HOPE VI - Enterprise Testifies on HOPE VI Reauthorization

COLUMBIA, Md., Doris Koo, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners, testified today before the House
Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity on enhancements to the federal HOPE VI program.
 Congress created the HOPE VI program in 1992 to revitalize severely distressed public housing by leveraging significant private and public
resources to catalyze broader reinvestment in troubled neighborhoods. Since the program's inception, Enterprise has partnered with housing authorities,
city governments, community-based organizations and the private sector on more than 20 comprehensive public housing redevelopment efforts facilitated
by HOPE VI.

 "This program has made a significant difference in communities formerly
plagued by concentrations of poverty and lack of access to transportation,
services, and quality schools," Koo stated. "We must ensure that HOPE VI
developments continue to provide residents an opportunity to return to
healthier, more vibrant communities. We strongly support the approach of
linking community revitalization strategies with school reform and
providing wrap-around services to residents before, during, and after any
relocation."
 For families with children, choices about housing and education are
intertwined. Poor schools drive families out; strong schools help create
communities of choice. Community and supportive services for public housing
residents are critical components in a successful redevelopment effort, as
these services provide the crucial link between housing and opportunities
for residents to move up and out of poverty into the mainstream of American
life.
 Large-scale, catalytic redevelopments like HOPE VI also provide the
best opportunities and rationale for green, sustainable development. Koo
applauded Representative John Olver (D-Mass.), Housing and Community
Opportunity Subcommittee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), House
Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), and their colleagues
for supporting the HOPE VI Green Building and Technical Assistance Act of
2007 (H.R. 2536). This legislation would require that new HOPE VI
developments meet energy-efficiency and environmentally sustainable
criteria for residential and commercial buildings, and would also provide
technical assistance to applicants.
 Koo said, "We must think more broadly about long-term sustainability
and how to ensure that communities remain healthy and viable over time.
Low-income families have the most to gain from living in housing that not
only cuts down on their monthly utility bills but is also a healthier place
to live."
 Enterprise is a leading provider of the development capital and
expertise it takes to create decent, affordable homes and rebuild
communities. For more than two decades, Enterprise has pioneered
neighborhood solutions through public-private partnerships with financial
institutions, governments, community organizations and others that share
our vision. Enterprise has raised and invested $7 billion in equity, grants
and loans and is currently investing in communities at a rate of $1 billion
a year. Visit http://www.enterprisecommunity.org to learn more about
Enterprise's efforts to build communities and opportunity, and to meet some
of the half a million people we have helped.

Easton, PA HOPE VI Bigger and Better

Source: Morning Call

The Easton Housing Authority voted 3-0 during a special meeting Tuesday to build more rental units and fewer homes for sale as part of its $73 million Delaware Terrace revitalization project.

The authority will demolish 250 units at the South Side neighborhood and build 96 rental units and 48 homes for sale.

The board commissioners -- Chairman the Rev. George Martinez, Paul Felder and Dawn Washington -- also voted to allow Executive Director Gene Pambianchi to begin negotiations with a company chosen to become the authority's developer on the project called HOPE VI.

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HOPE VI Land Swap

Source: heraldstandard.com

The Fayette County Housing Authority Thursday approved a land swap with the Uniontown Hospital that is part of area revitalization plans for both entities.

The land swap includes two acres containing a portion of three buildings owned by the FCHA in Bierer Wood Acres and one acre of land comprised of a finished parking area owned by Uniontown Hospital.

Executive Director Thomas Harkless said plans are to include the land swap information in the next HOPE VI application, as part of the renovation plans for Bierer Wood Acres.

Proposed funding for the $55 million project includes a $20 million federal grant, $22.2 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Equity, $9.4 million from tax-exempt bond debt, $2.75 million from the FCHA capital fund and $888,800 from homebuyer equity and loans.

FCHA administrator Andre Walters said the three buildings on the property involved in the land swap would not be demolished unless the HOPE VI money is approved.

Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink said the renovation of Bierer Wood Acres has been discussed and is in motion.

Don Record of the Uniontown Hospital said the hospital is interested in the land where the three buildings sit.

According to a fact sheet, the housing authority project includes demolition of the 86 units of obsolete housing on site, as well as construction of 224 units of new housing, including 165 on-site; three units to be located in homes to be acquired and renovated immediately off-site; and 56 units on an off-site, vacant parcel. Previously, 106 units of the project were demolished, leaving the current 86.

The new Bierer Wood Acres would have 16 homeownership units in duplexes, 66 units of family rental housing in duplexes and triplexes, and 86 units of senior housing, according to a fact sheet.

On another FCHA iniative, following a lengthy discussion, the authority failed to approve a resolution authorizing a capital fund financing loan for the Laurel Estates project at the former Lemon Wood Acres housing project.

The motion, to secure a $3,743,525 loan, failed to obtain a second. Board member James V. Bitonti made the motion and neither Zimmerlink nor Beverly Beal made a second. Board members William "Trip" Radcliffe and Nancy Sutton were absent. Radcliffe arrived late to the meeting, after the vote was taken.

Walters said the tax credits for the project have already been received, and plans are to build 56 public housing units including single family homes and handicapped units, but with primarily duplexes and two triplexes. He said it would be laid out "as a community" instead of the former row houses.

Walters said the FCHA has been working on the project for nearly four years, and more than $8.8 million in tax credits have been received. He said the total project is $13 million, and the annual payment for the 20-year loan will be between $280,000 and $319,000, which will be taken out of the capital fund.

Developer Falbo-Pennrose, who will manage the property for the first three years while FCHA staff is trained, will handle the project.

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Daytona Beach HOPE VI

HOPE VI project takes shape


DAYTONA BEACH -- Take a close look the next time you drive along International Speedway Boulevard.

Major changes are in the works.

Where once stood a small, deteriorating group of public housing units, construction crews are putting the finishing touches and landscaping on the Villages at Halifax, a new community of apartments and townhomes.

"We've gotten comments even from tourists," said Joyours "Pete" Gamble, chief executive officer of the Housing Authority. "That's what we want. Since that's the main artery into the city, that's something for the city to toot its horn about."

Similar changes are under way on South Street, where a modern town-home community called Lakeside Village will replace a more than 50-year-old public housing project next to a major city park.

Lastly, work is beginning at Pine Haven, a new townhouse community with a swimming pool between George Engram and Mary McLeod Bethune boulevards. The aging barracks-style buildings of the city's oldest public housing project have been cleared to make way for the new project.

In addition to the townhouses, lots are set aside at each site for single-family homes. Construction will depend on sales of lots and model homes.

The transformation culminates eight years of effort by the Daytona Beach Housing Authority to demolish and rebuild public housing in the core of the city under a federal program called HOPE VI -- Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere.

For Housing Authority officials, seeing the new buildings rise is especially sweet. They endured criticism for spending nearly $400,000 over four years starting in 1999 before finally winning $24.6 million in federal grants to get the work going.

"As I look at what's on the ground, I feel very pleased," Gamble said.

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Affordable Housing Needs 2005: Report to Congress

Affordable Housing Needs 2005: Report to Congress
(May 2007, 99 pages)

FULL TEXT: Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf, 1.90 MB)

In 1990, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee directed HUD to "resume the annual compilation of a worst case housing needs survey of the United States... [to estimate] the number of families and individuals whose incomes fall 50 percent below an area's median income, who either pay 50 percent or more of their monthly income for rent, or who live in substandard housing."

Households with "worst case needs" are defined as unassisted renters with very low incomes who have one of two "priority problems" either paying more than half of their income for housing ("severe rent burden") or living in severely substandard housing. Renters are classified by income using three income limits: Low Income (LI) if their income does not exceed 80 percent of area median income (AMI), Very Low Income (VLI) if income is not more than 50 percent of AMI, and Extremely Low Income (ELI) if income is not more than 30 percent of AMI.

This report is the tenth in a series of Worst Case Needs reports to Congress. This 2005 report is organized into five basic sections Chapter 1 provides an introduction, including a discussion of terms and sources. Chapter 2 outlines the findings of worst case needs by various categories such as demographics and geography. Chapter 3 presents an analysis using data from the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation to examine the duration of severe rent burdens. Chapter 4 assesses the supply of affordable rental housing. Chapter 5 presents new analysis of how worst case needs relate to neighborhood poverty rates.

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development