The History of MIFA continued MIFA Responds to Emerging Needs Virginia Dunaway, an Associate Executive Director, asked to provide a brief synopsis of what MIFA does, answered, “Much of MIFA is responding to people in crisis, or trying to prevent a crisis from occurring. There are so many unmet needs for which MIFA receives the first call.” Examples abound of this description of MIFA's responding to emerging needs by initiating programs to gratify them. Among these is Memphis Coalition for the Homeless, begun in 1985 when homelessness surfaced as a major problem affecting every metropolitan center. To address the situation in Memphis, MIFA administers a coalition of people and agencies involved with the homeless, originally coordinated by Marjean Kremer and Selma Lewis, and now by Barbara Wicks. The Coalition remains under the auspices of MIFA, although another response to emerging need, the Child Sexual Abuse Council, begun and nurtured to maturity by MIFA, has now become a separate organization. Consistent with the policy of addressing unmet needs, MIFA's newest projects are a response to the severe shortage of affordable housing in the community. The idea for combining unused boxcars into single family homes, or City Cottages, was brought to MIFA's attention by Bena Cates, and her husband, George, a real estate developer on the MIFA Development Board. City Cottages were named by Ward Archer and adopted as a project of the Home Builders Association of Memphis which donated material, labor, and expertise tracking actual costs to determine feasibility. Title to a two-acre site was acquired through Shelby County's homestead program. For the initial model house, two refrigerated boxcars were purchased by MIFA from the Fruit Growers Express for $700 apiece. Joined creatively by architect Steve Berger and lightened by large windows, the well-insulated cars formed a two-bedroom house of about 1,000 square feet. The house was sold for less than $30,000, a feasible cost for lower income families and low utility bills were assured by the cars' superior insulation. The second of these innovative housing programs is the development of Independent Apartments, twenty-four units designed especially for the physically handicapped. The structure at 865 Linden, adjoining MIFA, is the first of its kind in Tennessee, and the only one funded by HUD in this region. The project, proposed over five years ago by Erwin Wright, the Director of Easter Seals of West Tennessee, and Fred Dinwiddle, Director of the Center for Independent Living, grew out of their realization of the desperate need for such housing. MIFA became involved in the spring of 1987, after the group was unable to find a building site. The City of Memphis and its Division of Housing and Community Development made some former urban renewal land available at a bargain price. HUD's Housing Development Division in Nashville arranged direct loan financing for the project targeted for physically handicapped, low income persons. Both of these MIFA sponsored housing projects, while recognizing that they cannot solve the total housing problem, serve as demonstrations of the ways needs can be solved by combinations of groups and individuals pooling their particular talents and efforts to make a difference in the lives of the disadvantaged. As MIFA matured, the need grew for more and varied resource development. In 1983 MIFA created a Development Board to aid in fund-raising. Wallace Bruce, currently its head, says that “MIFA stretches each and every dollar to the fullest.” He feels that the key to MIFA's success in this complicated set of procedures is “female executive talent. MIFA has tapped the female executive and managerial talent in a way no other organization has done to produce an operation that is effective and efficient. We don't have a lot of money, so there are no frills.” He credits Gid Smith with ability as an “organizing marvel. He is good at evaluating capabilities, and has a knack for choosing people who drive themselves harder than anyone else could drive them. He has the ability to recognize excellence, and to elicit it in others.” The raising of local private funds has been a paramount of importance. Many grants require matching funds which must be provided locally by churches, individuals, and organizations. Gid Smith says that they were “heavily leveraged with federal dollars in their early days,” a situation that has now changed, making MIFA presently largely locally owned and supported. MIFA's commitment in regard to money, says Bob Dempsey, is “to keep expenses down, and income up. We scrounged, put everything to use, used old desks and equipment, never wasted anything, and never bought anything new if we could avoid it.” Everyone who has ever worked at MIFA in any capacity, staff or volunteer, would corroborate this statement. Jeanne Tacket retired as Associate Executive Director in 1986 but she remains at MIFA part-time, lending her knowledge, experience, and invaluable presence. Next: The Future