Meet Nancy, Our Resident Services Coordinator

At her last job, Nancy worked serving people enduring homelessness, and she loved it. 

She smiled as she recalled the work. Eventually, she was even promoted to a management position. Good news, right? Something to be happy about. 

Except Nancy wasn’t entirely fulfilled.

As a manager, she couldn’t work directly with people the way she had been. She managed those who worked directly with people. She found herself asking about people she knew, wondering how they were doing. 

“I just realized I like working directly with people,” she recalled. “I didn’t like feeling removed from them.”

People energize Nancy, she enjoys being around them and she cares for them. Especially kids. As a member of our resident services team, she interacts naturally with everyone around her, knowing their names, reminding kids about homework assignments or checking in with parents for ways she can be helpful. Nancy spends countless hours working with residents at our largest affordable housing complex to make sure the people there feel seen, heard, cared for, and supported. So how does all that work? What makes that kind of care even possible?

“You have to build trust. Nothing works without that. You have to keep your promises,” Nancy says. She sips her tea and goes on to talk about the Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians, and other resettled refugee families she knows. They’re more than ‘clients’ or ‘beneficiaries’—these people have become family who have embraced her and chosen to share their own hopes and pain with her.

“We are embraced by people others might take for granted…it’s really such a privilege. It’s hard to describe.”

We’re so glad to have people like Nancy on our team, working to build up this community!