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| Industry News |
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People
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HUD has named Robert L. Woodson, Jr. as chief of staff. Woodson will be in charge of programs promoting minority and low-income homeownership. He is the son of Robert Woodson, Sr., founder of the Center for Neighborhood Enterprise Development. The Bush administration has appointed Jim Towey to head the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Towey served as Florida’s director of health and rehabilitative services under the late Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles and also worked with Mother Teresa’s ministry for more than 10 years. In 1996, Towey founded the advocacy group Aging With Dignity. He succeeds John J. Dilulio, Jr., who resigned last year. (See article, this issue.) |
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| Organizations & Initiatives | The Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC) has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a demonstration project to advance healthy housing. CEHRC plans to award up to $1,000,000 in 12-month grants to qualified organizations to conduct outreach, training, and community building projects that identify, control, and prevent housing-related health hazards. The deadline for proposals is May 3, 2002; grants will be awarded in June. For further information and the RFP, visit CEHRC. The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) has awarded $8.8 million in loan funds to 47 nonprofit organizations to build 957 rural self-help homes. The Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP) administered by HUD provided $4.6 million, and additional funds came from other HAC loans. Organizations will use the loans to buy land and prepare sites on which low-income homebuyers will help build their own homes. Each borrower has committed to building a certain number of units; for those that meet their goals, 75 percent of the SHOP loan will be converted to a grant, which can be used to further subsidize existing homes or develop new homes. A list of the 47 awardees can be found at HAC's website. The Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing Association has received five grants totaling $70,000 to fund programs for 10 Colorado-based communities. The Helen K. and Arthur E. Johnson Foundation awarded the organization $25,000 to fund their Access to Opportunities program, which provides financial education and assistance, computer access, and youth and family programs. The Foundation for Financial Literacy provided $15,000 to support the work of Mutual Financial Services, an affiliate organization that offers workshops in management finance and guides participants toward homeownership and other financial goals. Awards of $10,000 came from the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation, Coors Foundation, and Excel Energy Foundation for staffing and operational costs. For more information, contact Lisa Cutter at RMMHA, 303-972-6275. Gateway, the computer technology giant, is donating up to 4500 used computers from the 2002 Winter Olympics to nonprofit organizations. Priority will be given to schools and community centers that enhance access to technology in under-served communities. Organizations must complete an online application to be considered; faxed or written applications will not be accepted. The application will be posted until July 31st on the Gateway website. The McAuley Institute has granted $50,000 to Heart of America Family Services to help women purchase their own homes. The grant will supplement down payments and closing costs for women who have escaped domestic violence, stabilized their lives, and successfully completed homebuyer counseling and training programs. The City of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Kauffman Foundation also provide support to the program. The grant is made possible through “Make It Your Own,” a joint effort of the McAuley Institute and the Fannie Mae Foundation and Corporation to help low-income women attain the benefits of stable, affordable homeownership. For more information, contact Rhoda J. Stauffer at the McAuley Institute, 301-588-8110 x250. The Enterprise Foundation, in partnership with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Building Museum, has launched “This House is Home,” an exhibit that will document through photography, oral history, and scholarship the effects of affordable housing on the poor. It hopes to foster dialogue about the desperate need for quality housing in America’s low-income communities. The exhibit will be on display starting in March 2002 in San Antonio, Texas, before traveling to Portland, Oregon, and rural North Carolina; it will culminate at the National Building Museum in 2004. For more information, contact Christopher Norbury, at The Enterprise Foundation, 212-262-9575 x113. Common Ground has launched its First Step Housing initiative, a program that offers homeless men and women an alternative to New York City’s congregate shelters and an easy-to-access substitute to life on the street. The program reinvents the traditional “lodging house,” offering private, safe, clean, and affordable short-term accommodations to individuals who are facing homelessness or are making the transition to permanent housing. The program will be located on the Bowery at the Andrews Hotel, which was recently purchased by Common Ground. Nearly $10 million has been committed to the initiative by Deutsche Bank, the Industrial Bank of Japan, the New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Corp., HUD, the New York City Department of Homeless Services, and Green Point Bank. For more information, contact Deborah Samuelson at Common Ground, 212-471-0859. |
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