Features
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Policy News FeaturesManufacturing Affordability in Seattle HomeSight, a Seattle-based nonprofit, uses manufactured homes to produce high quality housing developments, in addition to its more traditional stick built houses. The decision was a result of creative approach to deflate the buyer’s cost, but still generate high quality homes. The first product of this new strategy is Noji Gardens, a development of 75 affordable homes. HomeSight’s determination and identification of innovative manufactured home architecture, as well as a flexible manufacturer, paved the way for Noji Gardens. In the end, construction costs were between 10 and 30 percent lower than they would have been with a conventional building method and the typical buyer earned 67 percent or less of the area median income (AMI). To read more about this innovative program, download the case study from the LISC Online Resource Library. Conferences and Events>> How to Incorporate Arts and Culture into Neighborhood Business Districts Revitalization Programs will be June 23-26 in Lansing, MI. Hosted by LISC’s Center for Commercial Revitalization Training Institute with support from State Farm Insurance Companies, participants will learn how to utilize arts and cultural resources to enrich the revitalization process. To make reservations (by May 30) or for more information, contact Erin Kelley at (212) 455-1614 or email ekelley@liscnet.org. >> The Second Annual Financial Management Professionals Conference, hosted by LISC's Organizational Development Initiative and sponsored by Citibank, will be July 31- Aug. 1 in Chicago. The conference is designed for CDC financial management professionals and includes training, networking, and peer-to-peer sessions. For more information, contact Lisa Deller at (212) 455-1619 or email ldeller@liscnet.org. >> Under One Roof: Building Communities in the Delta will be Sept. 17-19 in Tunica County, MS. The sixth annual conference of Delta CDCs will offer a wide variety of workshops and training opportunities, as well as an evening of networking and fun with colleagues from the Delta. For more information, contact Cathy Wilson at 662-335-3318 or email at cwilson@liscnet.org. >> Urban Forum II: National Conference of Commercial Corridor Revitalization (CCR) professionals will be Oct. 8-10 in Philadelphia. This conference addresses questions related to several CCR topic areas: smart growth, safety and cleanliness, historic preservation, creative financing for real estate projects, marketing and promotions, gentrification, business recruitment, and market analysis. Hosted by LISC, this event is sponsored by William Penn Foundation, Washington Mutual, and State Farm. For more information, contact Erin Kelley at (212) 455-9803 or email ekelley@liscnet.org. LISC is hosting, presenting at and/or helping to sponsor all of the events listed above. Funding Opportunities>> The Aetna Foundation is accepting applications for its Regional Community Grants Program, which will focus on reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care during its 2003 funding cycle. Grant requests ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 will be considered from nonprofit organizations serving Aetna’s six business regions in the U.S. The application deadline is May 30. For more information, including a list of eligible communities, go to the Aetna Foundation web site. >> The Racial Justice Collaborative supports partnerships between lawyers and local community-based organizations that use legal tools to advance fair resource distribution and equity, improve policy outcomes, and increase government and corporate accountability for communities marginalized by race, ethnicity, and immigrant or citizenship status. The Collaborative will award grants ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 per year for up to three years. The deadline for letters of intent is June 2. For more information, go to the Racial Justice Collaborative web site. >> The Enterprise Foundation is accepting applications for the MetLife Foundation Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. Awards will be presented in two categories: Supportive Housing and Property and Asset Management. First place winners will receive $25,000; second place winners will receive $15,000; and third place winners will receive $10,000. The application deadline is June 16. For more information, go to the Enterprise Foundation web site. >> The WHO Foundation supports grassroots charities that address the health, education, and social service needs of underserved women and children in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The majority of grants range from $2,500 to $15,000. Preference will be given to organizations with an operating budget of $2 million or less, those not dependent on government grants, and those with greater organizational program costs than personnel costs. The application deadline is Sept. 16. For more information, contact the Foundation at 1-800-946-4663. For more Funding Opportunities please see the eNewsletter Archive Information Resources>> Mayors Speak out on Welfare, Working Families, and Reauthorization, a new report by Margy Waller, co-sponsored by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, finds mayors across the country concerned about proposed welfare and working family policy on residents in their cities. To download the report, go to the Brookings Institution web site. >> Stunning Progress, Hidden Problems: The Dramatic Decline of Concentrated Poverty in the 1990s, a new release from the Brookings Institution’s Living Cities Census Series, written by Paul A. Jargowsky, reveals that the number of people living in neighborhoods where at least 40 percent of the residents are poor dropped significantly between 1990 and 2000 after decades of increase. Within metropolitan areas, concentrated poverty in inner city neighborhoods declined substantially, but some older suburbs experienced increases. To download the report, go to the Brookings Institution web site. >> Concentrated Poverty: A Change in Course, a new paper by the Urban Institute, written by Thomas Kingsley and Kathryn L.S. Pettit, also analyzes the concentration of poverty in low-income neighborhoods in the 1990s. It focuses on specific factors that have affected this data, such as race, gender, type of location, and shifting of census tract boundaries. To download this study, go to the Urban Institute web site. >> Socialserve.com is a nonprofit technical services organization that provides those seeking affordable (rental) housing and supportive services with the information they need to obtain these resources. It provides richly descriptive, continually updated, and readily accessible data bases of the subsidized and market-rate affordable housing and social services available in each of several participating metro areas, using the Internet and simple point-and-click computer technology. To learn more, go to www.socialserve.com. For more Information Resources please see the eNewsletter Archive Policy News>> The Tax Credit fight moves to final stage. House and Senate negotiators are working out differences on federal tax legislation that could reduce corporate investments based on the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, New Markets Tax Credit, and Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit. Both the House and Senate have approved legislation that would cut taxes on dividends but leave tax credits unharmed. However, negotiators may turn to a version of the dividend tax cut proposed by the Bush Administration. Under that approach, a corporation would be able to pass on its shareholders less tax-free income if it receives tax credits, making the tax credits less valuable to corporations. The result could mean substantially less investment in low income communities. >> The Florida State Legislature preserved documentation stamp revenues as the source of dedicated state housing funding for Sadowski State Housing Trust Fund programs. This important step towards preservation of long term affordable housing funds in Florida was facilitated by community advocates such as 1000 Friends of Florida, the Sadowski Coalition, LISC, and their partners. For more Policy News please see the eNewsletter Archive |
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