Video Organizing

Cynthia Wiggins—A Community Leader in New Orleans

Cynthia Wiggins was introduced to housing organizing earlier on in life and has been ceaseless in her efforts to help her community.

Our “Women of Color on the Front Lines” video series has profiled some phenomenal women who are fighting for real change in communities like Detroit; Tacoma, Washington; and Santa Ana, California. We conclude our series in New Orleans.

This is Cynthia Wiggins, president of the Guste Homes Resident Management Corporation and the National Association for Resident Management Corporations.

Wiggins was introduced to her line of work earlier on in life, and for the last 30 years, she has been relentless in her efforts to help her community. She made a conscious decision to stay in the community she fights for daily so she sees its challenges first-hand. Wiggins walks out the words of our recently departed bell hooks: “What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.”

Take a moment to see life as Cynthia Wiggins sees it. Her story is just one of several in our collection featuring women of color who play a huge role in the transformation of communities across this country. If you know of a woman who should be featured, please contact us at [email protected].


Cynthia Wiggins’ story is part of Women of Color on the Front Lines, a video series produced by Shelterforce and Community Change. If you’re enjoying this series, please consider becoming a supporter. We can’t do this work without you.

About the Author

Avatar photo

Shelterforce

Shelterforce is the only independent, non-academic publication covering the worlds of community development, affordable housing, and neighborhood stabilization.

Avatar photo

Community Change

Tags

Comments

2 thoughts on “Cynthia Wiggins—A Community Leader in New Orleans”

  1. She is not for the community, at all she only see dollars signs……… We had a community event in the park on Martin Luther King Blvd, VOTERS REGISTRATION AND VOTERS EDUCATION and feeding the homeless….. She sent out the 6th district police to shut us down after she spoke with one of my co- workers and ok’ed the event…………….. Black people in power smh what a shame……..

    Reply

  2. With all respect to anyone that does not agree with the applied statement.
    I have been knowing Miss Wiggins all of my life. I’ve lived right across the court from where she lived. Miss Wiggins have always been a person of character. She didn’t believe in the mistreatment, and she always looked out for the youths coming up, and I was one of them. I watched her raise up the youths inside our community with passion and dedication.. And I personally want to thank her for everything that she has done for the community.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

All Organizing

  • Two people with paper bird masks hold dollar bills. One wears a sign that says "Rent stabilized apartments generated billion in net income for landlords last year."

    Are NYC’s Rent-Stabilized Buildings Really in Crisis?

    • Roshan Abraham

    June 24, 2026

    A two-year rent freeze, affecting about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in New York, was just approved. Before the freeze passed, landlords said their buildings wouldn’t survive it. But recent analyses suggest the real culprit behind distressed buildings is predatory equity, not rent stabilization.

  • A large, colorful mural painted on the exterior of a building. It says "WELCOME TO NOHO" in capital letters and depicts people of different ages, genders, races, and ethnicities dancing and playing music in front of different types of housing and community buildings, including apartment buildings, a health and fitness center, a theater, and a gallery. The building is set back from a public sidewalk, and part of a tree shades the right-hand side of the mural.

    How State Coalitions Are Advancing Community Ownership of Housing

    • Leo Goldberg
    • Miriam Zuk

    June 19, 2026

    In recent years, housing coalitions promoting community land trusts and real estate cooperatives have formed in multiple cities and states—and they are achieving results. Nonetheless, a lot of work is needed to achieve the policy changes these groups desire.

  • A webinar screenshot of three people. In the top-left corner is a white man with gray hair and dark eyebrows; he is wearing headphones, glasses, and a checkered shirt, and his background is blurred. In the top-right corner is a Hawaiian woman with dark hair; she is wearing glasses and a black t-shirt, and she is set against a screensaver of a tree-lined field. On the bottom is a white woman with brown hair; she is wearing a green floral top and large earrings, and she is set against a screensaver background of the earth viewed from space.

    What Does a Solidarity Approach to Housing Look Like? A Shelterforce Webinar

    • Steve Dubb

    June 10, 2026

    In this webinar, we examine what a solidarity economy approach is, what its principles are, how these principles are being applied presently, and how they might be applied more broadly to support housing justice and transformative economic change.