Features
Conferences and Events
Funding Opportunities
Information Resources
Policy News Features From month to month, the LISC eNewsletter announces new online resources, publications and websites that are tremendous assets for practitioners and supporters of community development. This month, we'd like to feature three outstanding reference books that have been published recently. Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving holiday . . . >> Unfair Housing: How National Policy Shapes Community Action Mara S. Sidney - 200 pages University Press of Kansas Synopsis: Why do most neighborhoods in American cities continue to be racially divided? The problem, suggests Mara Sidney, lies with the policies themselves. She contends that to understand why discrimination persists, we need to understand the political challenges faced by advocacy groups who implement them. In Unfair Housing she offers a new explanation for the persistent color lines in our cities by showing how weak national policy has silenced and splintered grassroots activists. Learn more about Unfair Housing and order the book at the University Press of Kansas website or from Amazon.com. >> Organizing for Community Controlled Development: Renewing Civil Society Patricia Watkins Murphy & James V. Cunningham - 360 pages Sage Publications Synopsis: The book presents a comprehensive model of neighborhood development that is grounded in residents taking action. The authors propose a detailed model for analyzing communities, organizing volunteers, and claiming resources. They examine effective ways to implement community regeneration activities, emphasizing the widespread inclusion of those residents impacted by community development decisions a crucial component for success. The authors provide the "how to" advice to ensure quality community life, including: proven techniques for recruitment, planning, fundraising and leadership growth; community analysis and decision-making procedures; and cutting-edge case studies. Learn more and order Organizing for Community Controlled Development by visiting the Sage Publications website or Amazon.com. >> CREDITS FOR LOW INCOME HOUSING: Opportunities for Developers, Non-Profits, Agencies and Communities Under Expanded Tax Code Provisions 12th Edition Joseph Guggenheim - 418 pages Simon Publications Synopsis: The new twelfth edition of the popular guidebook to the low income housing tax credit program includes material on 23 new policy changes legislation, rulings, and issuances that occurred during the 32 months since the last edition was published, as well as clarification and elaboration of a number of other subjects. The revised analysis of the tax credit program explains everything from tax-exempt financing to how the tax credit works with HOME, public housing mixed finance revitalization, and homeless programs. For more information about Credits for Low Income Housing and to order the book online, visit Amazon.com. Conferences and Events>> The Fourth Annual CHAM Asset Management Professionals' Conference, hosted by the Consortium for Housing and Asset Management (CHAM), a collaboration of LISC, the Enterprise Foundation, and Neighborhood Reinvestment, will be Dec. 5-6 in San Francisco. Join asset and property managers, investor partners, LISC/NEF staff, and agency officials at the only conference for nonprofit asset managers. For further information, visit LISC's website, or contact Lisa Deller at (212) 455-1619 or email ldeller@liscnet.org. >> Reinventing America's Older Communities, a conference sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Brookings Institution, will be Jan. 14-16 in Philadelphia. Co-sponsored by LISC, The Reinvestment Fund, Smart Growth America, and the William Penn Foundation, it will explore the face of older communities as they become part of regional strategies and take advantage of redevelopment tools like brownfield remediation, mixed-use development, mixed-income housing, productive use of vacant properties, and retail revitalization. For more information, email yvette.cooper@phil.frb.org or jseward@liscnet.org. >> 3rd Annual New Partners for Smart Growth: Building Safe, Healthy, and Livable Communities, a conference sponsored by the Local Government Commission, Penn State University, Smart Growth Network, and numerous other organizations including LISC, will be Jan. 22-24 in Portland, OR. This national smart growth conference brings practitioners from all sectors for workshops, tours, and keynote speakers. For more conference information, email MKelso@lgc.org. >> The Future is Now: Charting a New Course for Housing and Community Development, the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials' (NAHRO) 2004 Legislative Conference, will be March 15-17 in Washington, DC. Participants will learn about the NAHRO legislative agenda and how to help educate members of Congress about the positive impact of housing and community development programs. NAHRO has joined LISC, the National Equity Fund (NEF), the Fannie Mae Corporation, and the NAHRO Access Alliance, to sponsor a Public Housing Symposium on March 17-18, immediately following the conference. Symposium sessions will address the needs of small, medium, and large agencies seeking innovative affordable housing development ideas. For more information, visit the NAHRO website. LISC is hosting, presenting at and/or helping to sponsor all of the events listed above. Funding Opportunities >> Youth Service America and State Farm Insurance Companies are accepting applications for the State Farm Good Neighbor Service-Learning Award. One hundred grants of $1,000 each will be awarded to youth (ages 5-25), teachers/professors, and school-based service-learning coordinators to support the implementation of service-learning projects for National Youth Service Day 2004, April 16-18. The application deadline is Dec. 8. For more information, visit the Youth Service America website. >> The James A. Johnson Fellowships Program, an initiative of the Fannie Mae Foundation, recognizes seasoned affordable housing and community development professionals for their years of service to the field. Each fellow receives a $70,000 grant and a stipend of up to $20,000 for travel and education-related expenses. In addition, the nonprofit with which each fellow is associated may receive a grant of up to $25,000 for transitional costs related to the temporary absence of the fellow. The nomination deadline is Dec. 31. For more information, go to the Fannie Mae Foundation website. >> The Ford Foundation is accepting nominations for Leadership for a Changing World, a program that recognizes and supports community leaders not broadly known beyond their immediate community or field. Nominees must be U.S. residents working on domestic social justice issues including but not limited to: economic development, community development, environment, education reform, and youth development. Awardees will receive $100,000 over two years to support the work for which they are being recognized. In addition, awardees will receive $15,000 to explore new learning opportunities. The nomination deadline is Jan. 6. For more information, go to the Leadership for Change website. >> The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invites letters of intent for its Community Partnerships for Older Adults Program, a $20 million, multi-year initiative designed to foster the efforts of local public-private partnerships to improve long-term care and supportive services for at-risk older adults. Up to seventeen partnerships will receive development grants of up to $150,000. These grantees will then have the opportunity to compete for twelve implementation grant awards averaging $750,000 over four years. The application deadline is Jan. 9. For more information, go to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website. >> The National Endowment for Financial Education is accepting proposals for programs to educate the public (especially young people and members of underserved, low-income groups) on how to better manage personal finances. Proposed projects should encourage personal savings and investment as a means to financial security. The average grant is $50,000. The application deadline is April 6. For more information, go to the National Endowment for Financial Education website. For more Funding Opportunities please see the eNewsletter Archive Information Resources >> Community Problem-Solving.net, an ongoing research and outreach project supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Harvard's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, and the Rockefeller Foundation, has recently launched its website to provide community builders with problem-solving tools and strategies. Practitioners can access strategy and program tools in the form of case-studies, best practices, and web links related to community development issues. The website also features discussion forums to foster interactive exchange of ideas and peer-to-peer learning. The website was created by Xavier de Souza Briggs, a faculty member at Harvard University. Visit the newly launched Community Problem-Solving website. >> Sprawl without Growth: The Upstate Paradox, an analysis by Rolf Pendall, published by the Brookings Institution, reports on urban sprawl's effect on the economic vitality of Upstate New York. The report finds that continued decentralization of people from Upstate New York cities to suburbs and beyond has resulted in detrimental city trends including the fall of tax bases, an increase in vacant housing, and decreased home ownership. Upstate cities lost over 40,000 households in the 1990s, while unincorporated town areas gained over 160,000 households. For more on urban sprawl trends and to download the study, go to the Brookings Institution website. >> MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW), a large-scale, web-based electronic publishing initiative funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and MIT, recently made MIT's Urban Studies and Planning course materials available online for free. Some of the many undergraduate and graduate courses available include: Fundamentals of Public Policy; Site and Urban Systems Planning; Media Technology and City Design and Development; and Special Studies in Urban Studies: Economic Development Planning Skills. For a full list of urban studies courses, please visit the MIT OpenCourseWare website. For more Information Resources please see the eNewsletter Archive Policy News >> GAO reports favorably on Section 4 capacity building grants. Section 4 is HUD's largest capacity building program for community development, funded at $32.5 million. After an extensive examination, the GAO found that the program has assisted 1,590 CDCs in more than 783 cities nationwide through a flexible range of assistance tailored to local needs; attracted $800 million in private matching funds; and is well managed and in need of no additional controls. The full report is available on the General Accounting Office website. Go to the GAO Reports section of the site and search by the report number, GAO-03-975. >> Housing preservation tax bill is introduced. Reps. Jim Ramstead (R-MN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have introduced H.R. 3485, a bill to provide a new tax credit to offset taxes that owners would owe if they sell federally assisted low-income rental housing. Currently, these "exit taxes" sometimes exceed the cash profits, so owners are unwilling to sell. The tax credit would be available for sales of properties assisted by HUD Section 8 rental assistance, HUD Section 236 interest subsidies, Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, or USDA Title V loans. The new owner must agree to preserve affordability. States would administer the tax credits. For more information, please visit the U.S. Congress website. >> Connecticut Housing Coalition (CHC) rewards LISC's policy work. At the CHC's annual conference, LISC Connecticut was presented with the "Housing Hero Award" for its leadership in the legislative movement to save Connecticut's state housing resources. For more Policy News please see the eNewsletter Archive |
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