It took some convincing to get him to accept the money.

"I don't want charity." He said proudly.

He was one of our best tenants. The rent arrived on time. And anytime we asked for volunteers for landscaping and neighborhood clean-up projects he and his family were there.

The family didn't fit our demographic. The single parent families we deal with at NeighborWorks® New Horizons are usually headed by women. Here was a gentleman, raising his daughter by himself. But that never overwhelmed him. On snowy mornings, he'd get up early and clean off several of his neighbors' cars before leaving for his factory job. Filling both mother and father roles, he took his daughter to Girl Scouts and helped coach her soccer team. As she got older he sought advice from his women neighbors. He became, part of the community. His neighbors looked out for his daughter if she got home before him. He worked a factory job, 7:00am to 3:30pm, just so he could be home when she got home.

About two years ago he took one of our First Time Homebuyer Courses. So he started to save up money for a home of his own. His modest savings plan was the first one he ever started. Our homebuyer counselor urged him to see if his employer offered a 401 (k) or any other savings or retirement plan. But it wasn't all financial.

Every June NeighborWorks® New Horizons celebrates NeighborWorks® Week. The staff, board and residents get together in the morning and do a neighborhood clean-up. In the afternoon we host a cookout and street fair with a Moonbounce, carnival games, music and dancing.

Last year we asked one of the residents from our affordable artist housing developments to give art lessons. We never anticipated that this would be so popular. Adults and children side by side painting and drawing. The staff were amazed and astonished that with Moonbounces, snow cones, ring tosses, dancing, water balloon toss, magician and face painting- that art lessons would have been the big draw. And he was there with his daughter. Her painting got the blue ribbon. He was so proud.

He came to our annual meeting in October with a date and a new suit. Nobody had ever seen him so dressed up. He never told us he bought it for interviews, and that his work hours had been cut back. But in December we got a call from him. He'd lost his job due to the recession. He had some savings and was confident he'd find something else, but could we do a income recertification? His income was only 60% of what it had been. The recertification was able to reduce his rent by 25%.

When we called him to explain the Neighbor 2 Neighbor LifeLine Rent Bank program sponsored by a grant from the United Way of Greater New Haven and The Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven, he didn't want to take the money.

We explained that we were providing immediate assistance to residents in good standing who'd be affected by the recession. The money wouldn't put him in a new tax bracket, but it would free up money he'd earmarked for rent, for other necessities. And we assured him that even though he was the first, we planned to help 20 more resident families who'd been affected by the recession. We would send him a letter, but we wanted to let him know in person. When he understood the program and the Neighbor 2 Neighbor LifeLine grant he agreed to take the money. He was going to pay his electric bill. And buy a few things for his daughter.

Now $500 dollars is not a lot of money these days. But to him it was two months of electric bills, three tops and a spring dance dress for his daughter and a chance to stock up on food that was on sale.

"Things have been tough" he said; "April looks like it's going to be a better month."