Behind Every Door is a series of success stories featuring those who have been served by the Virginia Beach CDC and the regional outreach of Second Act Communities. Since 1985, the Virginia Beach CDC has housed over 6,200 individuals who we refer to as our "neighbors." Edna Foxx is one of those neighbors. It was early morning when I arrived to interview Edna, but Atlantis Manor was awake. The sun was shining on the lawn. Residents were on front porches chatting and a neighbor

Last month, the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released a report that explores the ways America's federal housing production programs are serving the lowest income households and how those resources may be better aligned. The report reveals that there are new entrants to the low income household sector such as retirees who don't have adequate retirement savings, households who lost their homes to foreclosure, college-educated young adults who cannot find profes

I recently had the opportunity to interview some of the smartest people I know - and they all happen to be under the age of 14. Kids have a remarkable ability to express their opinions by driving straight at the heart of an issue, and the children I spoke with about housing stability did not disappoint. Here's what they had to say... What is the difference between a house and a home? "A home is the heart." - Nyrah, age 7 "A home is where you live there for life." - Makayiah,

Behind Every Door is a series of success stories featuring our neighbors who have been served by the Virginia Beach CDC and the regional outreach of Southeastern Virginia Housing Corporation. The Virginia Beach CDC impacts the lives of 1500 neighbors each year. Denise James is one of those neighbors. When my car pulled up, Denise was waiting for me in her garden. She wanted me to see the plants she had cultivated over the 13 years she has lived in a VBCDC home. "I fell in lov

Words have staying power. Keeping your head above water. Making the way best you can... I remember the first time that I heard that theme song and saw the introduction to the Good Times television show. I wondered how people could live in highrise concrete tombs surrounded by fences of iron and hopelessness. I have never been sure whether those fences were built to keep the world out or keep the residents in. Either way, the boundaries worked. The result was generations of pe

Behind Every Door is a series of success stories featuring our neighbors who have been served by the Virginia Beach CDC and the regional outreach of Southeastern Virginia Housing Corporation. The Virginia Beach CDC impacts the lives of 1500 neighbors each year. Zaida Fitzgerald is one of those neighbors. Zaida recently invited me into her home. She is a former VBCDC neighbor who was homeless when she found us in 2009. In 2008, her employer went out of business and Zaida had t