November/December 1997

Access: Publications & Resources

• The National Directory for Community Economic Development provides information on over 2,000 organizations in a state-by-state directory, cross-referenced in five indices. National Congress for Community Economic Development (NCCED) member organizations, and state associations also listed. $50 prepaid plus $5 S&H. Contact NCCED, 11 Dupont Circle, Ste. 325, Washington, DC 20036; 202-234-5009.
   
• At Your Fingertips: An Annotated Bibliography for CED Practitioners, a summary of literature and other resources published in the last ten years in the community economic development field, is available for $20 from NCCED. Contact Robin Green-Calloway, NCCED [address above].
   
• Budgeting for Community Development Organizations, a publication from The Enterprise Foundation–including a computer disk of sample budgets and tips–to help community and housing development organizations, property managers, and supportive organizations produce effective budgets, is available for $15. Contact 410-772-2441 or www.enterprisefoundation.org
   
• Building Sustainable Communities: Best Practices in Community Development Lending, the National Association of Affordable Housing Lender's latest publication, highlights twelve models with replicable financing packages for affordable housing and community development through narrative and financial profiles for policymakers, institutional investors, developers, the media, and lenders. Contact NAAHL, 1050 17th St., NW, Suite 950, Washington, DC 20036; 202-861-5770.
   
• Life in the City: A Status Report on the Revival of Urban Communities in America takes an in-depth look at six communities across America, examines perceptual problems and the role of neighborhoods in revitalization and forecasts challenges to policymakers for low-income community-led neighborhood redevelopment. Co-sponsored by the Center for National Policy and the Local Initiative Support Coalition. Contact CNP, One Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20001.
   
• Boundary Crossers: Community Leadership for a Global Age, by Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson, illustrates 10 key lessons of capacity building and leadership development with stories from cities and towns around the US. $7.50 from The Academy of Leadership Press, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7715.
   
• Linked Future: Building Metropolitan Communities, a report on a broad-based conference sponsored by the American Project of The Carter Center, summarizes and provides background and context for the challenges facing urban centers and residents of the inner city. Relates issues of race, class, access to opportunity and the value of social capital. Contact: Elise Eplan, Director, The American Project, One Copenhill, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307; 404-881-3450.
   
• Racefile's special July-August 1997 issue, "Housing Divided" (vol. 5, no. 4), looks at failures and successes in low-income housing integration. Racefile is a project of the Applied Research Center, published bimonthly, providing a critical assessment of reporting on racial issues in the established and community press. Subscriptions: $48 indiv., $180 institutional. Contact ARC, 1322 Webster St., Ste. 402, Oakland, CA 94612.
   
• Housing and Urban Development: Use and Oversight of the Economic Development Loan Fund, examines trends in the use of the Community Development Block Grant Program by large and small communities in response to the program's increase in available funds since 1993. Publication # GOA/RCED-97-195, Aug. 20. First copy free; addl. copies $2 each. Contact US General Accounting Office, Reports and Testimony, Office of Public Affairs, P.O. Box 37050 Washington, DC 20013; 202-512-6000; info@goa.gov; www.gao.gov
   
• Information Dynamics and CRA Strategy, a study of the economics of scale in mortgage lending in low-income and minority areas, concludes that pooling of resources among community development banks, loan consortia, and restrictive CRA lending by fewer institutions per area could increase approval of marginal loans by increasing critical mass. Contact Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland; 216-579-3079.
   
• Credit to the Community: The Role of CDCUs in Community Development, from the Woodstock Institute, analyzes the diverse impacts and contributions of eight community development credit unions (CDCUs). Designed to help CDCUs develop and implement new community development programs and form collaborations with community organizations, intermediaries, trade associations, and banks. $12 for nonprofit/government, $25 for for-profit. Contact the Woodstock Institute, 407 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605; 312-427-8070; woodstck@wwa.com
   
• The Community Builders Guide to Telecommunications Technology is a report on lessons learned by local community initiatives in implementing and understanding new technologies and competencies, undertaken by the National Community Building Network (NCBN) and the Center for Human Resources at Brandeis University. Contact NCBN c/o Urban Strategies Council, 672 Thirteenth St., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-893-2404; network@nbcn.org; www.ncbn.org
   
• Designing Safer Communities: A Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Handbook, published by The National Crime Prevention Council, provides hands-on advice about the application of its principles for crime prevention and community policing. Includes sample survey forms, planning guidelines, resource lists of organizations, literature, and experts. $21.95 plus S&H. Contact 800-NCPC-911.
   
• Where the Jobs Are: How Labor Conditions in the New York Area Will Affect the Employment Prospects of Public Assistance Recipients, from Community Service Society (CSS) of New York, examines welfare-to-work issues and ways to improve job prospects and the near-term outlook. $12. Contact CSS, Office of Information, 105 E. 22nd St., NY, NY 10010; 212-614-5314.
   
• New York City: A Basic Guide to Services and Community Resources provides quick and easy access to over 750 city and community groups organized under 93 subject headings. $15. Contact CSS [address above].
   
• Unequal Slices: The Distribution of Government and Private Funding Sources in New York City is a study commissioned by Queens College, The City University of New York, of forces influencing the distribution of $3 billion in public and private moneys. 152 p., $35. Contact: 212-353-1379.
   
• Social Policy, the magazine about movements, examines life in the cities in its Vol. 27, No. 4 issue. Seven urban specialists respond to Harvey Robins' paper questioning whether life is better for the average New Yorker. $5 per issue, or by subscription. Contact: Social Policy, room 1212, 33 W. 42nd St., NY, NY 10036; 212 354-8525; sopol@igc.apc.org
   
• "The New Urban Gamble" and "An Invisible Community: Inside Chicago's Public Housing," in The American Prospect, a Journal for the Liberal Imagination's Sept.-Oct. 1997 issue, look at two cities and their flawed strategies for regeneration. St. Louis has pinned its hopes on casino gambling while Chicago will tear down its high-rises in favor of newer public housing models. The downside of the initiatives are examined. $4.95 per issue or by subscription; reprints available. The American Prospect, PO Box 383080, Cambridge, MA 02238; E-mail info@prospect.org
   
• Residential Energy: Cost Savings and Comfort for Existing Buildings covers basic theory to practical application details for the consumer with technically advanced, up-to-date information. $35 from Saturn Resource Management, 800-735-0577; saturn@initco.net
   
• Linked Future: Building Metropolitan Communities, a report on a broad-based conference sponsored by the American Project of The Carter Center, summarizes and provides background and context for the challenges facing urban centers and residents of the inner city. Relates issues of race, class, access to opportunity and the value of social capital. Contact: Elise Eplan, Director, The American Project, One Copenhill, 453 Freedom Parkway, Atlanta, GA 30307; 404-881-3450.
   
• Directory of Operating Grants, 3rd ed. Is an essential research tool for locating only those organizations that award grants for salaries, rent, mortgage payments, utilities, office supplies, and additional overhead expenses. State-by-state arrangement of resources, subject index and featured article on proposal strategies for nonprofits seeking operating grants. $59.50 + $6.00 s/h. Contact: Research Grant Guides, Inc. Dept 3A, Box 1214, Loxahatchee, FL 33470; 561-795-6129.
   
• Housing Statistics of the United States (First Edition) contains about 200 detailed tables covering households & housing demand; housing stock, production and investment; housing finance; and federal housing programs. (Includes data from the 1995 "American Housing Survey"). Data is compiled from both federal and private sources. Patrick A. Simmons, Editor, 418 pp. For more information call 1-800-865-3457 or email to query@bernan.com
   
• The award-winning PBS series We Do the Work offers "Not in Our Town" and "Not in Our Town II" a profile the Billings, Montana response to racism and a follow-up chronicle of the impact in cities following its lead in anti-racist mobilization. Contact: Education Director, The Working Group, 510-547-8484, fax 510-547-8844 or e-mail wedothework@igc.org
   
• The National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources is accepting applications for member organizations. The nonprofit program distributes over $100 million worth of new, donated supplies to government agencies that serve the ill, needy or minors. Members pay dues of $275-$575 and may choose from a 250-page catalogue issued every ten weeks of items ranging from personal care products to office supplies, tools and hardware, clothing, and more. Information and application: 1-800-562-0955.
   
• A Blueprint for Action: A Resource for Promoting Home Modifications, available from HUD USER, provides valuable information and strategies for those working to make home modifications – and the universal design principles they embody – more widely available. It discusses the importance of home modifications and the key issues that impede their adoption. It also includes a list of available information resources. Available for $5 from HUD USER, P.O. Box 6091, Rockville, MD 20850; 1-800-245-2691; www.huduser.org
   
• The Empowerment Directory, published by the National Coalition for the Homeless, contains detailed descriptions of 31 known empowerment groups in the following categories: Arts/Writing/Entrepreneurship/Education, Community/Political Organizing, Employment, Homeless Leadership in Services, Mental Health Consumers, Policy/Advocacy, and Substance Abuse. Available for $5 from NCH, 1612 K St., NW #1004, Washington, DC 20006; 202-775-1322; or free from the web site at www.nationalhomeless.org.

• Now available on HUD's website:
• Revised data for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Database includes project addresses and has been geocoded, enabling researchers to look at the geographical distribution and neighborhood characteristics of tax credit projects.
• The winners of the HUD-Sponsored Spatial Distribution Of Assisted Housing Grant Competition, at www.huduser.org/research/giswin.html, are innovative research projects which further understanding about the characteristics of the neighborhoods in which federally-assisted housing is located and the effects of these characteristics on residents.
• Fair Market Rent (FMR) History file, containing all 2-bedroom FMRs from 1983 - Present. at www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html
• American Housing Survey Metropolitan Sample data at www.huduser.org/datasets/ahs/ahsdata97.html
• A Picture of Subsidized Households - 1997 at www.huduser.org/periodicals/rrr/3_98pdr.html
• Designation of Difficult Development Areas - at www.huduser.org/datasets/qct.html

 
• The Nonprofit Gateway, providing nonprofit organizations access to federal information and services including direct links to all Cabinet Departments and many agencies with information about government grants, regulations, taxes, budgets, programs and services is located at http://firstgov.gov/Business/Nonprofit.shtml
   
• The Enterprise Foundation has launched Horizon magazine, an online publication dedicated to bringing the challenges and successes experienced by America's communities to the online world.

• Minority Activist Apprenticeship Program (MAAP) recruits, trains, and places young organizers of color. Contact MAAP, Center for Third World Organizing, 1218 East 21st St., Oakland, CA 94606.
   
• Windcall Resident Program announces two- to four-week Spring and Fall full board retreats in southwestern Montana to applicants with five years' experience with organizations demonstrating their commitment to social, economic and environmental justice. Travel stipends possible. Contact the Common Counsel Foundation, 510-834-2995; ccounsel@1gc.org