RFQ: HOPE VI Grant Writer - Daytona Beach

The Housing Authority of the City of Daytona Beach will receive sealed request for qualification for a grant writer to prepare a HOPE VI Revitalization Application for one of its public housing developments until 3:00 pm eastern standard time on January 9, 2009 at: The Housing Authority of the City of Daytona Beach , 211 N. Ridgewood Ave suite 200, Daytona Beach, FL. 32114. The RFQ is on file and for copy contact Richard turner Deputy Director at the address above or call 386 253-5653 email turnerr@dbhafl.org. The Housing Authority reserves the right to reject any and all proposals.

Sample Memorandum of Understanding

	Sample Memorandum of Understanding between PHAs and Walgreens (Adobe PDF, 4 pages)
	Memorandum of Understanding between HUD and the National Urban League (Adobe PDF, 8 pages)
	Memorandum of Understanding between HUD and the Girl Scouts of the U.S. (Adobe PDF, 5 pages)

HUD Hope for Homeowners a Failure?

HUD Secretary Steve Preston says "Congress dotted the i's and crossed the t's for us, and unfortunately it has made this program tough to use." (By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)

As reported by The Washington Post, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steve Preston said the centerpiece of the federal government's effort to help struggling homeowners has been a failure and he's blaming Congress.

The three-year program was supposed to help 400,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure. But it has attracted only 312 applications since its October launch because it is too expensive and onerous for lenders and borrowers alike, Preston said in an interview.

"What most people don't understand is that this program was designed to the detail by Congress," Preston said. "Congress dotted the i's and crossed the t's for us, and unfortunately it has made this program tough to use."

The criticism comes as Congress prepares to weigh in with further plans to help distressed borrowers facing foreclosures, which are at the root of the financial meltdown. This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanded that the Treasury Department use some of the money from the $700 billion emergency rescue package to help at-risk homeowners.

One of several federal and state foreclosure prevention initiatives facing difficulties, HUD's Hope for Homeowners program has been especially hamstrung. For instance, a program launched by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on behalf of IndyMac Bank customers has modified more than 3,500 mortgages in two months of operation.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who helped steer the HUD program through Congress, said some of the federal bailout money should be used to revamp it. Frank acknowledged the initiative has its problems, but he blamed them on the Bush administration.

"That's partly their fault," said Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "The administration was critical of the program and kept putting pressure on us to make it cheaper and more restrictive. . . . If it hadn't been for the Bush administration's opposition, we would have written it in a better way in the first place."

The goal of the program, run by the Federal Housing Administration, was to allow borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth to refinance into more affordable 30-year fixed-rate mortgages insured by the government.

But part of the problem is that the program's success hinges on the lenders' willingness to participate.

Congress originally allowed the FHA to insure new loans for only 90 percent of a home's value. With home prices plunging, borrowers who have little or no equity in their homes and cannot otherwise come up with the remaining 10 percent qualify only if the lender forgives this balance. Lenders balked.

Late last month, Congress granted HUD permission to increase the amount that's insured and the department decided to guarantee up to 96.5 percent of the value of new loans. Preston in the interview praised that change. But its impact remains unclear.

"Getting the lenders to agree . . . has been our biggest challenge," said Peyton Herbert, director of foreclosure services at HomeFree USA, a housing counseling firm in Hyattsville. "They want dollar for dollar what's owed on that loan or something close to it. That's the fly in the ointment." More HERE

Michael Corkery at wsj.com is following this story and writes: The failure of Hope for Homeowners to prevent foreclosures is sparking a blame game in Washington. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which runs the voluntary program, says Congress made it too restrictive and expensive for homeowners.

Congressional leaders say the program’s failure — only 357 people have signed up since Oct. 1 — shows that lenders aren’t willing to modify loans voluntarily and they need to be forced to do so.

But HUD officials say other problems are hampering the program’s success. In order to refinance through Hope for Homeowners, applicants must certify they did not supply false or misleading information on a previous loan application. The HUD program also requires homeowners to supply two years of financial records.

HUD officials believe that people who used “stated income” mortgages which required no documentation of income, are having a hard time qualifying for Hope for Homeowners because of incorrect information on their previous loans. It might not all be the borrowers fault. In many cases, mortgage brokers and lenders fudged loan applications.

Either way, it appears that stated income mortgages, which are known as “liar loans,” are earning their nickname.

Here’s a list of the government sponsored and voluntary lender foreclosure prevention programs and how they are faring so far. MORE HERE

Untold thousands of illegal immigrants live in public housing

AP's Eliot Spagat is reporting on how untold thousands of illegal immigrants live in public housing at a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens and legal residents are stuck waiting years for a spot.

Illegal immigrants make up a tiny portion of the 7.1 million people in federal housing, according to government statistics. But authorities may be unaware of thousands more, and critics say no illegal immigrant should get housing benefits.

The issue made headlines in November with news that Zeituni Onyango, an aunt of President-elect Barack Obama, was living in Boston public housing while in the country illegally.

The federal government, which funds the lion's share of the nation's public housing, requires only that illegal immigrants share a home with at least one family member who is in the country legally and pay their share of the rent.

While there are no hard numbers on illegal immigrants in public housing, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that 29,570 people — 0.4 percent of all those in federally funded housing — are "ineligible noncitizens." Some may be on temporary visas, such as highly educated workers or college students, but many are believed to be illegal immigrants.

Frank Bean, director of the University of California, Irvine's Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, estimates at least half of ineligible noncitizens — or about 15,000 — are illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children. Anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen, making their families eligible for federal housing.

The HUD tally does not offer a full picture of how many illegal immigrants are in public housing.

It doesn't include housing funded by state and local governments, where eligibility requirements vary. Massachusetts, where Obama's aunt occupied one of about 50,000 state-funded units, doesn't ask immigration status under a 1977 federal consent decree in a class-action lawsuit that prohibits the state from denying the benefit to illegal immigrants.

Other illegal immigrants may live in public housing without notifying authorities.

"It seems that the larger concern would be those who we don't know about that may be in the U.S. illegally and living in federal housing, yet never risk presenting themselves to HUD," said Jonathan Graffeo, a spokesman for Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala.

Some prospective tenants and advocates of immigration restrictions are angry about U.S. citizens waiting for housing aid that some number of illegal immigrants are enjoying.

New York City has about 260,000 people in line for housing aid. Chicago recently opened its waiting list for the first time in about 10 years and collected 259,000 names in four weeks for 40,000 slots.

"As long as that waiting list includes American citizens or legal immigrants, there's no reason an illegal alien should occupy any of that housing," said Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for NumbersUSA, a group that supports curbs on immigration.

In San Diego, applicants are told they can expect to wait five to seven years.

"I don't think we should take a second seat to anyone," said Daryl Ford, who applied for housing aid last year and lives in a San Diego homeless shelter. "We send money to everyone else in the world but we're struggling here."

Some say the costs of illegal immigration in public housing are overstated.

Tanya Broder, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said illegal immigrants are reluctant to seek government benefits because they keep low profiles. Even some legal immigrants shun public housing, fearing reprisals against them or their families, she said.

Illegal immigrants get free public education through high school and emergency medical care, but are denied many other services, like food stamps and broad Medicaid coverage.

Elliotte Skinner, 48, applied for public housing in San Diego in 2000 and lives in a cramped studio with a shared shower. He says focusing on illegal immigrants misses the point.

"There's too much blame on illegals for the country's problems," he said. "Their numbers are so small (in federally funded housing) they don't even make a difference. The real problem is we don't have enough affordable housing."

Elena Salmon, 45, lives at a San Diego home where about 30 women share four bathrooms while she waits for public housing, but she said it would be inhumane to deny housing to illegal immigrants.

"That's not what America is about," she said. "Why should we kick them out, even if they are taking up some space?"

HUD declined to break down the number of ineligible noncitizens by city or state.

The New York City Housing Authority reports 2,471 families with at least one ineligible noncitizen, or 0.9 percent of the 289,000 households on vouchers or in housing developments.

The San Diego Housing Commission reports 658 of the 37,120 people on federal housing vouchers are ineligible noncitizens, or 1.8 percent. The San Francisco Housing Authority has 148 ineligible noncitizens among its 28,611 people in federal housing, or 0.5 percent.

Housing agencies in Miami-Dade County and Chicago each reported serving less than 50 ineligible noncitizens. The Boston Housing Authority reports 288 of its 45,100 families on federal housing assistance are ineligible noncitizens, or 0.6 percent. More HERE

Will housing Agency Plans Create More Homelessness?

As reported by Fred Clasen-Kelly of The Charlotte Observer, The Charlotte Housing Authority is considering giving thousands of public housing residents a choice: Get a job or get out.

No job, no housing subsidy under plan

Agency weighs making heads of households work 30 hours a week to keep federal subsidy.

The Charlotte Housing Authority is considering giving thousands of public housing residents a choice: Get a job or get out.

Agency leaders are proposing a plan that would force tenants to find work to keep their government housing benefits.

The idea has prompted criticism from some advocates for the poor who say it would be wrong to impose the rule during the country's worst economic crisis in decades.

But backers say it's only right to make able-bodied adults work and try to gain self sufficiency.

“There's never a perfect time to start a change,” said Jennifer Gallman, a spokeswoman for the Housing Authority. “This is a positive change.”

Under federal guidelines, recipients generally put 30percent of their household income toward rent. The federal government subsidizes the remainder.

The proposal would require the head of each household to work at least 30 hours a week by April 1, 2011, to keep the subsidy. Elderly and disabled residents would be exempt.

The Housing Authority's Board of Commissioners will decide next month whether to implement the rule.

It would impact many of the 15,000 people in Charlotte who live in public housing apartments or rent homes from private landlords using government-issued Section 8 vouchers.

A recent survey conducted for the Housing Authority found that the head of the household was employed in 31percent of public housing units. The head of the household was working in 43percent of homes rented with Section 8 vouchers.

The employment rule is one of several restrictions the Housing Authority has implemented or weighed in recent years. Residents who move into some newer, recently built developments must now meet work requirements designed to move them out of public housing in five years.

But the latest idea surfaces just as the unemployment rate in North Carolina has reached 7.9percent, the highest figure in 25 years.

Alfred Riley, who lives in the Boulevard Homes public housing complex in west Charlotte, said he has tried hard “for a long time” but can't find work.

The proposed rule “comes at the worst time ever,” Riley said. “People can't even find work at a fast-food restaurant.”

Advocates for the poor fear the rule could add to Charlotte's growing homeless population.

Many public housing tenants cannot afford daycare for their children and don't have needed transportation or job skills, said Ted Fillette, lead attorney with Charlotte's Legal Aid office.

Some 30,000 people in North Carolina are on waiting lists for affordable daycare, Fillette said. Affordable daycare typically costs about $175 a week, he said.

The Housing Authority has not promised to help pay to remove such barriers, Fillette said.

Revoking subsidies is “tantamount to evicting families who have the least capacity to survive in the non-subsidized market,” he wrote in a letter to other local advocates for the poor.

Gallman, the Housing Authority spokeswoman, noted that tenants would have two years to find work. More HERE

Housing Research says: We will be following this issue. We hope HUD and the new Obama administration will be following this too. Stay tuned.

Baton Rouge Area Foundation Executive Vice President John Spain (from left), East Baton Rouge Redevelopment Authority Chairman John Noland and LSU Chancellor Michael Martin in front of the HOPE VI redevelopment project on East Polk Street.

As reported by Business Report.com, Old South Baton Rouge didn’t need another plan.

At least that’s what folks who live in the historic but downtrodden area north of LSU told the Baton Rouge Area Foundation five years ago.

“People told us, ‘We’ve had a lot of people tell us they’re going to reinvent this neighborhood, and they talked and talked and talked, and nothing much has happened,’” BRAF Executive Vice President John Spain says. “There is a lot of cynicism, and rightfully so.”

BRAF became involved in Old South through its work with HOPE VI, an $18.6 million federally funded effort to tear down old housing projects and build new single- and multi-family homes. The foundation quickly realized a revitalization effort for the surrounding community was needed for HOPE VI to thrive.

HOPE VI ended in September, but BRAF is committed to Old South for at least the next 10 years, Spain says. Working with the Center for Planning Excellence and the Gulf Coast Housing Partnership, BRAF plans to develop a “gateway project” at Highland Road and Terrace Avenue, once one of the worst corners in the city. Seven other areas were targeted for development in the 2006 master plan, and design standards have been approved to keep new buildings in line with neighborhood character.

Private developers are showing interest, especially along Nicholson Drive. Nicholson Estates, a partnership between Lafayette oilman Mike Moreno and Florida-based White Sands Development Group, is assembling about 20 acres for a possible mixed-use development designed by Steve Oubre [White Sands didn’t want to talk about the project for this story]. Property values are starting to creep up. Old South is potentially one of the prettiest places to live in the city, Spain says. More HERE

Homelessness Czar Focused on Permanent Housing

Philip F. Mangano in Boston, before he left Massachusetts government to join the Bush administration. He says he is working with Obama aides but is unsure about his future.

Detractors Cite Mangano's Frequent Travel, Including Trips Abroad

The Washington Post reports: Since he became the Bush administration's homelessness czar in 2002, Philip F. Mangano has attempted to sell officials in the United States and around the world on his preferred solution for getting people off the streets, asking them to focus on providing permanent housing instead of temporary shelters.

With a small staff and budget, the former seminarian and music agent has taken his ideas on the road, traveling an average of 18 weeks per year, records show. His critics contend that his tenure has been more public relations than substance, and Democrats in Congress have tried in vain to cap his travel budget.

Mangano's supporters, however, say he deserves some of the credit for a steep decline in the national homelessness rate in recent years. A Department of Housing and Urban Development-- before the economic crisis kicked in -- noted a 12 percent drop in the number of homeless people from 2005 to 2007. The percentage of those classified as "chronically homeless" dropped even more sharply. report earlier this year

Mangano's "housing first" approach has won admirers in several big cities. D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) instituted a similar program in August, placing nearly 500 people in apartments across the city, with more such moves planned. About 300 cities and counties, along with the states of Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Utah, have their own 10-year supportive housing plans in place, Mangano's staff said.

"I have disagreed with almost every housing policy in this administration, but Philip Mangano is a godsend," said Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak (D), who credits Mangano with helping the city adopt its homelessness plan and "focus" its scant resources.

Mangano, 60, refers to homeless people as "consumers" and said he thinks that decades of government policies to reduce the homeless population were misguided.

"When you ask the consumer what they want, they don't simply say a bed, blanket and a bowl of soup," he said in an interview. "They say they want a place to live. We have resources being provided to us at record levels. If you look at the numbers for chronic homelessness, we're winning."

As head of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, Mangano has employed PowerPoint presentations to encourage homeless "business plans" -- ambitious goals for cities and counties that push for permanent housing and the creation of one-day workshops to connect the homeless to federal resources. Most important, Mangano said, he has tried to "promote accountability," by putting local officials in charge of their own homelessness policies.

"There needs to be someone, at the local level, who can take ownership of these ideas," he said.

Mangano grew up in the Boston area, graduating from Boston University and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary before moving to California. He became an agent and manager for members of Buffalo Springfield and Peter, Paul and Mary in 1970s Los Angeles.

After returning to Boston, Mangano said, he felt a "spiritual awakening" when he watched Franco Zeffirelli's film about St. Francis of Assisi, "Brother Sun, Sister Moon."

"I never knew you could dedicate your life to the service of the poor," Mangano said. "As bad as it sounds, I learned more in that two-hour movie than I did at three years in seminary school. "

More HERE

Atlanta's Centennial Place has a renewed purpose

Here is a great report from Eric Stirgus at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding Centennial Place in Atlanta, Georgia and how a decade later, proponents hail the HOPE VI housing experiment a success.

Enlarge this image

HYOSUB SHIN / hshin@ajc.com

The Atlanta Housing Authority tore down Techwood Homes, the nation’s first public housing complex, and rebuilt it as Centennial Place. A decade later, some say the experiment worked.

File photo / 1995

Eric Stirgus writes: It was one of the great civic experiments in recent memory. Tear down Techwood Homes, one of the Atlanta Housing Authority’s roughest public housing complexes. Rebuild it and get renters willing to pay market rate to live alongside public housing tenants.

Then, build a new school nearby that specializes in math, science and technology.

Finally, construct a YMCA that offers activities for children and job training.

The experiment, Centennial Place, began in 1998 with the Y’s grand opening. A decade later, many involved say without Centennial Place, the area might not have been attractive enough for the likes of the new Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola. “None of that would had been built if Techwood Homes was there,” said Egbert Perry, a developer involved in the project. “Nobody was going to invest real money with 60 acres of that [Techwood Homes].”

Proponents also believe Centennial Place showed mixed-income communities can work, such as the Villages of East Lake. The community, once known for brazen violence, went through a similar transformation and is now considered a success.

But some are not sure that the experiment has worked. A team of Georgia State University professors — with help from tenant leaders and community activists — released a study earlier this month that found most elderly and disabled tenants in public housing don’t want to leave. The tenants are familiar with their current surroundings and worry it will be more difficult to get to public transportation, health care and other services if they live elsewhere.

The researchers also questioned whether tenants who take vouchers to help offset rent payments rather than live in public housing are better off.

“It is … unclear whether residents who remain in private-market housing [with or without a subsidy] have experienced improved living conditions in neighborhoods with less poverty,” the study said.

Techwood Homes was the original experiment. Opened in 1936, it was the nation’s first public housing complex. It housed 604 families in seven two-story row houses and 13 two-story apartments with modern amenities such as closets in every room, built-in bathtubs and hot and cold water. Techwood Homes was desegregated in 1968, but by then, the complex was no longer a modern marvel. In 1981, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development department approved $17 million to replace the roofs, flooring, heating, plumbing and windows at Techwood and its nearby neighbor, Clark Howell Homes.

Tenant Beverly Fambro moved to Techwood in 1972 with her two young children. In her first years there, Fambro said it was a nice place, with pink and white dogwoods lining the quiet streets she walked without fear, even at 2 a.m. More HERE

Katrina cottage occupants face new displacement

Rick Jervis at USA Today is reporting on how thousands of cottages housing hurricane victims on the Mississippi Gulf Coast will be vacated next month, even though many of their occupants aren't ready to move and may have no place to go if forced out.

USA Today reports, The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency distributed the one-, two- and three-bedroom structures to temporarily house displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There are still 2,300 occupied cottages in Mississippi, said Mike Womack, director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Many of the cottages sit on residents' lots while they rebuild wrecked homes, he said.

TRAILERS: Judge rejects class-action status in trailer suits

According to agreements between the state agency and cities, the cottages will need to be emptied by the end of January and removed by March, Womack said.

Housing advocates, residents and some local officials worry that forcing out residents, many of whom are trying to rebuild their homes, will aggravate an already dire housing situation.

"If these (cottages) are gone, there's just not going to be enough affordable housing," said Tim Kellar, county administrator of Hancock County, which includes Waveland. "We don't have an alternate plan if that happens."

FEMA distributed the cottages, free of charge, as an alternative to the temporary trailers that first housed hurricane victims. The program was applauded as Mississippi officials acquired and distributed thousands of the cottages; neighboring Louisiana lagged behind.

The cottages were always meant to be temporary, not a permanent housing solution, Womack said. The structures may not withstand another powerful storm and many violate zoning rules, he said.

"We just can't allow these cottages to stay in place where they're unsafe or degrading the property values of homes around them," Womack said. More HERE

Influx of black renters raises tension in Bay Area

Associated Press is reporting on how an influx of black renters is raising tension in Bay Area—

Karen Coleman and her husband, Thomas Coleman, section 8 housing voucher recipients, look out the window of their home in Antioch, Calif., Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. "A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who moved here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here." (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Paul Elias reports how more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.

Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out.

"A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburg. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

City officials deny the allegations in the lawsuits, which were filed last spring and seek unspecified damages.

Across the country, similar tensions have simmered when federally subsidized renters escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

But the friction in Antioch is "hotter than elsewhere," said U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush.

An increasing number of poor families receiving federal rental assistance have been moving here in recent years, partly because of the housing crisis.

A growing number of landlords were seeking a guaranteed source of revenue in a city hard-hit by foreclosures. They began offering their Antioch homes to low-income tenants in the HUD Section 8 housing program, which pays about two-thirds of every tenant's rent.

Between 2000 and 2007, Antioch's black population nearly doubled from 8,824 to 16,316. And the number of Antioch renters receiving federal subsidies climbed almost 50 percent between 2003 and 2007 to 1,582, the majority of them black.

Longtime homeowners complained that the new arrivals brought crime and other troubles. In 2006, violent crime in Antioch shot up about 19 percent from the year before, while property crime went down slightly.

"In some neighborhoods, it was complete madness," said longtime resident Gary Gilbert, a black retiree who organized the United Citizens of Better Neighborhoods watch group. "They were under siege."

So the Antioch police in mid-2006 created the Community Action Team, which focused on complaints of trouble at low-income renters' homes.

Police sent 315 complaints about subsidized tenants to the Contra Costa Housing Authority, which manages the federal program in the city, and urged the agency to evict many of them for lease violations such as drug use or gun possession. Lawyers for the tenants said 70 percent of the eviction recommendations were aimed at black renters. The housing authority turned down most of the requests.

Coleman said the police, after a complaint from a neighbor, showed up at her house one morning in 2007 to check on her husband, who was on parole for drunken driving. She said they searched the house and returned twice more that summer to try to find out whether the couple had violated any terms of their lease that could lead to eviction.

The Colemans were also slapped with a restraining order after a neighbor accused them of "continually harassing and threatening their family," according to court papers. The Colemans said a judge later rescinded the order.

Coleman and four other families are suing Antioch, accusing police of engaging in racial discrimination and conducting illegal searches without warrants. They have asked a federal judge to make their suit a class-action on behalf of hundreds of other black renters. Another family has filed a lawsuit accusing the city's leaders of waging a campaign of harassment to drive them out.

Police referred questions to the city attorney's office.

City Attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland denied any discrimination on the part of police and said officers were responding to crime reports in troubled neighborhoods when they discovered that a large number of the troublemakers were receiving federal subsidies.

"They are responding to real problems," Nerland said. Read MORE HERE

Housing Research.org says: This is happening across the country, when federally subsidized renters have escaped run-down housing projects and violent neighborhoods by moving to nicer communities in suburban Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. Let's hope this plays out positively. Hopefully HUD and the justice department and monitoring and taking the appropriate action on these cases.

ResearchWorks HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research

ResearchWorks is the official newsletter of U.S. HUD's Office of Policy Development & Research. ResearchWorks includes new publication announcements, relevant case studies, and success stories highlighting the efforts of those who care about housing, and who work to make it more affordable, more accessible, more energy and resource efficient, and above all, more readily available. HUD's stated intent is to create a bridge between the research and practitioner communities; check out the latest issue to see how we're doing in that regard.

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President Barack Obama, HUD, and Low-Income Homeowners

The Examiner.com is reporting on HUD in a great article regarding the man who will take over HUD. Wendy Gittleson of the North Denver Real Estate Examiner writes:

24 days from today, the man who campaigned on promises of “Hope” and “Change”, will be sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States. You’d arguably have to look back to FDR to see a new administration faced with so many dire challenges. While the cause of our situation is open for debate, it’s up to President Barack Obama to make fresh lemonade from the rotten lemons he’ll be handed.

If you’ve ever turned on a TV, read a blog or newspaper, or even walked down your block, you know the housing market is in deep trouble. Nationally, home values are down over 10% from a year ago. In nearly every neighborhood, there are homes in disrepair, showing signs of abandonment. Risky mortgages and job losses have put people in a position where they can’t afford their mortgage payments. They can’t sell without taking a serious loss, so they often just walk away and destroy their credit in the process. North Denver is faring better with a slight increase in property values, but hope is still a rare commodity in the real estate world.

The President Elect’s website lays out an ambitious agenda designed to help all homeowners, not just those in trouble. In my ongoing series, I’ll examine his policy agendas and his decisions and how they will affect the real estate market, especially in North Denver.

Until Obama takes office, we have little to judge but his promises. However, he has made some very concrete decisions in the form of cabinet nominees. One such nominee, Shaun Donovan, who has been chosen to head up the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has received rave reviews from economists and from the National Association of Realtors.

Donovan is currently the New York City Housing Commissioner. Senator Charles Schumer of New York calls Donovan, “one of the most effective housing commissioners in New York City’s history.” Prior to that position, he was a managing director at Prudential Mortgage Capital, where he was in charge of its portfolio of investments in affordable housing loans. Donovan worked for HUD under the Clinton administration.

Donovan will be part of an economic team lead by Tim Geithner, Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary, and Larry Summers, who will chair Obama's National Economic Council. As head of HUD, Donovan’s main challenge will be to confront the escalating foreclosure crisis. Despite the country’s deficit situation, Donovan will not be without funding. Obama plans on using the second half of the $700 billion bailout money to help homeowners in need. Congress set aside $300 billion to help homeowners trade their current mortgages for more affordable ones, though few have applied.

Donovan has a proven record of curtailing foreclosures and of making homeownership more affordable. His approach is to the left of center, though not anti private sector. In 2006, he was quoted as saying, “I’m in government because of the role of government in setting rules and working in partnership with the private sector. On the other hand, there’s no way you could ever get to a scale that can really affect the housing problems in this country without working with the market.” More HERE
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