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| Industry News People
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Jan Breidenbach, executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing, has been named one of six recipients of the 2002 James A. Johnson Community Fellowship from the Fannie Mae Foundation. Breidenbach, who is also an NHI board member, was cited for her leadership of Housing LA, the campaign that resulted in Los Angeles’ recently enacted $100 million housing trust fund (see SF #122). She plans to devote her one-year fellowship to research on community development from an international perspective. Other awardees are: James Capraro, Greater Southwest Development Corporation in Chicago; Chuck Gatson, Community Builders of Kansas City, MO; Robert Jackson, Quitman County Development Organization, Marks, MS; Ron Phillips, Coastal Enterprises, Inc in Wicasset, ME; and Bill Sullivan, Rocky Mountain Mutual Housing Association in Denver. Three community development practitioners in New Jersey will bring their experience and perspective to state government. Sean Closkey, who has led St. Joseph Carpenter Society in Camden since 1993, will head the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. Pete Kasabach, director of housing development for Isles, Inc. in Trenton, will join Closkey’s staff. Lucy Voorhoeve, associate director of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, has been recruited to work on housing policy for the McGreevey administration. Joseph A. Kriesberg is the new president of the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations. He succeeds Marc Draisen, who has served in the position for seven years. HUD has appointed Raymond Jordan liaison to community and faith-based organizations in New England. Jordan, a former senior manager at HUD and Massachusetts state legislator, was also chairman and founder of a CDC in Springfield, MA and past chairman of the Springfield Urban League. |
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| Organizations & Initiatives | The Local Initiatives Support Corporation has received a $1.43 million, three-year grant from the Wachovia Foundation and a $1 million, two-year grant from Bank of America to fund urban and rural revitalization efforts in 22 sites throughout the United States. The grant will be used to channel money and business expertise to 2,200 nonprofit community development corporations involved in creating affordable housing, healthcare centers, child care facilities, businesses, jobs, and other services in distressed neighborhoods. The Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution has received a five-year, $2 million grant from the Fannie Mae Foundation. The new grant will enable the Center and the Foundation to expand their policy awareness work in the areas of urban demographics and trends, and to share research findings through marketing and online initiatives. As a part of the expanded relationship, they will conduct research and produce policy briefs and white papers on issues related to affordable housing and community development. www.brookings.edu and www.fanniemaefoundation.org. The U.S. Treasury Department has announced the first competitive round for the allocation of tax credits under the New Market Tax Credit program. During the first round, allocations of up to an aggregate total of $2.5 billion in quality equity investments in community development entities (CDEs) will be made. The program is designed for private sector investment in the economic development of low-income communities. Taxpayers are permitted to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in designated CDEs who, in turn, make investments in low-income communities. www.cdfifund.gov. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and City Council members have unveiled Re$tore Detroit!, a $1.8 million initiative for neighborhood and commercial development. Funds will be split among five community development corporations: Grandmont-Rosedale CDC, Jefferson East Business Association, Arab-American Chaldean Council 7 Mile, Mexicantown CDC, and NorthStar CDC. The groups will get up to $640,000 in matching grant funds to revitalize neighborhoods and commercial strips, including help with technical expertise and training. The American Library Association and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage have established a national campaign to provide homeownership information. The Path to Homeownership Begins @ your library™ initiative provides libraries nationwide with a list of reference materials and websites to help homebuyers make well-informed financial decisions. Participating libraries in Atlanta, Boston, Ft. Worth, Houston, Phoenix, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, DC will host free home buying and mortgage lending seminars. The list of reference materials will be available at local libraries, or by visiting www.ala.org/rusa/wellsfargo. Additional home buying information is available at www.wellsfargospecial.com; enter the code word homebuyer. The Baltimore Fund was launched in July with $10 million from the Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and has also drawn investments from local foundations and financial institutions. The fund, which will invest in companies that produce jobs for low-income Baltimore residents and provide a financial return for investors, will be part of a $50 million multi-state fund managed by TRF Urban Growth Partners, the venture capital arm of The Reinvestment Fund. In the next four years, The Baltimore Fund will select and invest in about 10 to 15 growth-oriented companies in Baltimore City and the surrounding five counties that promise to offer skilled manufacturing, technology, and service jobs to low-income workers. |
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