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SSH hosts Community Development Listening Tour

On Monday, October 24, South Shore Housing hosted state legislators and local housing and community development leader at our Woodlands elderly development in Plympton as part of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses’ seven-stop listening tour. SSH and our partners and allies from the region weighed in with legislators related to affordable housing and economic development. Committee Co-chair Senator Sal DiDomenico of Everett chaired the meeting and Senate President Therese Murray, Rep. James Cantwell (Marshfield) and Tom Calter (Kingston) also attended. The legislators left with ideas for how to improve public policy in these areas and with a commitment from participants to continue to work closely with state government to implement these policies.

SSH Team Presents on Successful Turnaround

The Mass. Nonprofit Network invited SSH to present at their annual conference in October on SSH’s recent success at turning around of the organization. SSH’s Board Chair Mike McGowan and Executive Director Carl Nagy-Koechlin were joined on the panel by Chris Dame, who was SSH’s interim Director in 2009, and Susan Egmont, who led the executive search processes that landed Dame and Nagy-Koechlin. The session, entitled Achieving Great Leadership while the Wolves are at the Door, explored how SSH improved its operations and financial health to re-establish itself as a regional affordable housing leader. Nagy-Koechlin cited a re-energized board, tremendous commitment by the management staff, and “tough love” from stakeholders at the Department of Housing and Community Development as keys to the success story.

SSH presents on HomeBASE to Community Development Assoc.

In October SSH’s Executive Director Carl Nagy-Koechlin also participated in a panel presentation on the State’s new HomeBASE program at the regional conference of the National Community Development Association in New Bedford. Carl was joined on the panel by Sue Beaton of the Fireman Foundation and John Yazwinsky of Fr. Bills & MainSpring. Christina Connelly of the New Bedford Community Development Department organized and moderated the panel. Carl and the other panelists described to an audience of community development professionals the newly implemented state program aimed at housing homeless families and highlighted what lessons have been learned in the short time since the program was launched. Despite the challenges associated with the HomeBASE program – most notably the fact that the demand for the program outstrips the funding for it – the panelists agreed that housing rather than shelter is the right response to family homelessness.