Lupton Center

Return to episodes
30 Nov, 2023

The Beauty and Challenges of Developing Single Family Housing

with Shawn Duncan, Marvin Nesbitt, & Cynthia McNeal
Season 3,
  Episode 5
Place Matters
Place Matters
The Beauty and Challenges of Developing Single Family Housing
Loading
/

Founded in the late 19th century, South Atlanta was a thriving Black mixed-income neighborhood with Black businesses, churches, and other institutions that fostered a strong fabric of connection and belonging. As years of disinvestment harmed the neighborhood, many of the single family homes went vacant and eventually blighted. At FCS, we quickly realized that if we were going to partner with this place to produce a flourishing neighborhood, we were going to get into the work of buying, rehabbing, building, and selling single family homes. In today’s episode, Shawn is joined by Cynthia and Marvin to discuss the many things we have learned by entering into the beauty and challenge of single family housing.

Show notes

Shawn Duncan, Director of The Lupton Center
Dr. Shawn Duncan is the Director of FCS’s Training and Consulting Division, The Lupton Center. Shawn comes to FCS from the nonprofit leadership sector with research and writing focused on pedagogies for social impact. In his previous careers he has focused on multi-sector coalition building for community impact, content and curriculum design, group facilitation, leadership development, and immigration reform advocacy. As the leader of The Lupton Center team, Shawn brings a visionary voice for innovation, a strategic mind for resource development, and the leadership acumen to support and equip the team for success. He loves being a part of a mission-driven team that finds joy in one another while doing such important work.

Marvin Nesbitt, Jr., Senior Director of Community Development at FCS
Marvin Nesbitt, Jr. has committed his entire career to facilitating positive outcomes and success for society’s most vulnerable and the communities in which they reside. Today, he serves as Senior Director of Community Development at Focused Community Strategies (FCS). At FCS, Marvin teams up with a group of talented directors to lead the organization’s Neighborhood Engagement, Affordable Housing, and Economic Vitality efforts. Prior to joining FCS, Marvin has worked as an independent consultant providing his skills in human services and community development to numerous nonprofit, and government agencies in the areas of planning, implementation and evaluation of service delivery systems, community engagement, and the development and writing of HUD Choice Neighborhood Grant People Strategies.

Cynthia McNeal, Director of Mixed-Income Housing at FCS
Cynthia McNeal is a proud army veteran with over 20 years of organizational leadership and team management experience in the military, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. She joined the FCS team in 2005, and previously served as the Facility Manager, Property Manager, and Operations Director before stepping into her current role.

Resources:

Special thanks to our podcast editor, Tim Rhodes, for making this episode possible. If you are interested in working with Tim, you can contact him via email at tim@whistlingblue.com, or through his website, whistlingblue.com. If you have questions, feedback, or wish to contact us, please email Bekah Klein at bekah@fcsministries.org.