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Welcome to Voices in Local Government, an ICMA podcast. My name is Gabe Daugherty,
and I'm joined by my ERC partner, Tamika Lee, from the National League of Cities. And today we're
discussing the Economic Recovery Corps program with Vonette Harris, a current Economic Recovery
Corps fellow, and her host, Laura Searfrost, who is with Enterprise Community Partners in Maryland.
Welcome, Vonette and Laura. Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here. Now, the Economic Recovery
Corps Program, or ERC for short, is funded by the Economic Development Administration,
the EDA, and led by the International Economic Development Council, IEDC. This program is designed
to help communities build long-term economic resilience by investing in people, nurturing
relationships, and strengthening local systems. 65 dynamic fellows from accomplished entrepreneurs
to nonprofit professionals, from veterans to passionate community leaders, have spent the last two
years in communities all over the country, large and small, working to deliver lasting impact.
The website for the program is theeconomicrecoverycore.org and is linked wherever you are
listening. um laura enterprise community partners is well respected in the housing space can you
share a bit more about the organization's work and what made erc feel like a right fit to move
forward and building on that could you also talk about the project itself and what made it feel
especially urgent right now as you said enterprise is a national affordable housing organization
that addresses the need for affordable housing nationwide across multiple angles policy and
programs where our erc project fits capital and development especially across the mid-atlantic
market where i sit Through the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, we have been bringing a lot of our
tools that we have at Enterprise together with other partners, and we've made a lot of progress
toward a shared goal to add or preserve 17,000 homes for households living near the New Light Rail
in Maryland. And through our coalition-based work,
we've really increased our toolbox for housing preservation. We've worked for more funding through
local and private preservation funds, technical support and training to developers,
and right of first refusal policies. But at the same time, we had a challenge. We know that a lot
of existing buildings can be lost in a lot of different ways, and we didn't have the tools to
really align our toolbox with the properties that were most at risk of coming out of the supply.
So our project is really... intended to address kind of that need for stronger coordination and
alignment of those tools and at-risk properties. And so our ERC work, I think, was really intended
to help kind of bring those to the properties that needed them the most, to the communities that
needed them the most. And so, you know, what our project really does is brings together government
partners, tenant serving groups on a regular basis to really look at data,
share information about what properties are most at risk, and then start to strategize around what
is possible. This is a really critical moment for Purple Line communities in our work within the
Purple Line Quarter Coalition. We have a housing goal to produce or preserve 17,000 homes for
households earning less than $72,000 a year before the Purple Line opens, which is right now at
the end of next year, 2027. And, you know, we really wanted to figure out ways to accelerate our
work in this critical moment. And this was this preservation network and our ERC project was really
one way to do that. Thank you. Vonette, what was your introduction and first thoughts on this
program and the possibilities that you saw? As a person that believes that access to a quality
affordable housing is a fundamental right and not a privilege, I saw alignment with the core values
of what the ERC program was attempting to accomplish. It wasn't your traditional technical
assistance model, but embedding experienced practitioners into communities to help move complex
work forward in real time. ERC was very people-centered, which really resonated with me.
I've operated in the affordable housing, economic community development space for nearly two and a
half decades. And I've seen firsthand, you know, what are those big barriers to housing production
and preservation? And it's not always policy and funding. a lot of times its capacity.
So the idea that this program was intentional in its design to pair local efforts with on-the
-ground expertise felt both timely and necessary. Having already worked in the Purple Line and
seeing the risk of displacement, I really thought that, you know, the ERC fellowship opportunity
could be a great game changer.
I think stakeholders in the PLCC, including my host organization, you know, saw that there was a
critical gap in our ecosystem and also reaching our housing goals, specifically to housing
preservation. And so this fellowship kind of gave us the opportunity to create a real launching pad
to really start talking about preservation work and being intentional of bringing stakeholders
together to address critical issues. Wow. Vanette, you've... Been in the fellowship and with
Enterprise for about 30 months. We're coming up on the tail end of your time. Looking back,
what would you say were some of your biggest accomplishments? I know the list is long, but just a
few of them. You know, I've learned through this fellowship, you guys love to do these reflection
points.
So I think. My biggest accomplishments can be kind of directed in,
I would say, three buckets. Coalition building, direct impact, and system change.
You know, the most significant accomplishment, of course, was assisting my host organization in
operationalizing and standing up the Purple Line Preservation Network, bringing together
stakeholders that Laura mentioned to collaborate and to discuss firsthand and think of problem
-solving about troubled properties along the corridor. Through this process, we were able to
witness in real time and firsthand the power of effective collaboration. When you have open
dialogue, shared accountability, and real commitment to problem solving across the sector,
I think we've seen a shift in our work. It's less fragmented and it's more aligned along the
corridor. The second thing that I would say would be the collaboration has really led to tangible
outcomes through the direct technical assistance that I provide to housing operators.
emerging developers and tenant associations. Since this fellowship had launched,
I have successfully helped stabilize 154 families that were at risk of displacement and have
secured approximately 7.4 million and counting in public resources to preserve affordable housing
along the corridor, providing customized technical assistance that could range from assisting an
operator in accessing grant dollars to make energy improvements. assisting emerging developer in
acquiring a property along the corridor, utilizing the county's right of first refusal,
or working with a tenant association and helping them to negotiate a community benefits agreement,
if you will, with a purchaser to address their main concern of housing affordability long term.
And I think on the policy side, I think this has just recently happened, was contributing to the
efforts of the passage of House Bill 85 with Senator, with Governor Westmore,
allowing for limited equity housing cooperatives, creating a new pathway for long-term
affordability and community ownership. This work was rooted in the technical support that I
provided to the Leland, a 15-unit building in the city of Tacoma Park, where I assisted the tenant
association. and raising capital to acquire their building and make meaningful improvements.
So I think that's probably a long list of accomplishments. Yes,
yes, that's awesome. And Laura, from your perspective and your organization,
tell us a little more about where your organization serves. I feel like it's just not just in the
one place where you sit, Laura, but would love to know really just about the success.
in your eyes, in your perspective, in the community, maybe what lessons that other communities
elsewhere could learn from having a program like this or being involved in a program like this to
have someone like Vonette in their community. I know your working relationship is close,
so I just would love to know a little bit more about that. Well, first of all, I just want to,
like, give Vonette her flowers because I think so much of what she said are,
you know, in my... mind the keys to success, especially that broad thinking about how do you think
about work within a coalition and creating the infrastructure for collaboration,
which I really feel is what our project has done around housing preservation. And then also
thinking about how that both is at the, you know, the biggest picture,
you know, the need for policy changes to fill gaps. And we have a better understanding now, I
think, of some of those gaps going forward. And then also, right, the very granular, like,
individual project by project working with the property owner or the developer or the tenant
association. So I just want to say, like, I think, you know, it's all kind of the keys to success
in many ways, I think, are wrapped up in what Bonnet just articulated. I would add.
I think to me, reflecting on the preservation network, which is still kind of in its infancy,
infancy in my mind, is, you know, it sits within our broader Purple Line Corridor Coalition,
which is housed at the National Center for Smart Earth at the University of Maryland. And I do
think having our network kind of live within this broader. um network of partners who are focused
on housing but also focused on other goals like small business development workforce development
and culture um and vibrant places is just i think really important because i think it you know we
already have a common interest when we're coming together and i think that's one of the things that
has made our work really effective uh very early on was we have you know the shared interest the
shared investment in these communities So I think it's really helped, you know, spur problem
solving very quickly. I also want to say, you know, some of the way the collaboration happens is
not by accident. Vonette and I have been really intentional about how we designed and set up the
network. So we spent, I think, a good portion of the first year of the ERC fellowship really
working.
to understand how other networks across the country operate, some of which enterprise is also
involved in, in other markets that we're active in. Also talking to the folks we thought we'd want
around the table at the onset to understand what would bring them to the table, but also what would
keep them at the table. And so by the time we launched the network at the beginning of 2025,
a lot of people's ideas were already kind of embedded in you know the way we wanted to operate and
so i think that was also really like a key to our success and then lastly we just have i think an
amazing data partner in the national center for smart growth so prior you know we were talking
about different you know gaps we had and challenges we had you know prior to us working on this
project we didn't you know, our universe for what we needed to preserve, whether it was through,
you know, loss of subsidy or deterioration or operational inefficiencies,
you know, or redevelopment, it was a whole universe of like 700 buildings in the Purple Line
corridor. And the National Center for Smart Growth, through their property inventory and risk
assessment, were able to shrink that universe for us. And we're able to use that to really focus
our conversations with our network partners and also draw on their knowledge of what's happening on
the ground. So we kind of have this reinforcing cycle of information and the ability to bridge
quantitative and qualitative data. So I just want to acknowledge just the mutual benefit of their
academic interest in our community need or you know ability to apply it and i also you know think
it's really something that i think other communities can learn from like we have data we have a
great data partner But there's lots of data in community, including people who are working on the
ground, people who are using programs. And so really thinking about how to mine that data for
collaboration for problem solving, I think, has also been something that I credit our early
successes to as well. Vonette, one of the unique strengths of ERC is the idea of having boots on
the ground to help move important work forward. Alongside your work with the Purple Line Corridor
Coalition, how have you seen this effort begin to make a difference for residents and property
owners along the corridor? And what impact feels most tangible so far? The boots on the ground
component of the fellowship has really been critical because it allows us to move from ideas and
put it into execution so that we start to see real tangible impact.
Through my work with the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, as well as the Preservation Network,
one of the biggest differences I've seen is the ability to provide that real hands-on tailored
technical assistance to residents, to developers, to municipalities, to existing property owners.
That means we're not just talking about preservation strategies, that we're actually helping them
structure deals, raise capital. come up with preservation strategies, negotiate agreements and
terms. And so that's what I've seen. So for residents, what's really tangible for residents is
stabilizing their homes. As I stated, this fellowship, I've been able to secure 154 families at
risk of displacement.
Without the intervention, these families would have lost their homes, which that that has real
impact you know um affordability is a national crisis in this country and so it's not some it's not
easy for someone to pick up and move somewhere somewhere else because there's a plethora of
affordable housing somewhere You know, from a property owner's perspective, what this network has
really brought to bear is that, you know, particularly for our smaller Mission Aligned owners,
the impact is showing up and helping them getting access to capital and information. You know,
many want to, many are good actors and want to preserve housing but lack the capacity or the
resources or tools to be able to navigate. where to apply, when to apply, how to access funds.
And so being embedded has allowed me to bridge that gap and really help them see a viable path of
making improvements to their property and extending affordability. And I think from a broader
level, what's become more tangible is the shift in how in which we operate. I remember very early
on in our discussions with Laura, I said, she had made a stage, like,
you know what, we could be designing this and people may not show up. And I was like, what? oh wait
a minute what do you mean they won't show up like how would this work so now seeing it actually
operationalize that we've created a space for often um for open dialogue and faster problem solving
and coordinated action we're really starting to see an impact both far as immediate on the ground
with people as well as you know uh systems shifting so um i think our our impact is going to be
long lasting in both I don't know. I got kind of chills just kind of listening about all of that.
Tameka, I would love to kind of point it towards you and the National League of Cities. I know you
guys see many of the same issues with housing and transportation and affordability and displacement
play out in cities all across the United States, not just in the communities that Lynette and Laura
are serving, but we see it all over. Would love for you to tell us what kind of you guys are
seeing. that's really exciting about the work that Vinet and Enterprise have been able to
accomplish through the ERC program. You know, I am a huge fan of Enterprise Community Partners,
and I think that the work aligns. what we're seeing nationally, I think it's really brave to look
to the community first. I think that some cities are really seeing that shift where the community's
voice really matters and preserving that legacy within communities. That's really huge.
We do work to really look at communities and say, hey, what's the lowest hanging fruit?
You know, some communities we went from really wanting big box stores to go into communities,
which then leads to potentially gentrification and moving folks out. So that anti-displacement
work is huge, especially around the Purple Line. So, you know,
I think we haven't even scratched the surface. I think that what Laura and Vaughnette didn't
mention is what may have brushed on, but the impact on residents. and small businesses um you know
i think that when cities are looking at legacy they also are taking into account older adults so
that infrastructure has to be there when we look at sort of the economy and who holds the wealth
it's a lot of times it's those residents that have lived there for years and years or generations
um so preserving that um and we're also seeing sort of the intersection between economic
development housing and then transportation so i think that enterprise community partners sits
right at the center of what we're seeing nationally and i think that what they're doing on the
ground could really be a model for other cities um and both laura and vonette know every chance we
get to put their story out there we do um because i really do think that their work is at the helm
of change. So I will turn this back on you all.
This is a question for both you, Laura and Barnett. There's increasing attention at the connection
between housing and economic development and the role housing plays as a driver for long-term
community growth. As you reflect on the lasting impact of the work in your experience over the past
two years in the ERC, how has this program shaped the way you think about economic development it's
such a good question and i think you know wanna well i also want to just say like thank you for the
kind words i want to give um you know attention to the purple and quarter coalition because i think
you know bonnet and i would not have you know be here if it was not for the leadership of the
coalition and some of its early founders um including the former director at the National Center
for Smart Growth and having that legacy continue under its current leadership. So I just want to,
you know, acknowledge that I totally agree. And I also it would not be possible without great
partners like them. I think that's a great segue because just in reflecting on,
you know, as a host, being part of the ERC and.
predominantly working on housing the housing components of economic development um you know i'm
always struck by you know the keys to success whether you're talking about housing or economic
development or transportation they all kind of boil down to the same things you know trust strong
partnerships system level solutions um and so i think that's probably my biggest takeaway and then
i think the second one is i think you know we housers uh would love to be invited to more economic
development conversations and also um for all the housers listening uh really making those economic
development connections because sometimes we can be um you know in talking about the same issues
but in different rooms well um just to kind of add to what laura has said i think from a natural
national perspective i think there's been a shift where I think more practitioners are recognizing
that housing is infrastructure. It is just as critical to the health and stability of our
communities as roads, water systems, and transit.
We now see that when communities invest in mass transit or other major economic systems,
it sends a very strong signal of permanence and growth. But often,
you know, that signal leads to housing speculation, rising costs, displacement pressures for both
renters as well as homeowners. I know our emphasis is on renters, but it also has a dramatic impact
on long term homeowners, which are usually the seniors that Tamika mentioned. And so I think what's
really powerful about the PLCC and the PLPN is that these coalitions are not just waiting to react
to these outcomes. You know, they emphasize the importance of putting proactive anti-dispacement
strategies in place during the planning stage of the transit system, as well as the construction
phase of the planning of the transit system. And not just waiting to see the impact already take
shape, because when you're reactive, then it's too late. And so I think it's that forward thinking
approach is exactly what's needed to really protect communities. And then to echo what Laura said,
the whole emphasis of coalition building. You know, no one organization can solve the problem
related to housing affordability and anti-displacement, certainly not in their individual silos.
What we've seen is that through this work, the intentionality of breaking.
together mission-aligned stakeholders at all sectors to collaborate,
share information, share responsibility and problem-solve has impact. And that makes the
collaboration so much more effective because no one entity has to do everything.
They can stay within their strengths and their organizational constraints while contributing to a
shared vision. that, again, results in real meaningful impact. So at the end of the day,
you know, it's all about building systems and partnerships that leads to meaningful tenant
stability and long-term affordability for a more equitable, connected community. I love that,
Monette and Laura. That is good work. It's hard work. um but i'm so grateful that there are folks
like you all that are on the ground doing that work in your community and hopeful that others would
be inspired to kind of get that work going it feels like you know what the saying that they always
say will go further and longer together so i love that the collaboration that has happened only
between the two of you but within your coalition like it's inspiring it really is Thank you so much
for taking time out of your very busy schedules to talk with Tamika and I about your work. If any
of our listeners are interested in learning more about the ERC program, you can visit
economicrecoverycore.org. But before we wrap up, is there anything else that you would encourage
our listeners to find more information about a program that you're working on or any of your work?
Anything else you would encourage them to look into? So of course, Enterprise Community Partners
website is just a treasure trove of resources related to the issues we talked about today,
but also much broader. And we have tools that span rural and tribal communities,
as well as more of the context, which Bonnet and I talked about today. Also,
our newsletter, we have kind of a series of newsletters that can keep you up to date both on things
that are happening nationally, but also within our market. So when you sign up, please opt into the
Mid-Atlantic newsletter because I think that's also where we get to tell some of these stories and
we'll continue to tell our story of our project as it lives on past the ERC fellowship timeframe.
I would also direct folks listening to the Purple Line Corridor Coalition's website, which is
purplelinecorridor.org, as well as National League of Cities Housing Supply Accelerator resources,
which can also speak to aspects of zoning reform and other ways to add homes while also preserving
the ones that already serve people in your communities. I would just echo all the things that Laura
said as far as great resources. And also, I would say direct individuals to the ICMA website
because it's a plethora of resources as well as the IEDC. Both organizations have toolkits and
recent literature that talks about timely issues that we're facing. You know, housing affordability
is a crisis. I just this week actually participated in a three day. course offered by the IDC in
business retention and expansion. And the number one thing or the one critical item that kept
resonating in all the little breakout groups for different things, the topic that kept rising to
the surface was housing affordability was one of the major impediments for job growth,
expansion, retention, and evolution. And so I think if...
really hope that in this space that people will recognize that we have to be intentional.
about how we address this housing crisis because it's affecting us all. I mean, I was in groups
with rural communities, major markets, you know, mid-level markets, and they're all dealing with
the same thing. The narrative, you know, might have been slightly different, but the core of the
problem was the same. And so I just hope that people will recognize that housing is a critical
economic driver. to economic prosperity and that there needs to be real focused attention about how
you address it. And so if you have a major project in your city or municipalities, please do the
forward thinking and be proactive and not reactive. And Enterprise has great toolkits on their
website to teach you how to be proactive thinkers about how to solve critical problems.
Like Gabe, this gives me chills and to know all of the great work you all are doing,
especially in the Washington, D.C. area. The Purple Line has been,
you know, in progress for some years now. So to see and witness the work that's happening on the
ground, not just about the transportation, but also about housing, that's really important.
Love the work that you all are doing. Thank you. Thank you. Once again, the website for the program
is economicrecoverycore.org, and it will be linked wherever it is you're listening.

 

 

 

1. How the Economic Recovery Corps program builds local capacity through embedded, on-the-ground expertise.
2. Strategies for preserving affordable housing and preventing displacement before it happens.
3. The role of partnerships, data, and coalition-building in solving complex community challenges.
4. Why housing is critical infrastructure and a key driver of long-term economic development.

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