NeDA named Latino nonprofit of the year (2025)

NeDA named Latino nonprofit of the year (2025)
By Leonor Villasuso Rustad | Contributor | January 2026

Since its founding in 1989, the nonprofit Neighborhood Development Alliance (NeDA) has racked up its fair share of awards for its work in housing and financial literacy. In 2009, the City of St. Paul awarded NeDA “Excellence in Green Residential Construction;” in 2023, Affordable Housing Connections recognized the organization’s innovative affordable housing project Stryker Senior Housing; and in 2025, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits gave NeDA the Anti-Racist Mission of the Year award for its commitment to eliminating systemic barriers. In November, the Minnesota Latino Chamber of Commerce honored NeDA as the Best Latino Nonprofit for its work in helping Latinos buy homes.

NeDA focuses on housing and financial counseling, offering credit enhancement assistance and homebuyer readiness programs, as well as forgivable and deferred loans for renovations and energy efficiency improvement projects. It also builds and rehabilitates multifamily housing and single-family homes. In nearly four decades, NeDA has supported more than 20,000 families and helped 5,000 become homeowners, with a community impact of nearly $700 million. In addition, the organization has prevented about 3,000 foreclosures and developed $55 million in affordable housing. Through its Finance Center, it advocates for fair lending practices and equitable access to capital. In recent years, NeDA has helped more than 2,170 families through counseling and education and has provided $1 million in deferred loans for home rehabilitation.

The nonprofit recently secured a near-$1 million grant to provide low-interest loans ($17,000-$20,000) for 90 first-time homebuyers, and loans for repairs ($5,000-$15,000) for 30 more families. The program launches in February.

NeDA is under the leadership of Maria Steffel, who was named executive director in 2024 upon the retirement of Karen Reid, who served the organization for 25 years. Reid is credited with expanding NeDA’s financial advisory services, overseeing the construction and management of affordable housing, and establishing the Finance Center. Steffel, a native of Coahuila, Mexico, studied business administration at the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, and has dedicated her efforts to advocating for immigrants and marginalized communities in the private and nonprofit sectors. Before joining, she was the first executive director at Raíces Sagradas Community Mental Health. Previously she served as director of finance for Neighborhood House and controller and chief financial officer at Washburn Center for Children.

Steffel recounts the satisfaction of having closed the year with a flourish of awards and NeDA’s commitment to continuing its mission.

“I feel that these are signs that I am on the right path,” she said. “We also want to make sure that the community receives services in their language. We are working to be an agency that offers dignified services.”

In 2026, NeDA will say farewell to its associate director, Maritza Mariani, who has announced her retirement after more than three decades of service with the agency.