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| Study Concludes
Homeownership Is Main Path to Wealth for Lower Income and
Minority Americans
Well over one-half of the personal wealth held by lower income
and minority homeowning households represents home equity,
and their wealth is far greater than that of comparable non-homeowning
households, concludes a study prepared for the Consumer Federation
of America (CFA) and released by CFA and national housing
groups including Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation. The
groups announced a new “Build Wealth Through Homeownership”
initiative that is part of a broader America Saves campaign
to help low- and moderate-income households save and build
wealth.
Margaret Kelly, interim executive director of Neighborhood
Reinvestment, said: “The NeighborWorks approach is to
ensure that homebuyers receive beneficial prepurchase counseling
– including Financial Fitness education – as well
as post-purchase counseling and assistance. The America Saves
program helps emphasize the importance of savings –
before and after the purchase of a home – as a vital
element in the family’s overall financial well being.”
Read
study [PDF].
Comprehensive Training Program To Increase Native American
Homeownership Launched by NeighborWorks Training Institute
and Wells Fargo
Backed by a $740,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation,
the NeighborWorks Training Institute held in San Francisco
last week launched its first comprehensive training program
to empower affordable housing and community development leaders
to strengthen Native American communities through homeownership.
The Wells Fargo grant includes $300,000 for scholarships that
will enable more than 180 leaders to attend courses over the
next three years.
Read
press release.
NHS of Los Angeles Responds to Storm Damage
At least 125 homeowners are trying to recover from a freak
storm that dropped hail and more than five inches of rain
in the south end of Los Angeles last month. NeighborWorks
member Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services is assisting
the homeowners by replacing drywall and providing other assistance.
National Public Radio Features Segment on HANDS
The problem property/home ownership efforts of HANDS, a Orange,
New Jersey NeighborWorks organization, were profiled last
month on NPR radio (All Things Considered). Executive Director
Pat Morrissy was interviewed along with some neighborhood
residents, and board member Liz Jackson is heard leading a
home-buyers class. The audio can be heard online with an audio
player. Click
here .
Is There an Apartment Glut?
While rents have continued to rise in many big cities on the
coasts, including New York and Los Angeles, they are falling
in more than 80 percent of metropolitan areas across the country,
reports the New York Times in a Nov. 25 article.
"Low interest rates in recent years have persuaded many
families to move out of rented apartments and buy their first
homes at the same time that developers have been putting up
thousands of new rental buildings, leaving many landlords
desperate to fill apartments," states the article.
The annual "State of the Nation's Housing" report,
published earlier this year by the Joint Center for Housing
Studies of Harvard University, mentions a softening of some
rental markets since 1999. "High vacancy rates in some
locations have pushed rents down or prompted landlords to
offer concessions to attract tenants—especially for
newer and higher-end rental units." Over the longer term,
the Joint Center predicted "rental housing demand should
grow even if the national homeownership rate continues its
steady ascent. The number of renter households is currently
expected to increase by about a million in each of the next
two decades." |
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| Community
Strategies represents the shared experience of the NeighborWorks
network and Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation 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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| Neighborhood
Reinvestment, working closely with members of the NeighborWorks
network and partners, 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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| Find lists
and charts on Neighborhood Reinvestment and the NeighborWorks
network organizations. |
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| Atlanta Falcon
Warrick Dunn’s ‘Homes for the Holidays’ Initiative
Teams With
Clearwater (Florida) Neighborhood Housing Services Atlanta Falcons running
back Warrick Dunn's “Homes for the Holidays” initiative
surprises new homeowners in low-income areas with the gift of a
downpayment and home furnishings. Isay Gulley, president of Clearwater
Neighborhood Housing Services, Florida, nominated Tatishka Thomas,
26, of Clearwater, Florida, for the program without her knowledge,
after the NHS, a NeighborWorks organization, prepared Thomas for
homeownership. Thomas didn't know about Dunn's gift until she and
two children arrived at the home she was purchasing, a 1,276-square-foot
home priced at $109,000. View
article. Chicago
Principal Moves Into Neighborhood Elementary School
Principal Sandra Traback recently contacted a representative from
Neighborhood Housing Services Chicago to help her purchase a property
two blocks from her school. The NeighborWorks organization was buying
and rehabbing abandoned, vacant buildings and homes and selling
them to homeowner occupants. Many of them had been prime spots for
drug trafficking and other crime. Said the new homeowner: "A lot
of my kids live on this block. They wave. Everyone is looking out
for me."
Read
article . Neighborhood Capital Corporation
Funds Two NeighborWorks Projects
NeighborWorks member MHA of South Central Connecticut has begun
a new affordable senior housing project, assisted by a $505,000
interim development loan from Neighborhood Capital Corporation (NCC).
The 15-unit Kirham project will be developed in Branford, Connecticut.
Nuestra Comunidad Development Corporation, a Boston NeighborWorks
organization, recently received a $150,000 pre-development loan
from NCC for The Edgewood, a 54-unit affordable housing project
in the Roxbury neighborhood.
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| President
Bush Nominates Alphonso Jackson as New HUD Secretary
President Bush has nominated Alphonso Jackson to become the
13th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As HUD's deputy secretary for nearly three years, Jackson
will continue the Administration's housing and community development
agenda begun under former Secretary Mel Martinez who recently
resigned. Read
HUD press release
American Dream Downpayment Act Passed
President Bush signed The American Dream Downpayment Act providing
first-time low-income homebuyers (plus policemen, firefighters,
and teachers required to live where they work) with grants
of up to $5,000 (on average) to assist with downpayment and
closing costs. The bill was signed by the President, December
16 at a ceremony at HUD. Neighborhood Reinvestment (represented
by Michael Butchko) participated as one of the national partners
in the White House Minority Homeownership Initiative. The
Act requires participating jurisdictions to provide for homeownership
counseling for homebuyers likely to receive grants. Read
HUD press release
New Fair Credit Reporting Act Features Improvements
The new Fair Credit Reporting Act amends previous versions
to prevent identity theft, improve resolution of consumer
disputes, improve the accuracy of consumer records, and make
improvements in the use of, and consumer access to, credit
information.
For more information on either of these bills, please contact
Michael Butchko in Neighborhood Reinvestment’s Office
of Public Policy and Legislative Affairs: mbutchko@nw.org
Neighborhood Reinvestment Appropriations
Update
The House of Representatives passed the FY 2004 omnibus appropriations
bill (HR 2673), December 8, by a 242-176 roll call vote. NR's
Office of Public Policy and Legislative Affairs provides this
update:
* Neighborhood Reinvestment is funded through January 31,
2004 by a continuing resolution (PL 108-135).
*The bill funds Neighborhood Reinvestment "for use in
neighborhood reinvestment activities, as authorized by the
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Act (42 U.S.C. 8101–8107),
$115 million of which $5 million shall be for a multi-family
rental housing program." The conference committee included
an across-the-board rescission of 0.59 percent. If this rescission
remains as part of the final bill approved by the House and
Senate, when applied to Neighborhood Reinvestment, it would
result in a total FY 2004 appropriation of $114,321,500. The
House has adjourned until January.
*Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist delayed Senate consideration
of this bill until January 20, 2004.
The Senate has 11 calendar days (or a maximum of nine working
days) to debate and approve the measure in January. During
this time the President will make his State of the Union address.
If the bill is not approved before January 31, another continuing
resolution will be necessary.
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| Maxwell
Awards of Excellence Deadline Jan. 23
Applications are now being accepted for the 15th Round Maxwell
Awards of Excellence, sponsored by The Fannie Mae Foundation.
The program showcases the outstanding work of nonprofit organizations
in developing and maintaining affordable housing. As in previous
years, six affordable housing projects will each receive a
$50,000 award for excellence in the production of affordable
housing: one each in the categories of homeownership, rental
and special needs housing, and three projects will be recognized
in the special "Innovative Projects" category. The
category will recognize projects of all types that engage
organizations and institutions not traditionally involved
in housing to build on and leverage a community's assets.
Organization from across the country are invited to submit
applications for projects. The application deadline is January
23, 2004. For more information, click
here.
National Endowment for Financial Education
Deadline April 6
The National Endowment is accepting proposals for programs
to educate the public (especially young people and members
of underserved, low-income groups) on how to better manage
personal finances.
Proposed projects should encourage personal savings and investment
as a means to financial security.
The average grant is $50,000. For more information, click
here. |
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| Training
Institute in Atlanta to Feature Symposium "Achieving
Excellence in Community Development"
Don't miss the NeighborWorks Training Institute symposium,
"Achieving Excellence in Community Development: Investing
in Leaders, Returning Results" to be held on Thursday,
February 26 in Atlanta. This symposium will feature an interactive
session on achieving excellence in your organization and in
the communities you serve. This special symposium will feature
nationally recognized experts, such as renowned authors Douglas
K. Smith and Christine Letts. Learn valuable tools and strategies
on the use of performance measures. Transform your organization
and prepare for the next five years! This symposium is part
of Neighborhood Reinvestment’s Advanced Practitioner
Program (APP).
View
More Information
Download
Registration Form [PDF]
Two Home Ownership Courses to be Offered in Spanish at Training
Institute in Atlanta
To meet the growing demand for Spanish-speaking practitioner
training, NeighborWorks Training Institute is offering two
courses in Spanish at the Institute in Atlanta: "Métodos
de Educación para Compradores de Casa: Adiestrando
al Adiestrador" (5-day course) and "Consejería
para el Comprador del Hogar" (2-day course). If you are
a predominately Spanish-speaking community development practitioner
working with a growing Latino population, these courses will
help you learn important skills and tools. Translation of
these courses made possible by MetLife Foundation.
View
More Information (en Español) Download
Registration Form [PDF]
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| Introducing
Nstep: NeighborWorks Solutions to Enhance Performance
Nstep is a new software tool that will enable NeighborWorks
organizations to work smarter by improving their service delivery
systems, increasing efficiency, and enabling them to manage
and report performance more effectively. It comes with a “state
of the art” system called QuickLetters for tracking
customers so attrition rates are reduced and production is
increased. Nstep’s Counseling Module is second to none
as it provides the capability to establish and track both
group and individual counseling sessions with a simple click
of the mouse! It even includes all of the tools that counselors
need to assist families in overcoming the obstacles to homeownership;
these tools make results-oriented counseling as easy as 1,2,3!
These are but a few of the features of Nstep. More information
including access to training videos is available at www.nw.org
in the members login area. In early 2004 network members will
be able to experience Nstep via the web--stay tuned for more
about that and for more detailed information about the upcoming
release of this dynamite new tool for the NeighborWorks network.
For more information, contact Donna Tally, dtally@nw.org.
KnowledgePlex Chat on Workforce Housing Scheduled with Nicolas
Retsinas, Jan. 6
KnowledgePlex.org will kick off the new
year with an online chat about workforce housing on Tuesday,
January 6, at 3 p.m. Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of Harvard
University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, will
moderate the chat. Joining him as featured guests will be
several participants in a recent workforce housing seminar
at Harvard. They will discuss policy challenges and opportunities
in developing workforce housing, as well as practitioner ideas
and experiences.
You must be a registered user of KnowledgePlex to view the
chat or to submit questions or comments. (To become a registered
user, click here.)
To access the chat, log in to www.knowledgeplex.org,
and click on the green Discussion tab at the top of the home
page. Next, click on Live Chat in the upper right area of
the screen. Select the Rooms tab in the chat box, and then
click on Workforce Housing. For questions about accessing
the chat, please e-mail chat@knowledgeplex.org.
Rethinking Local Affordable Housing Strategies:
Lessons from 70 Years of Policy and Practice
This joint effort by the Brookings Center
on Urban and Metropolitan Policy and the Urban Institute examines
the efficacy of major affordable housing approaches over seven
decades in promoting healthy communities and families. The
report includes an extensive literature review on the evolution
and effectiveness of rental assistance programs, homeownership
programs, and land use and regulatory policies and an "action
agenda" for local and regional leaders interested in
crafting informed affordable housing strategies. View
summary.
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