By TRACEY DRURY
tdrury@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1609

Two nonprofit housing organizations on Buffalo's East Side have expanded a collaboration to include shared space and a shared leader.

John Murphy was named executive director for both HomeFront Inc. and Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services.

In spring, Homefront moved from its Delaware Avenue offices to the building owned by Broadway Fillmore NHS at 780 Fillmore Ave., with Murphy joining the two agencies Aug. 8.

He comes in with extensive experience at Chautauqua Home Rehabilitation and Improvement Corp., where he served as executive director for 10 years. Under his leadership, agency revenues more than doubled to $5 million and a series of housing programs was implemented.

The Southern Tier agency works with low-income homeowners in Chautauqua County, as well as seniors and the disabled. Programs included first-time homeowner counseling programs, foreclosure prevention counseling and loan programs for work-related transportation expenses.

Homefront and Broadway Fillmore NHS provide very similar programs with funding from the state state and federal sources. Homefront, with revenues of about $1.1 million last year, focuses on neighborhood revitalization and homeownership. Broadway Fillmore NHS operates on a budget of about $300,000, with programs focusing on stabilization and revitalization of the East Side neighborhood, including loans for rehabilitation of owner-occupied homes.

Murphy says he'll spend some time assessing the needs of both organizations, then determine how they can best complement one another. Though it's a small agency, he says he was pleasantly surprised by Broadway Fillmore NHS' lending capacity.

"When I look at the two organizations, there's potential," he says. "The first charge is to take an organizational assessment of both organizations to see where there may be duplication, where there's strengths and where there's opportunities."

Born in Buffalo, Murphy grew up in Derby so he's familiar with the area, even though he spent the past decade working in the Southern Tier, a largely rural area. He says he's hoping to take his grant-writing skills from Chautauqua and apply them at Homefront and Broadway Fillmore NHS, then determine the best ways to invest available funding in the neighborhood.

"A nonprofit's role is not to compete with the private sector, but get it to the point of change where then the private sector feels their investment would be safe and secure," he says.