front and center.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to change makers with Katie Gore. To
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: find out more about Katie, go to quad L dot com.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: That's quad e L dot com. This has been a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: production of Forbes Books Radio