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New England Consumers Get a Boost in the Fight Against Predatory Lending
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New England consumers will soon receive much-needed help combating predatory lending thanks to a joint venture between the TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation and NeighborWorks America. TD Banknorth awarded nearly $200,000 to NeighborWorks America to create public awareness and educational training modules related to predatory lending practices and other avoidable drains on financial resources that have increasingly targeted the elderly and low-income families. The training and awareness campaigns will be piloted in four New England states: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. View News Release.
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| Raising Awareness of the Rising Tide of Foreclosures |
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Building on its long experience with homeownership counseling and education, NeighborWorks America last year joined forces with the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) to augment a nationwide system for homeownership preservation and foreclosure prevention. Now HPF has launched a multi-media public service advertising program that aims to reach homeowners nationwide with an alert and a way for consumers to get help by calling
888-995-HOPE. To view the TV public service announcements and learn more about the HPF and localization possibilities for the public service announcements, go to www.hpfonline.org. For more on the toll-free hotline and its web site, go to www.995HOPE.org. For more on the NeighborWorks America and HPF partnership, view
News Release.
NeighborWorks resources on foreclosure prevention.
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Colorado Foreclosures Up; Pueblo NeighborWorks
and Local Officials Host Public Forum
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| Colorado currently ranks second in foreclosure rates, behind Florida. In Pueblo, Colorado, foreclosures are running up to four times as high as in the late 1990s, reports the Pueblo Chieftan. Pueblo County Public Trustee Peggy Foley said more people appear to be buying houses too expensive for their budgets. Other reasons, she said, are divorce, death of a spouse, job loss or household income reduction, major illness, major car or home repairs, too much debt and/or poor money management and predatory lending. To help people avoid being ensnared in predatory schemes, Foley said her office, the Pueblo district attorney's office and Pueblo NeighborWorks are hosting a free public forum, "Avoiding Foreclosure and Predatory Lending," March 4 at the Pueblo Convention Center. |
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| Community
Strategies represent the shared experience of NeighborWorks
America and its member organizations in various topics
of community development and affordable housing. |
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| The
NeighborWorks Training
Institute is dedicated to providing the highest quality training
for community development practitioners. Learn about the latest
classes and symposia on leading-edge topics. |
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| NeighborWorks America produces a wide-variety of publications. Most
are free and others cost a nominal fee to order. For a complete
listing and order forms, go to NeighborWorks Publications. |
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| Novelist John Grisham and Partners Help to Rebuild Pass Christian, Mississippi, Through Home Again Program; NeighborWorks Participating in Second Pilot Program |
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Homeowners in the Hurricane Katrina ravaged
city of Pass Christian, Mississippi, will soon have access to the “one-stop” housing
repair and financing services of the “Home Again” program. The program was created by Enterprise
Community Partners and Enterprise Corporation of the Delta (ECD) with
$1.3 million from the Rebuild the Coast Fund, a charity founded by Renee and John
Grisham, the Home Depot Foundation and an anonymous donor. Enterprise, ECD and NeighborWorks America are working on a second pilot in another
Mississippi coastal community, and NeighborWorks America has committed resources to
help expand Home Again.
The Home Again program uses the NeighborWorks education and counseling model,
which covers a full-range of homeownership issues to ensure families make the most of
the biggest investment of their lives. For example, Mississippi residents will have access
to NeighborWorks guidance in making repairs, rebuilding, refinancing, redevelopment of
neighborhoods, improvements in safety and more. View news release. [PDF]
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| Network Member Rural Opportunities Inc. Building Affordable Homes in Indiana |
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NeighborWorks member Rural Opportunities Inc. (ROI) is building affordable homes in Selma, Indiana. The construction marks the first time ROI is helping first-time home buyers in Indiana with home building rather than assisting with the purchase of existing homes, according to The Star Press. Participants are attending workshops to learn how to improve their credit, and to learn how to qualify for grants and loans. Qualifying applicants are eligible for $15,000 in grants from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and from NeighborWorks of America — grants which require that the buyer stay in the home for 10 years. Stuart Mitchell, president of ROI, said new construction is an important strategy that ROI has also used in New York, Pennsylvania, and in New Jersey (with modular homes).
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| 200 Public Housing Tenants in Queens, New York, Moving Toward Homeownership |
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Bringing bag lunches to work and not buying new shoes every payday are helping Rosemary Allette gain the buying power she needs to own her own home after living 25 years in public housing, reports the New York Daily News. The mother of three, who works two health care jobs, hopes to become a homeowner within two years, now that she has cleaned up her credit with the help of East River Development Alliance Homeownership Initiative. The recently launched East River initiative is administered in partnership with Neighborhood Housing Services of Northern Queens, Chase Bank and the Freddie Mac Foundation.
"Owning a home will give me a purpose in life; to see what I've been working for all these years," said Allette, 46, who lives in the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City. "Instead of spending, I'm saving."
About 200 western Queens residents have signed up to participate in the homeownership initiative, which is being offered to tenants of the Queensbridge, Ravenswood, Woodside and Astoria public housing developments.
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| NeighborWorks of Western Vermont Converts Old Building Into Housing |
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As Vermont communities look for ways to meet skyrocketing housing demands, one answer might be right under their noses, according to The Times Argus. In recent years, area housing agencies have had a number of successes renovating long-vacant historic buildings and converting them to affordable housing, and officials say they think the approach has a bright future.
The Tuttle Building in Rutland is one of the most widely known of such projects. NeighborWorks of Western Vermont, which provides home loans and funds for housing projects in Rutland, Bennington and Addison counties, has completed one in its home base of West Rutland and is planning another in Brandon.
"We're just getting a grant to study Brandon High School on Seminary Hill," NeighborWorks director Ludy Biddle said. "It was built in 1916 and later abandoned. It's been vacant for 20 years." Biddle said the three-story, 17,000-square-foot building shows a lot of promise, and her organization is considering converting it into condominiums.
"It's 10 strides from downtown, across from a playground," she said. "It's wonderful."
View article.
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| Current Status of NeighborWorks America’s Federal Appropriation |
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President Bush released his FY 2007 Budget Request to Congress February 6. The president's FY 2007 budget request includes $120 million for NeighborWorks America. The Corporation was funded at $116,820,000 for FY 2006. "There's still a long way to go before Congress acts on the FY 2007 budget, but recognizing the difficult federal budget environment we’re in, we are very pleased to begin the process with this vote of confidence from the Administration" said Steve Tuminaro, director of Public Policy and Legislative Affairs for NeighborWorks America. The Corporation received a brief write-up in the president's budget, which includes a photo of a NeighborWorks Homeownership Center and a quote from NeighborWorks America CEO Ken Wade.
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| Ohio Attorney General Calls for Tougher Consumer Protection Laws |
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Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro called for passage of tougher consumer protection laws in Ohio, including predatory lending and home improvement offers. “We need tougher controls, for example, over home improvement contractors so we can weed out con artists who travel to Ohio to prey on our senior citizens,” Petro said.
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| HUD's Robert L. Woodson, Jr. Award, March 15 |
HUD is now seeking nominations from states and localities for the second annual Robert L. Woodson, Jr. Award. The Award is intended to recognize local communities for their outstanding leadership in reducing regulations that discourage affordable housing production.
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| Fannie Mae Foundation/Kennedy School of Government Fellowship, March 31 |
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Fannie Mae Foundation provides financial support for Harvard Kennedy School of Government fellows to participate in a program that supports the professional development of senior public and nonprofit officials committed to affordable housing.
The three-week program provides training for state leaders in critical areas such as capacity building, political strategy, values and policy analysis. Applicants must satisfy the admission requirements for acceptance to the Kennedy School of Government. More information.
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| 2006 Jim and Patty Rouse Award for Excellence in Community Revitalization, April 7 |
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Two organizations will be awarded $5,000 each in unrestricted funds for Enterprise Community Partners’ 2006 Jim and Patty Rouse Award for Excellence in Community Revitalization. Applicants must be members of the Enterprise Network. More information.
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NeighborWorks Training Institute ~ Dallas ~ April 3-7 ~ Register Before February 21 and Save!
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In Dallas, NeighborWorks is offering more than 80 professional courses in diverse areas of affordable housing and community development, along with an unprecedented array of Spanish-bilingual courses.
The April 5 symposium Before Disaster Strikes: Prepare or Beware - The Critical Role of Community Development Organizations in Disaster Preparedness and Response will address topics related to the result of recent natural disasters and how to prepare and recover from them.
Enroll in courses before February 21 and save $50 in registration fees. Get information on course offerings, registration deadlines, and more online at www.nw.org/training.
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| Achieving Excellence in Community Development, March 17 Application Deadline |
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NeighborWorks America, in collaboration with Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, offers this exclusive learning and performance program for experienced directors and other senior staff of nonprofit community development organizations. Learn more.
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The Nonprofit Housing Management Specialist, April 18-22, 2006 ~ San Antonio, TX
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The Nonprofit Housing Management Specialist (NHMS) is the entry-level certification course from The Consortium for Housing and Asset Management (CHAM). It is an intensive five-day introduction to asset management designed for property managers, community development corporation staff, and directors of property management who are building new systems. It helps property managers transition from the "how-to" to the "how well are we doing what we're doing?" system of good asset management. Learn more about the NHMS course agenda and registration.
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| NCRC Annual Conference, March 22-25, Washington, D.C. |
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The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), an economic justice trade association of 600 community organizations, is holding its annual conference. Entitled, “Economic Injustice: The Ongoing Hurricane,” the conference will feature several workshops on fundraising, using the media, affordable housing, economic development, leveraging financing from banks, rural development, financing for minority-owned businesses, and how to combat predatory lending and appraisals in your community. A conference wide-plenary session will highlight the leading thinkers and practitioners on combating concentrated poverty and re-building after natural disasters. More about the conference.
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| Home Value Protection |
| Home Value Protection: Final Report was recently published by NeighborWorks America and Home HeadQuarters, Inc., a Syracuse, New York, NeighborWorks organization. The report provides an overview of a home value protection product and an evaluation of the practicality of making such a product more widely available. View. [PDF, 183 KB] |
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| Strategies for Preventing Homelessness |
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HUD has released Strategies for Preventing Homelessness, a report outlining the elements of successful homelessness prevention programs in six communities. The areas included in the study are: Hennepin County, Minnesota; Montgomery County, Maryland; Metro Kansas City; Metro Boston and Western Massachusetts; Philadelphia; and Denver. The report evaluates the efficacy of a diverse array of programs using data provided by agencies serving these areas. In an across-the-board comparison, the researchers then identify elements and strategies that worked in all locations.
View report
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| Homeward Bound: An In-Depth Look at Asian Homebuyers in the United States |
| Asians represent the second-fastest growing minority population in the United States. Although many of these immigrant households will become homeowners in the coming decades, very little is known about this growing market. To gain a better understanding of the cultural norms and expectations of Asian first-time home buyers, Freddie Mac conducted focus groups involving Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Filipino, and American-born Asian consumers and real estate professionals. Although the study revealed many differences among ethnicities, this report highlights recurring themes across groups that may lead to a greater understanding of the needs and expectations of Asian consumers. View report. [PDF] |
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| Tackling Neighborhood Poverty and Other Articles from the San Francisco Fed |
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The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco has published its latest Community Investments Online.
View publication.
This issue looks at the challenges facing low-income neighborhoods and explores some of the principles underlying successful integrated approaches to community development.
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