IN THIS ISSUE:
LISC Results in the Gulf Region since the 2005 hurricane season
- $108.4 million in loans, grants and equity
- 610 homes repaired
- 2,409 homes in development
- 1,000 evacuee families assisted
- $7.5 million raised for community development
FEATURE STORIES
LISC Approves $12 Million in Loans to Support New Affordable Housing in the Gulf
In January, LISC approved $12 million in loans to create over 200 affordable single-family and duplex-style rental homes for five Louisiana and Mississippi communities located on the northern edge of the hurricane-impacted Gulf region. LISC's affiliate, the National Equity Fund is providing more than $38 million in equity from the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program in support.
Four of the Louisiana projects, Frenchmen's Creek in Sulphur, Audrey Heights in Covington, and Ashley Place II and III in Denham Springs are being produced by local housing authorities. These developments represent their first projects using tax credits to create new housing. The projects are being guided by LISC's Housing Authority Resource Center, which helps housing authorities build their real estate development capacity in neighborhoods across the country. The fifth project in Abbeville, La., will provide 57 units of affordable housing through a for-profit developer, while Rural LISC worked with Pearl River Valley Opportunity, Inc. to secure a $2.4 million loan for the Wiggins Estates project, which will provide 40 units of affordable housing in Wiggins, Miss.
All of this new construction will support families and residents who earn sixty percent or below the Area Median Income, with twenty percent of the homes set aside for residents who earn fifty percent or below. Since the hurricanes, communities like Denham Springs and Sulphur have seen a swell in their populations, making the need for affordable housing paramount.
Building these rental properties will help to provide permanent, stable homes for displaced residents, many of whom have been living in FEMA trailers and in other temporary housing. Construction will begin this spring and will continue throughout the year. As they are completed, these projects will help to fill the enormous need for affordable housing and will play a major role in many of these communities' revitalization efforts.
Mercy Housing and Human Development Helps D'Iberville Come Back Better
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A Volunteer Foundation worker sprays bleach to make a D'Iberville family's home safe when it is rebuilt. Photo courtesy of the D'Iberville Volunteers Foundation. |
With financial and technical support from Rural LISC, working with strong local partners, Mercy Housing is making real progress in bringing back housing and securing sorely needed medical services in D'Iberville, a small, heavily damaged town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Just before Christmas, it presented the D'Iberville Volunteers Foundation with a $152,100 check to finish rebuilding and repairing 40 homes housing 88 residents, including 32 who are elderly and 22 who are disabled. Mayor Randy Quave said, "These 40 homes are for people who didn't qualify for any [public] help."
At year's end, Mercy and Coastal Family Health Center organized a hearing to get public comments on their joint proposal to build a combined 6,000 square foot health clinic and emergency shelter for people with special medical needs. It will be the only full-service clinic in town, providing 12,000 patients annually with medical, dental and optical services; it will also be the only shelter of its kind in the county, sheltering up to 60 residents short-term. Coastal will own and operate the facility.
Mercy has packaged the project and is helping pay for it using a total of $702,100 in grants and loans from Rural LISC. It has secured nearly final commitments for a $400,000 grant and $400,000 loan from USDA.
Mercy and its partners have a clear mandate for this work — 250 respondents to a Mercy-sponsored survey named housing, infrastructure, improvements, medical services and schools as the top four community needs.
Our thanks to Oprah's Angel Network, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kellogg Foundation for their support in making this facility possible.
In Baton Rouge, New Affordable Housing Comes to Hidden Cove
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One of the 57 new affordable homes that will be for sale in Hidden Cove this year. Photo courtesy of The Resource Foundation, Inc. |
In a new partnership between LISC and Enterprise Corporation of the Delta (ECD), Baton Rouge nonprofit The Resource Foundation, Inc. is constructing 57 units of new, affordable for-sale housing in the Hidden Cove subdivision of the city, located near Louisiana State University. The $660,000 loan used for land acquisition is the first in our newly formed partnership. By coming together in this way, LISC and ECD will expand the amount of capital our organizations bring to the region, enabling the creation of more affordable housing for first-time home-buyers and displaced residents in hurricane-impacted regions.
"After the hurricanes, the population of Baton Rouge increased by approximately 200,000," says Eddie Latimer, Chief Executive Officer of The Resource Foundation. "Today, some 80,000 of these individuals and families remain in the community. Housing for the relocated is extremely important. This is the first new, affordable subdivision to be built in East Baton Rouge Parish since the hurricanes, and will provide greater security for the relocated and displaced workforce." The homes of Hidden Cove will create a solid foundation for Baton Rouge 's newer citizens to strengthen their lives in the community.
The modular arts-and-crafts style homes are designed with energy efficient systems, achieving a Gold Star Energy rating. They will primarily be sold to families who earn below 80 percent of the Area Median Income, and are expected top out at $140,000.
Of the 57 homes in construction, five have already been completed by The Resource Foundation. The first is set to close with a buyer, with two more ready for sale in the coming weeks. In addition to LISC's and ECD's partnership and support of the project, Habitat for Humanity has acquired some of the land our loan provided to The Resource Foundation, and have constructed another 12 homes in the subdivision. By creating new and wide-ranging partnerships like these, we will continue to increase the production of affordable housing where it is needed. The new homes in Hidden Cove will be completed in the next year.
LISC and Fannie Mae Staff Volunteer in Long Beach, Miss. for Public Housing Rehabilitation
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Maria Day-Marshall from Fannie Mae; LISC Senior Vice President, Gulf Rebuilding Initiative, Evelyn Brown; and LISC Program Officer Stacie Birenbach clear shingles. Photo courtesy of NAHRO. |
During the week of January 29, a team of seven LISC staff working with volunteers from Fannie Mae and the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) coordinated and participated in a "roofing blitz" for the Long Beach, Miss. Housing Authority. More than 60 volunteers worked to replace the roofs of 22 single-story public housing units and a maintenance building owned by the Long Beach Housing Authority.
LISC, Fannie Mae and NAHRO workers partnered with skilled volunteers from housing authorities in Mississippi, South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Utah to re-roof and demolish the interiors of the homes in preparation for rehabilitation. The effort was jointly funded by LISC and Fannie Mae with sweat equity provided by the volunteers. During the week, U.S. Department of Housing and Development Assistant Secretary Orlando Cabrera joined volunteers at the site to speak about their work, and to announce a $27 million commitment to five Mississippi housing agencies. "We want Mississippi public housing residents to know we will continue to assist in rebuilding their lives in the wake of Katrina," he said. The money will be used to repair hundreds of public housing units damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
LISC is committed to our ongoing public efforts in the Gulf, which involve hands-on help in addition to our financial and technical resources. To learn more about the "roofing blitz" visit NAHRO's affiliate, Transpire.
NEWS BULLETIN
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Former Executive Director of the Bay St. Louis Housing Authority, Demetria Crumbly, has joined LISC as Senior Program Officer, where she will work to create new partnerships with Public Housing Authorities and CDCs in Mississippi and throughout the GO Zone.
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At a White House ceremony on Friday, December 15, 2006, President George W. Bush awarded Louisiana Recovery Authority Chairman, Dr. Norman Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civil award. Dr. Francis, President of Xavier University and former Chair of LISC's New Orleans Advisory Committee, received the honor for his vital role in helping the people of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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Evelyn Brown, LISC Senior Vice President, joined Louisiana Housing Finance Authority President, Milton Bailey; Byron Turner, Senior Deputy Director, Fannie Mae Corporation; and Robert McNeese, Director of the Baton Rouge Office of Community Development in a panel discussion, "Financing to Meet the Challenge," at the Baton Rouge Affordable Housing Summit on February 1. The panel was part of a day-long discussion about meeting the housing needs in Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge parish. Nearly 75 community development professionals, lenders, civic and social service leaders and government officials participated.
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LISC and Enterprise Corporation of the Delta approved a $747,500 loan to the Community of Faith for Economic Empowerment, a member of project owner HBC LLC, which will support construction of Frenchman's Hope. The project is an innovative partnership between Community for Faith and the Southern University of New Orleans that will construct 20 units of for-sale homes for University staff, faculty and students with significantly reduced interest rates that will help make the homes affordable.
- LISC approved a $60,000 recoverable grant to the East Biloxi Coordination, Relief and Redevelopment Agency to develop an estimated 20-unit tax credit project in East Biloxi , a traditionally poor and very racially diverse area of the city. LISC also approved a $40,000 grant that will provide capacity building for the organization.
- The National Equity Fund has committed over $51 million in tax credit equity for projects in the GO-Zone of Louisiana and Mississippi to date.
- Since November, 2006, LISC's Americorps program has recruited 76 members who are providing case management and organizing community meetings throughout the Gulf Region in both Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Southern Mutual Help Association closed on a $910,000 loan from Rural LISC to acquire 62 acres of land to develop Teche Ridge II in New Iberia, La. This is the second phase of a large-scale project that will create a projected 300 homes for mixed income owners as well as commercial, community and recreation facilities. Southern Mutual used a $25,000 predevelopment grant and a $1.85 million loan from Rural LISC to acquire the initial 37 acre site of Teche Ridge I.
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about LISC's work in the Gulf region, visit www.lisc.org or contact Christine Robertson crobertson@lisc.org.
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