Featured Stories
New Neighborhoods, Inc.
Sixty children now have a new place to learn and play in Stamford today, thanks to the efforts of New Neighborhoods, Inc. and the Childcare Learning Centers. The Child Development Center is now open at the Martin Luther King Apartments on Stillwater Avenue in Stamford. The 3,000 square foot center provides early care and education services for infants, toddlers and
pre-school
children from low and moderate income families.
The new center offers state-of the-art design, creating a
space that is bright, cheerful, safe and comfortable for children and
staff. The design arranges space to
accommodate different activities and to enable staff to maximize their time and
effort with children.
The center benefits the parents along with the children
by enabling them to have affordable, quality child care. This service helps many
parents to participate in training
and jobs, knowing that their children are safe and happy at the center.
The new Child Development Center is the first child care
facility funded by the LISC’s Children’s Investment Partnership (CIP) and the
Connecticut Statewide LISC program.
Funds for this investment were provided by the William Caspar Graustein
Memorial Fund, the US Department of Treasury and the US Department of Housing
and Urban Development. The City of
Stamford was also a major supporter providing Community Development Block Grant
Funds to the project. Other funders included: Greenpoint Bank, Champion
International, and the Stamford Rotary Club. The architect was Masciarelli
Architects.
The Martin Luther King Child Development Center
celebrated its Grand Opening on June 3, 2002. Mayor Malloy of Stamford was joined by
Representative Christopher Shays and several other speakers. The highlights of
the event were the children who serenaded the audience and helped Mayor Malloy
to cut the ribbon.
Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern
Connecticut
The town of Trumbull is now home to 43 new
homeowners. Trumbull Townhomes, a
new condominium development completed by Mutual Housing Association of
Southwestern Connecticut, provided a unique opportuntiy to moderate income
families to own their own homes in the beautiful town of
Trumbull.
While the groundbreaking ceremony was held back in 2001,
this development actually breaks ground in many
ways:
- Trumbull Townhomes is the first affordable housing development
for the town of Trumbull. The support of the town is a critical part of the
project’s success. This new development helps Trumbull to address the need for
quality affordable housing in their community where prices are among the highest
in the state.
- For the developer, Mutual Housing Association of Southwestern Connecticut, Trumbull Townhomes was the first homeownership development. Mutual has a ten-year history of providing affordable housing in Fairfield County and currently manages nearly
200 mutual housing apartments.
- For LISC, Trumbull Townhomes was the first major project to be financed
under the new
Connecticut Statewide Program. LISC provided a $730,000 construction loan for the project, which is funded through a partnership with the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. Other funders include: People’s Bank, Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, the Melville Charitable Trust, and the Federal Home Loan Bank. With the contribution of $125,000 of equity from Mutual Housing, Trumbull Townhomes was $8.5 million development, bringing new investment, new tax revenue and new homeowners to Trumbull. - Perhaps the most important “first” associated with Trumbull Townhomes are the buyers themselves. The 43 owners were chosen form a very large group of applicants. They attended homeownership classes and qualified for the mortgages to purchase the condominiums that they now call “home”.
LISC Technical Assistance and Training
A primary goal of the Connecticut Statewide LISC program
is to help community development corporations (CDCs) and other non-profit
developers to increase their development capacity. As a part of meeting this goal, LISC
offers both direct techncial assistance and training to community developers
across Connecticut. With this added
support, it is possible for developers to increase the scale and positive impact
of their development.
LISC provides training through the Connecticut Community
Development Inistitute, and innovative partnership among LISC, the Connecticut
Housing Coalition and the Connecticut Housing Investment Fund. Through the Institute, LISC provides
training on real estate development and finance, asset management, neighborhood
revitalization and business planning. For more information on the
Connecticut Community Development Institute, please click here.
For information on LISC technical resources click here.