Mortgage and real estate associations have long served as a backbone for their members, with the COVID-19 pandemic only reaffirming this support as members mobilized quickly to provide COVID-19 relief.
As their members quickly took action to donate supplies, money and resources to their communities, associations were there to keep the movement growing. Across the nation, title companies, builders, real estate agents and more were all working together to help people and families impacted by the virus.
These are only a handle of the personal stories and initiatives that associations shared.
National Association of Home Builders
Home builders were uniquely positioned to provide COVID-19 relief and support front-line workers since they’re one of the few industries that require similar equipment to the medical field. Vice President Mike Pence even called on construction professionals to donate their supply of N-95 masks due to the extreme shortage.
Dean Mon, NAHB chairman and a home builder from Shrewsbury, NJ, said that members immediately responded to the call, donating thousands of N-95 masks to area hospitals across the country. They also donated other safety equipment such as medical gloves, more than 1,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, surgical masks, safety goggles, and even intubation boxes.
The association received countless stories of how people were giving back, including how a New Orleans member donated five portable buildings outfitted with bathrooms to be used as a quarantine space at a homeless shelter. NAHB also shared a story of a home builders association in Connecticut that donated enough Tyvek rolls to make over 1,300 protective gowns for local hospitals and first responders.
And in Florida, NAHB told the story of a member from the Charlotte-DeSoto Building Industry Association, Adams Group, that provided COVID-19 relief and donated 55 intubation boxes that were put to immediate use in area hospitals in Southwest Florida.
“During this extremely challenging time, we are so proud of our members and the work they have done to help others.” Mon said.
National Association of Realtors
NAR relaunched its “Right Tools, Right Now” program for its members as part of the effort to reaffirm its commitment to the safety of Realtors and their families. The program includes an online warehouse of resources, offering roughly 350 different no-cost or discounted resources and tools to help NAR members manage their business during this pandemic.
Meanwhile, the association’s members also got to work to get out in their local community. For example, one Realtor donated 850 computer tablets so kids could participate in eLearning, another lent his RV to an ICU nurse so she could isolate from her family to keep them safe and another donated plasma that helped a patient who had been on a ventilator for three weeks.
From providing healthy meals and masks to truck drivers in Oregon to Realtors in rural Kentucky hand-sewing face masks to local hospitals, NAR captures all the inspirational stories on its “Realtors are Good Neighbors” Facebook page.
“While we face this pandemic together, NAR has worked to reaffirm our commitment to the safety and wellbeing of America’s realtors,” NAR President Vince Malta said. “We’re working to deliver new, innovative solutions that help make our members the most successful professionals they can be.”
American Land and Title Association
With the majority of them being small businesses themselves, 98% to be exact, ALTA CEO Diane Tomb said that title and settlement companies across the country went above and beyond to protect their communities through volunteer efforts during the pandemic.
“From shopping for food banks to sewing face masks for first responders to even providing virtual therapy dog visits for children in a local hospital, ALTA members are doing their part to safeguard their communities during this crisis,” Tomb said.
ALTA not only donated monetarily to various nonprofit organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as Feeding America and Supply Love, a community-based effort in the Washington, D.C., metro area, they focused on providing a voice for ALTA members through its #GoodDeeds campaign.
Stories from ALTA members include how Texas Regional Title created “A Box of Sunshine” care packages that were delivered on National Nurses Day to three of the area’s local hospitals. They also shared how the marketing director for The Title Professionals in Fredericksburg, Va., donated $20 from every closing to the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank to address the growing needs in their area.
Association of Independent Mortgage Experts
From members stepping up to help their local communities to volunteering as a team to provide support, AIME came together to find ways they could help from coast to coast.
“During the worst of times, we are seeing the best of the wholesale mortgage channel, as brokers collaborate with each other to come out on the other side of this pandemic stronger,” AIME Chairman Anthony Casa said.
For its members, AIME launched a Facebook LIVE series and interviewed more than 50 industry leaders and experts to equip members with the most up-to-date information to advise their communities.
Even the Philadelphia-based AIME team donated their time to support relief efforts, preparing more than 500 packed meals and food boxes for a local food bank.
MBA Opens Doors
The Mortgage Bankers Association established the MBA Opens Doors Foundation to help families with critically ill or injured children receive mortgage or rental payment assistance while seeking medical treatment. But, as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the health of millions of Americans as well as their financial strength, the foundation was able to use its mission to also help those impacted by the virus.
“With the threat of COVID-19, for our Opens Doors families, their lives just got a lot harder,” Dubois said. “It is literally a double dose of hardship, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the pandemic is disproportionately affecting the families we help.”
“When we were just a couple of weeks into the pandemic, before there were stay at home orders and mandatory closings across the country, more than a quarter of the families applying for help from the Open Doors Foundation cited the pandemic in their need for support,” she said. “And my guess is that will climb to 50%, maybe even more.”
According to Dubois, since the foundation’s launch in 2011, MBA Open Doors has provided more than $7.5 million in aid for 5,300 families.
To read the full July issue of HousingWire Magazine, click here.
