LISC eNewsletter - 2005 April
Date Published: 04/15/2005
Author: LISC
Features
Experts Online Webcasts
Conferences and Events
Funding Opportunities
Information Resources
Affordable Housing Design Update
Policy News
Features
Nonprofit Mortgage Brokers: Tucson, AZ
Community Equity Mortgage Corporation's (CEMC) experience illustrates the challenges of developing a mortgage brokerage business, which is integrated in a larger nonprofit operation. The parent nonprofit tried to draw down mortgage brokerage resources too soon, hindering development. In addition, tying CEMC's business development to the parent nonprofit’s developments proved problematic when they began to experience problems. Whatever broker model is pursued, the importance of the right organizational culture cannot be undervalued. For more on the role of nonprofits as mortgage brokers and to download LISC's new report by Steve Hornburg, Nonprofit Mortgage Brokers: Small Step or Large Leap, please visit the LISC Online Resource Library.
Experts Online Webcasts
Green Building: It’s Affordable! on April 21 at 2:00 p.m. EST, first of the five-part Experts Online series Smart Metropolitan Neighborhoods Series, will be moderated by Mathew Thall, Senior Program Director for Boston LISC and lead author of "Innovations in Green Finance." The session will feature Ed Connelly and Madeline Fraser Cook, New Ecology, Inc.; Will Bradshaw, MIT/New Ecology, Inc.; and James Goldstein, Tellus Institute. This is part of LISC's expanding work around the greening of affordable housing, supported by the Home Depot Foundation. For more information about this session or the series, visit the LISC Online Resource Library.
Financial Management Internal Controls: Don't Leave Home Without Them will be on May 18 at 2:00 p.m. EST. CPA and President of Nonprofit Resource Group, Andrea Morrow, will discuss internal financial controls for small versus large organizations, purposes of various financial controls, practical examples of policies and procedures, the role of individuals as key internal controls, and common challenges. For more information, visit the LISC Online Resource Library.
LISC is hosting, presenting at, and/or helping to sponsor all of the events listed above.
Conferences and Events
Healthy Housing, Healthy Families is the topic of the April 28 (2:00 p.m. EST) online discussion hosted by KnowledgePLex, featuring Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing; Ellen Tohn, senior adviser to the Asthma Regional Council; and Stockton Williams, vice president of external affairs, The Enterprise Foundation. The discussion will highlight sound, affordable methods of construction and maintenance that can make housing healthier for residents. To participate in the upcoming discussion or to view previous webcasts, visit the KnowledgePlex website.
Smart Growth is Smart Business Series is a series of eight speaker-led workshops co-sponsored by Buffalo LISC that will begin in May 17. Topics include developing a vision, economic impact of reinvestment and redesign, Active Living communities, and transportation strategies. The May 17 workshop will feature Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA administrator and former New Jersey governor. For more information, visit the Buffalo LISC website.
Seventh Annual Michigan Conference on Affordable Housing will be May 16-18 in Lansing. This conference is attended by over 1,500 service providers, nonprofit and for-profit developers and financiers who select sessions within six educational tracks. The educational tracks for the upcoming conference are: Homeless to Housed, Homeownership, Creating and Preserving Multifamily Housing, Community Economic Development, and Organizational Development. For more information or registration materials, contact Michigan LISC’s Jamie Czekai at 517-372-0991 or jczekai@lisc.org.
Rural LISC Seminar XIV "Building Whole Communities" will be May 22-25 in Monterey, Cali for Rural LISC CDC Partners. In addition to networking opportunities and sessions on how rural CDCs can face their challenges in creating better communities, the event marks the 10th anniversary of Rural LISC and LISC’s 25th anniversary. For more information and partner CDC registration, visit the Rural LISC website.
Urban Forum 2005, the conference of LISC’s Center for Commercial Revitalization, will be May 23-25 in San Francisco. This year’s program will focus on “Impacts and Outcomes,” highlighting LISC’s successful efforts to help CDCs revitalize commercial corridors, as well as the work of a broad range of community development practitioners from across the country. For more information and registration, visit the Urban Forum website.
Advancing Regional Equity: The Second National Summit on Equitable Development, Social Justice, and Smart Growth will be May 23-25 in Philadelphia. Co-sponsored by PolicyLink and the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, the Summit will bring together representatives from the nonprofit, public policy, philanthropy, business, and academic arenas to explore the innovative strategies, policies, alliances, and coalitions advancing regional equity. For more information and to register, visit the PolicyLink website.
The 2005 Community Development Policy Summit will be June 22-23 in Cleveland. This annual summit focuses on state and federal issues that are of interest to neighborhoods and community development. This year's conference will focus on wealth creation and meeting the challenges of creating an ownership society. For more information, visit the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland website.
The Missouri Community Economic Development Conference, “Discovering Community Development: The Core of Economic Development,” sponsored by the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Missouri Community Service Commission, Community Development Block Grant, and Kansas City LISC will be June 8-9 in Jefferson City, Missouri. For more information, call 573-522-8004.
The 4th Annual Financial Management Professionals’ Conference “FM Survivor: In the Black and Alive in 2005”, sponsored by the LISC Organizational Development Initiative and Citigroup, will be July 27-29 in Chicago. The conference will include concrete finance strategies for making your community development corporation stronger and savvier than ever. CPE credits available. For more information, contact Daraus Mirza at dmirza@lisc.org.
LISC is hosting, presenting at, and/or helping to sponsor all of the events listed above.
Funding Opportunities
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is now accepting submissions for "Show You're Green!", an initiative to demonstrate excellence in affordable green housing design. Green strategies can be as simple and practical as the careful consideration of access to light or as forward-reaching as incorporating a green roof. All selected projects will be showcased on the Affordable Housing Design Advisor, an online design website and at the 2005 AIA National Convention Housing Awards Reception in Las Vegas. Submission deadline is April 22. For more information, go to the AIA website.
National Housing & Rehabilitation Association is launching the J. Timothy Anderson Awards for Excellence in Historic Rehabilitation. The "Timmy Awards" will honor outstanding rehabilitation and preservation projects in three categories: (1) Best Historic Rehabilitation: Affordable Housing; (2) Best Historic Rehabilitation: Market-Rate or Mixed-Income Housing; and (3) Most Innovative Adaptive Re-Use or Commercial Rehabilitation. Winners will be honored at a special awards reception at the 2005 NH&RA Spring Forum in Boston, May 19-20. The application deadline is April 29. For more information, go to the NH&RA website.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced the availability of nearly $24 million in funding for economic development and affordable housing projects in rural areas, including acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and infrastructure. Nonprofits, community development corporations, Indian tribes, and state economic/community development agencies are eligible to apply. The application deadline is May 17. For more information, go to the HUD website.
The Bollinger Foundation will be awarding its annual round of grants in June. The Foundation is seeking to provide financial assistance to families who have lost a parent or guardian where the deceased or surviving parent or guardian worked in the field of public housing, community development, or economic development. The application deadline is May 20. For more information, go to the Bollinger Foundation website.
SBC Foundation has announced the opening of its 2005 SBC Excelerator technology grants program, which will award $6 million in competitive technology-related grants to enable nonprofit organizations in SBC’s operating areas to integrate technology into their ongoing operations and community outreach. To qualify, an organization’s major focus and project must emphasize education, community development, health and human services, or arts and culture. One-year grants will range from $2,500 to $25,000. Collaborations by two or more organizations will be considered for one-year grants of up to $50,000. The application deadline is June 15. For more information, go to the SBC website.
Information Resources
Preservation of Affordable Rural Housing: A Practitioners’ Guide to the Section 515 Program, by Shereen Aboul-Saad, Gideon Anders, Adam Galowitz, Christine R. Goepfert, Lee Higgins, Leslie R. Strauss, and Timothy L. Thompson, published by LISC, is a compilation of articles designed to describe the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Section 515 rural Rental Housing Program, which finances affordable rental housing in rural areas. Over the past 40 years, the program has created more than half a million affordable rural rentals. However, many of these units are at risk of losing their affordability, because the owners are prepaying their mortgages or the time limits under which they must remain affordable are expiring. For more information and to download the handbook, visit the LISC Online Resource Library.
Meeting the Need, Accepting the Challenge: Developing Quality Early Education Facilities for Connecticut, by David Wasch, Carl Sussman, and Amy Gillman, published by LISC’s Children Investment Partnership, contains a series of recommendations for how the state can further strengthen its facility financing programs as it expands the early education system by providing facility expansion funds to high quality programs; offering technical assistance on facilities development and design; and ensuring that state-funded facilities continue to provide good outcomes for children over time. For more information and to download the report, visit the LISC Online Resource Library.
Affordable Housing Design Update
Benches and Beyond: Designing Great Outdoor Seating
A bench, a set of stairs, or the edge of a planter often serve as seating and can thus be designed to add beauty and function. Designing great outdoor seating is more than just materials. Location, looks, and their relation to other elements, such as pedestrian paths and play areas play an important role. This Design Update showcases three developments that went beyond just buying a few benches – they created delightful outdoor seating areas by design. For more information, visit the Design Advisor website.
For more Design Updates please see the Design Advisor website
Policy News
Federal
LISC continues to play a leadership role in efforts to save Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and 17 other community development programs slated for elimination in the President’s proposed budget. Recent hearings on Capitol Hill reflected bipartisan opposition to the President’s proposal from members of Congress representing both rural and urban areas. The President’s proposal consolidates 18 community development programs into a new initiative at the Department of Commerce while reducing funding from the current level of $5.7 billion to $3.7 billion. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez has promised to release draft legislation outlining specifics of the President’s plan by the end of April.
On April 11, LISC joined the Coalition to Save CDBG in sponsoring a briefing for House of Representatives staffers attended by over 50 offices. Bank of America Community Development Executive, Doug Woodruff, a member of LISC’s Board of Directors, joined the briefing’s panel highlighting the importance of CDBG to the private sector in promoting successful public-private partnerships.
State
Minnesota - Advocates celebrated the successful passage of a bonding bill that includes $12 million for supportive housing capital costs. The Governor is expected to sign the bill. This ends a two-year effort by Housing Minnesota and its partners, and is a high priority for housing and community development practitioners. Congratulations on an important victory in a policy environment that has included cuts for housing and neighborhood work.
Pennsylvania - The Pennsylvania legislative season moves forward with a number of bills targeted toward work in neighborhoods. Included are a set of bills that are geared at better reuse of abandoned properties, one that requires municipalities to maintain lists of tax delinquent owners and another that reduces the time for filing adverse possession action from 21 to 10 years. These are part of a larger package of abandoned properties bills that are to be introduced over the next two years, spearheaded by the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and its partners.
Type: Newsletter / eNewsletter archive