The national prevention awareness campaign sponsored by NeighborWorks America and The Ad Council is showing results. The Homeowner’s HOPE hotline, provided by the Homeownership Preservation Foundation (HPF) and involving many of the country’s largest mortgage market companies, answered 60,000 calls in the third quarter of this year. This is double the amount received in the previous quarter and ten times the amount answered in the same quarter of 2006.

“Troubled homeowners are more aware of our services because of the intense media coverage surrounding the foreclosure crises,” says Colleen Hernandez, president and executive director of the HPF in an article in DSNews.com.

NeighborWorks foreclosure solutions work continues to gain momentum at the regional and national levels. Ken Wade, NeighborWorks America CEO, joined Treasury Secretary Paulson and Housing Secretary Jackson this month in announcing a new national alliance to reach and help as many homeowners facing foreclosure as possible. HOPE NOW is a coordinated effort of counselors, mortgage market participants, and mortgage servicers.

NeighborWorks America, in partnership with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s National Housing Initiative, released the findings of eight national focus groups and proposed its recommendations on how to prevent Latino home foreclosures.

Some of NeighborWorks activities are focused on foreclosure "hotspot" states such as Michigan (see Ken Wade speech) and Ohio (see Forbes article). Last month, nearly 20 NeighborWorks organizations, located in New York, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico, held informational events in their communities urging residents to take action to prevent foreclosure.

Other activities are focused on developing new resources, such as a new foreclosure prevention video developed with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

This month, HUD issued two final rules of interest to the affordable housing industry. One authorizes the use of voucher homeownership assistance for the purchase of units not yet under construction at the time the family contracts to purchase the home. HUD asserts this revision will expand the housing choices available to families participating in the homeownership option under the Housing Choice Voucher program. View final rule [PDF].

Another ruling amends the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program regulations on the use of IHBG tenant-based assistance in low income housing tax credit properties. The rule makes clear that IHBG funds are to be treated like Section 8 housing choice vouchers in Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties. View final rule [PDF]

Since 1976, the National Park Service (NPS) has administered the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program, also known as "the 20 percent tax credit." In partnership with the Internal Revenue Service and with State Historic Preservation Offices, NPS has approved tens of thousands of rehabilitation projects, representing billions of dollars in private investment.

The incentives reward private investment in rehabilitating historic properties such as offices, rental housing, and retail stores. Abandoned or under-used schools, warehouses, factories, churches, retail stores, apartments, hotels, houses, and offices in many cities have been restored to life in a manner that retains their historic character. The Preservation Tax Incentives have also helped to create moderate and low-income housing in historic buildings.

The Incentives Web site presents important resources about the program to assist historic building owners, preservation consultants, community officials, architects and developers. View site.

Seats are filling up fast for our NeighborWorks Training Institute in Portland, Oregon. If you are interested in improving your community development skills or networking with peers from across the field, then this institute is an ideal venue for you and your career. We are offering more than 100 courses in a variety of community development subjects from foreclosure intervention to green building and healthy homes.

Some featured courses include:

• An affordable housing symposium — Taking Shared Equity to Scale: An Innovative Method to Grow and Preserve Affordable Homeownership — featuring keynote speaker Henry Cisneros, former HUD secretary and chairman, Cityview.
• A full week of resident services courses designed to enhance the quality of life for residents through programs and services.
• Board Oversight and Governance — an intermediate level course sharing valuable new information and tools to perform as outstanding members on a nonprofit board.
• Intermediate Economic Development Finance — the first course in National Development Council’s EDFP Certification Program offering best tips and techniques used by successful economic development practitioners to assist small businesses and create jobs.
• Essential Tools of the Trade: Neighborhood Analysis, Visioning and Planning for Action - a neighborhood analysis strategy course where participants explore various community participation techniques and organize and participate in a neighborhood visioning exercise.

For more information about NeighborWorks Training Institutes, visit www.nw.org/training. To register for the institute in Portland, Oregon, visit www.nw.org/onlinreg.

The Consortium for Housing and Asset Managements Annual Asset Management Professionals’ Conference will be held at the Trump Sonesta in Miami Beach, Florida. This is the only professional development and networking event devoted solely to building the capacity of affordable housing asset managers. To register, download the brochure [PDF].

Accepting Applications until January 28, 2008

NeighborWorks America is looking for its next group of inspired individuals to lead their organizations and communities into performance-driven change. Approximately 50 experienced leaders from community development organizations will be selected to participate in this highly innovative and challenging program, sponsored by Fannie Mae and created in collaboration with Harvard University. 
Visit www.nw.org/ae to learn more and to apply.

Over the past two months, the National Advisory Council has been actively promoting adoption of the National Industry Standards for Homeownership Education and Counseling at various events and meeting activities. The guidelines represent a baseline measurement for what stands as quality homeownership education and counseling. Nationwide support and adoption of these standards will spearhead stability industrywide in how homeownership training and counseling services are provided.

To date, over 50 organizations have listed their endorsement. To learn more about the National Industry Standards and how your organization can adopt them visit, www.homeownershipstandards.com.

Another resource, the Consumer Home Buying Guides, is a set of four manuals, available in a variety of languages, which focus on the various stages of the home buying process. Developed by the Fannie Mae Foundation, they deliver practical, specific and concise information in a user-friendly format. SPECIAL OFFER! Nonprofit and NeighborWorks organizations are eligible for a large number of complimentary Consumer Home Buying Guides in any combination of languages or titles.

Visit www.nwstore.org to purchase or learn more about each resource and how you can take advantage of the special offer for free Consumer Home Buying Guides.

With heating bills expected to rise throughout the United States this winter, NeighborWorks America and the NeighborWorks network are urging all homeowners to take advantage of opportunities to reduce their energy consumption and energy costs. View news release.
View checklist of Energy-Saving Tips [PDF , 104 KB]