Affordable housing topped jobs and the economy as an issue of national urgency, according to a new poll released this week by the National Association of Realtors. The concern is at the highest point on record in the poll’s three-year history. “These poll results reflect concern about the increasing costs of homeownership, the barriers to ownership that consumers face, and the public will to address these barriers,” declared NeighborWorks America CEO Ken Wade. View press release.

"We are clearly seeing a spike in foreclosures in a number of our major urban areas," said Julie L. Williams, acting U.S. comptroller of the currency [and NeighborWorks America board member], whose agency regulates the nation's banks. "It can lead to a downward spiral for neighborhoods. If we are not careful, the American dream can quickly turn into the American nightmare." Williams said there may be no more immediate challenge facing community development today than the problem of foreclosures, and they represent a huge challenge for government, financial institutions, and nonprofits dedicated to the goal of expanding homeownership and saving at-risk communities. View OCC news release. View speech. [PDF]

NeighborWorks America is launching an initiative in Ohio to identify the most common causes of foreclosure and deploy effective prevention and intervention strategies. Ten NeighborWorks organizations across the state are teaming up to develop the program. View press release.

A recent KnowledgePlex online discussion focused on key foreclosure-prevention strategies. Bruce Gottschall, executive director of Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, discussed his group's collaboration with the city of Chicago and financial institutions to launch the Homeownership Preservation Initiative. Click here to access the archive of the session and the speakers' presentations.

The Municipal Cost of Foreclosures: A Chicago Case Study, by William C. Apgar, was recently published by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, Harvard University, Joint Center for Housing Studies. View report.  [PDF]

On June 15, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, and Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia and Independent Agencies drafted its Fiscal Year 2006 spending bill. While the full bill is not yet published, NeighborWorks America's proposed funding level for FY 2006 is $118 million, level with the President's request, and an increase of
$3 million over the FY 2005 enacted level.

Some other bill highlights include:

• HUD is funded at $37.5 billion, $1.547 billion above last year's level.
• Tenant-Based Section 8 vouchers are funded at $15.53 billion, $765 million over last year but $314 million below the administration's request.
• Project-Based Section 8 is funded at $5.10 billion, $210 million below last year and $16 million above the administration's request.
• CDBG would stay within HUD, at a level of $4.2 billion, of which $3.86 billion is in formula funds to entitlement communities and states, a reduction of $250 million from the amount for the formula last year.
• HOME is level funded at $1.9 billion, $41 million below the request, but increases the amount for the formula to participating jurisdictions by $60 million above the requested amount.
• The bill also allocates $1.34 billion for homeless programs, an increase of $100 million over last year, $285 million for Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), $741 million for Elderly Housing, and $238 million for Housing for Persons with Disabilities.
• The bill provides $28 million for LISC and Enterprise Foundation Section 4 capacity building, a
  $2 million reduction from FY 2005; and $55 million for CDFI Fund grants (level funding).
• HOPE VI, Brownfields, YouthBuild, and Section 108 loan guarantees are proposed for elimination in this bill.

This bill is just the beginning of the FY 2006 appropriations process. It now heads to the full appropriations committee markup (slated for later this month), followed by a floor vote before the full House. At the same time, the Senate appropriations subcommittee will draft its bill, which must follow the same process in the Senate. Then these two different bills will be conferenced and/or combined with other spending bills.

For more information, please visit www.house.gov/appropriations.

Bank of America Charitable Investments has designated $17 million for the second year of its Neighborhood Excellence Initiative to recognize, nurture, and reward organizations, local heroes, and student leaders helping to rebuild and revitalize communities in 38 of the bank's major markets across the country. The application deadline is June 30. See select areas and more info on BOA Web site.

NeighborWorks Training Institute is pleased to return to our nation’s capital to offer a week of comprehensive courses and an unequaled opportunity to learn from experts and peers in the field of community development. Learn more about the training institute in Washington, D.C.

Join us on Wednesday, August 24 for the symposium — The Next Generation of Homeownership Partnerships: What’s the Real Bottom Line? — hosted by NCHEC, the NeighborWorks Campaign for Home Ownership, and the NeighborWorks Insurance Alliance. Participants will leave this program with a real plan for how to develop new partnerships and enhance current ones to favorably impact their organization’s bottom line. Winners of the second annual Innovations in Homeownership contest, this year focused on partnership programs, will be announced at the close of the symposium.
Learn more about the symposium.

This advanced practitioner course is designed to provide mature organizations with long-tenured executive directors and/or board chairs an opportunity to analyze the organization's vulnerability to leadership change, think about various approaches to leadership change, develop systems to address their organization's situation, and assist those organizations to implement those systems during the six months following this three-day intensive course. This is a program for organizations committed to their ongoing development and excellence and will encourage participants to challenge themselves and invent new ways of operating their organizations. The application deadline is August 26. For more information about this course or the Advanced Practitioner Program, click here.

Using information from NeighborWorks organizations that offer homeownership education and counseling programs, this paper estimates the total costs of delivering homeownership education and counseling and discusses proven and implied benefits to stakeholders. View report. [PDF]

"You will be amazed what you can do with walls," report this Design Advisor. "They are much more than just the surfaces that hold up the roof and keep the weather out. They are most of what you see when you look at a building, and the character of your walls is in large part what people will remember as the character of your building." This design update looks at three developments that have paid attention to their walls and have used small design moves to add significant character to their buildings. www.designadvisor.org/updates

On Thursday, July 14 at 2 p.m., KnowledgePlex will feature the three affordable housing programs that are finalists for the Fannie Mae Foundation Innovations in American Government Award in Affordable Housing: The city of Los Angeles' Systematic Code Enforcement Program, The City of Minneapolis' Corridor Housing Strategy, and the state of Vermont's Housing and Conservation Board. For more information about the events, go to http://www.knowledgeplex.org/xchat.html.