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NeighborWorks CEO Declares 2005 a Year of
Unprecedented Opportunities to Empower Consumers
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As new and returning political leaders take their oaths of office this month, NeighborWorks CEO Kenneth D. Wade delivers a message of optimism for a year of unprecedented opportunities to empower more consumers and change the face of homeownership and financial independence in 2005. In a leading housing trade publication, Shelterforce, Wade stands apart in the housing advocacy crowd by declaring housing as an issue with an economic and social impact that transcends party lines. [Read full story]
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| Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day with Call for Increased Homeownership Education |
| On the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation CEO Kenneth D. Wade called on citizens to draw on King’s legacy of empowerment. “The dream of homeownership is part of Dr. King’s vision of equality and empowerment,” Wade said. “Yet even today too few homebuyers get the education and counseling they need to make the biggest financial transaction of their lives.” View press release. |
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| Student Essayists Prescribe Remedies to Homeownership Gap |
| Recently, Neighborhood Reinvestment's southern district sponsored an essay contest for students at historically black colleges and universities. The student essays are posted on the NeighborWorks Web site along with a photo of the winners. View. |
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| Waiting in Line for Affordable Housing in Sacramento |
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More than 500 low-income families lined up last week for a chance to qualify for one of 74 affordable apartment units developed by the Sacramento Mutual Housing Association, the Sacramento Business Journal reported.
More than 600 people so far have requested information about renting one of the Lemon Hill Townhomes being developed by the Sacramento MHA, a member of the national NeighborWorks network.
"We've never seen this kind of demand for affordable housing before," said Rachel Iskow, the association's executive director, in a news release. "Low-income people have had trouble finding safe housing for years, but there is desperation for these apartments that speaks clearly to the crisis in our community."
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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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| NeighborWorks of Western Vermont Awarded CDBG Grant for $473,000 |
NeighborWorks of Western Vermont (NWWV) was able to use a Neighborhood Reinvestment grant as leverage to receive $473,000 from the Vermont Community Development Program (CDBG funded).
NWWV plans to use the funds for administration and limited rehab for health and safety and energy efficiency. Fuel bills this time of the year can exceed house payments in Vermont.
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| Neighborhood Capital Corporation Increases Investments and Grants |
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Merrill Lynch Community Development Company, LLC, closed on a $2 million investment in Neighborhood Capital Corporation (NCC). The investment increases NCC's total loan capital to $9.2 million. In addition, the Fannie Mae Foundation provided NCC with a $50,000 operating support grant and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant for use as loan loss reserves.
Neighborhood Development Services in Ravenna, Ohio, is the latest NeighborWorks organization benefiting from NCC's loan capital. The organization recently received an $180,000 interim development loan from Neighborhood Capital Corporation for it Blades project, 11 new units of affordable housing.
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| AHC Opens 74 Units of Housing for Seniors |
| NeighborWorks member AHC, Inc., Arlington, Virginia, celebrated the grand opening of Hunter’s Park at Cherrydale, 74 new affordable apartments for independent seniors. |
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| Atlanta Study Shows Increasing Numbers of Black, Single Women Purchasing Homes |
| From 1997 to 2002, single black women in metro Atlanta secured more mortgage loans than single black men or even black couples, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. During the same period, mortgage loans to whites, Asians and Hispanics in the region mostly went to single men or couples. Atlanta-based Home Depot began courting female homeowners a year ago with "Do-It-Herself" workshops. About 200,000 women have taken the classes, which range from decorating to using power tools and installing patio tiles. |
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| Black Enterprise Features First-Time Home Buyers Programs for Wealth Creation |
In its January issue, Black Enterprise magazine featured first-time home buying programs, including NeighborWorks. As part of its Black Wealth Initiative, the magazine has placed home purchase as the top priority they recommend for wealth creation.
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| NHS of Southeastern Wisconsin Helping Hispanics to 'Sink Down Roots' |
| With nearly 15,000 Latinos, Racine County, Wisconsin, is home to the second largest Latino population in Wisconsin. Neighborhood Housing Services of Southeastern Wisconsin is helping some of these families acquire homes, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One- and two-story houses sell for $50,000 to $70,000. Often, children inherit the property from their parents or buy it for pennies on the dollar, sidestepping the mainstream real estate selling process.
“It’s pretty cool now. People are coming back,” said Mark Schultz, program director for the NHS, a NeighborWorks organization. “You see a lot of promise in the neighborhood.” NHS buys abandoned houses, rehabilitates them and sells them to low- or moderate-income households. View article. |
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| Advocate for the Underdog Rito Medina Dies;
Founded Tierra Del Sol |
| Rito Medina, 77, a longtime resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico, who spent much of his life trying to improve living conditions for poor Hispanics, died after a lengthy illness. He helped start many organizations including Tierra Del Sol Housing Corp. Rose Garcia, Tierra Del Sol executive director, called Medina "a real pioneer and risk taker. When the stakes were high he always helped the underdog; he went through fire for them." In 1995, Medina was one of four recipients of the Dorothy Richardson Award for community service, sponsored by Neighborhood Reinvestment. |
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| Washington Post: President Bush Plans Sharp Cuts in HUD Community Efforts |
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The White House will seek to drastically shrink HUD's $8 billion community branch, purging dozens of economic development projects, scrapping a rural housing program and folding high-profile anti-poverty eforts into the Labor and Commerce departments, according to an article on the front page of the January 14 Washington Post. The paper reports that the $4.7 billion Community Development Block Grant program could be cut as much as 50 percent. View article. Please address any questions about the federal budget process to the division of Public Policy and Legislative Affairs at Neighborhood Reinvestment. mbutchko@nw.org.
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| Gramlich Addresses Concerns Over Housing Prices and Subprime Lending |
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Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve governor and chairman of the Neighborhood Reinvestment board of directors, said that the central bank was monitoring housing prices but that it did not consider them to be at levels warranting any specific policy action, reports The New York Times.
Answering questions at a panel session on low-income housing organized by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Gramlich said housing prices were not by themselves a topic that monetary policy makers at the Fed considered. But he said the Fed was closely watching prices for homes. ''We are going to keep an eye on it,'' he said. He told the group that while it was possible that house prices were in a bubble, factors including a scarcity of land for building were among reasons explaining lofty prices.
He also signaled some concern about the subprime mortgage market, according to the Times. Subprime loans barely existed a decade ago and now make up about 25 percent of mortgages. ''This evolution of the subprime market has put a lot of people into homes while some of them are in trouble and may have been better renting,'' he said.
''There is a problem in the growth of mortgage brokers who don't have an incentive to make sure that a loan is repaid,'' he added. ''The incidence of mortgage brokers without a stake in the game is getting pretty big. That has created a significant problem: brokers not doing careful underwriting and much higher delinquencies and defaults.''
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| Credit Counseling Agencies Come Under Scrutiny on Several Fronts |
All is not well in the credit counseling industry, reports Bankruptcy Bulletin this month. In March 2004, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Government Oversight Committee held a hearing and released a staff report on the problems that were emerging, including large profits being reaped by the for-profit arms of credit counseling agencies. View report [PDF] The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has drafted the Uniform Consumer Debt Counseling Act for discussion. Click here.
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| Enterprise Foundation - Green Communities Initiative, Rolling Deadline |
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The Enterprise Foundation's Green Communities Initiative is offering grants in the range of $15,000 - $50,000 over the next five years to total $550 million. Green Communities will provide financing to developers for more than 8,500 rental and for-sale homes that promote health, conserve energy and natural resources, and enhance access to jobs, schools and services. Grant Process
Grant Guidelines
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| Leadership Award, February 18 |
| The Independent Sector invites nominations for the Leadership IS Award. The Leadership IS Award acknowledges an organization that incorporates the development of future leaders of the independent sector, in its policies and daily operations to build communities. The recipient of the Leadership IS award receives an award statuette and a gift of $10,000. The deadline is February 18. For more information, go to the Independent Sector Web site. |
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| HUD - Emergency Capital Repair Grants
Multifamily Housing for the Elderly
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HUD is offering grants for emergency capital repair needs related to items that present an immediate threat to the health, safety, and quality of life of the tenants. Eligible Applicants: Nonprofit owners of eligible projects.
2005 Funding: $10 Million Grants: Up to $500,000. Contact: Aretha Williams, director, Grant Policy & Management Division, Office of Housing, HUD. Phone: 202-708-3000.
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Regional Training Institute in Denver, February 2005 —
Act Now – Registration Deadline is January 18th! |
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The Rocky Mountain District’s Regional Training Institute (RTI) will be held February 7-11, 2005, in Denver, Colorado. Featuring intensive core and specialized education in all aspects of affordable housing and community development, the Rocky Mountain RTI will offer a symposium and other content related specifically to issues facing the region. While the event focuses primarily on Rocky Mountain states and Texas, courses in the Native American, homeownership and community lending, and rural subject areas are open to a national audience. View information.
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| NeighborWorks Training Institute in Minneapolis,
April 18-22
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The catalog for the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Minneapolis has just been published. If you don’t normally receive a catalog but would like to be included on our mailing list, please call (800) 438-5547 or e-mail nti@nw.org. Here's a preview of the Institute:
- More than 70 courses in all aspects of community development and affordable housing.
- A special symposium – When Gentrification Comes Knocking: Navigating Social Dynamics in Changing Neighborhoods – that provides a day of group discussions, best-practice workshops and self-assessment and situation-analysis tools.
- An expanded offering of Homeownership and Community Lending courses (presented by NCHEC, the NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling); including a Spanish language course in Homebuyer Education Methods
View information.
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| Out of Reach Report: Hourly Wages Continue to Lag Rent and Utility Increases |
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The latest “Out of Reach Report” from the National Low Income Housing Coalition details the hourly wages required to be able to afford typical apartments in different locations in the U.S. The report affirmed that wage increases have not kept pace with increases in rent and utilities across the country. View
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| State of Indian Nations Address, February 3 |
The 2005 State of Indian Nations Address will focus on a theme of promoting strong tribal self-governance and developing healthy economies for tribal communities. These remarks will advance concrete examples of the impacts of tribal governance on key areas of economic development, education, health care, infrastructure, homeland security and law enforcement, and offer solutions for addressing the core quality of life issues tribes are facing in their communities today. The address will be posted at
www.ncai.org.
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| The American Planning Association |
The American Planning Association recently made available more than 100 articles and documents related to affordable housing — dubbing the collection the "Affordable Housing Reader." www.planning.org/affordablereader
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| KnowledgePlex: NIMBY Issues Subject of Jan. 26 Chat |
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Join KnowledgePlex® and two practitioner experts Wednesday, January 26 at 2:30 p.m. ET for an online discussion on NIMBY issues. This session will focus on how practitioners, policy-makers, and other stakeholders can pre-empt or manage perceptions and concerns that lead some local actors to say "Not In My Back Yard" to affordable housing and community development projects. NIMBYism touches on a wide range of issues including public attitudes toward affordable housing, the government approval process, physical design, and property values. www.knowledgeplex.org
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