Building Trust
Service providers develop trust by staying in close touch with residents and providing help with immediate needs.
This report summarizes how McCormack Baron Salazar, a development firm, and its nonprofit subsidiary, Urban Strategies, involved residents in an 18-month redevelopment of New Orleans’ C.J. Peete public housing complex after Hurricane Katrina. The National Housing Institute report takes an up-close look at how those charged with redeveloping the public housing development worked with residents throughout the process — and what they learned along the way.
In the aftermath of a natural disaster, when coming into a complex political environment and culture like that in New Orleans, service providers, funders and others need to first listen and prove themselves – both to local nonprofits and the residents whom they aim to serve. It helps to have a local development partner.