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.

More HERE

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.

More HERE

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.

More HERE

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

HUD Stop Loss

Under the new Operating Fund rule, PHAs that will experience a decline in funding can have their losses “stopped” by demonstrating a successful conversion to asset management, i.e., “stop-loss.” This website contains information for PHAs regarding Stop-Loss.

	PIH Notice 2007-16, This notice provides information for public housing agencies (PHAs) that wish to submit documentation of successful conversation to asset management in order to discontinue their reduction in operating subsidy.
	PIH Notice 2006-35, This notice amends PIH notice, PIH 2006-14 (HA), issued, March 22, 2006, to extend the application submission deadline to qualify for the first stop-loss deadline to April 15, 2007. As provided in PIH 2006-14, stop-loss applies only to PHAs that [...]
	PIH Notice 2006-14, Operating Fund Program Final Rule: Transition Funding and Guidance on Demonstration of Successful Conversion to Asset Management to Discontinue the Reduction of Operating Subsidy, issued March 22, 2006.
	Demonstrating Successful Conversion To Asset Management: A Site Visit to the Charlotte Housing Authority
	Stop-Loss Submission Kit Stop-Loss Kit Fillable Forms Attachment A - Check List Required Information Attachment B - PHA Data Form Attachment C - Certification of Long Term Capital Planning Attachment D - Certificate of Compliance with Risk Management Responsibilities Description of How Management Services Are Arranged Sample Fillable Excel Site Budget Form
	Frequently Asked Questions
	Frequently Asked Questions - Stop Loss Extension
	Frequently Asked Questions - Fee for Service - This is in response to recently received questions from PHAs that are preparing their Year 1 Stop Loss applications.(Posted: March 16, 2007)
	Additional Frequently Asked Questions Related to Stop Loss - Part I - As the deadline for Year One applications for stop loss approaches, PHAs have generated a number of questions. (Posted: March 21, 2007)
	Additional Frequently Asked Questions Related to Stop Loss - Part II (Posted: April 3, 2007)

About The HOPE VI Program

Overview

The HOPE VI program serves a vital role in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's efforts to transform Public Housing.

The specific elements of public housing transformation that have proven key to HOPE VI include:

• Changing the physical shape of public housing
• Establishing positive incentives for resident self-sufficiency and comprehensive services that empower residents
• Lessening concentrations of poverty by placing public housing in nonpoverty neighborhoods and promoting mixed-income communities
• Forging partnerships with other agencies, local governments, nonprofit organizations, and private businesses to leverage support and resources

Eligible Applicants

Any Public Housing Authority that has severely distressed public housing units in its inventory is eligible to apply. Indian Housing Authorities and Public Housing Authorities that only administer the Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) Program are NOT eligible to apply. Individuals are also NOT eligible to apply.

Funding Opportunities

HOPE VI Revitalization grants fund:

• Capital costs of major rehabilitation, new construction and other physical improvements
• Demolition of severely distressed public housing
• Acquisition of sites for off-site construction
• Community and supportive service programs for residents, including those relocated as a result of revitalization efforts

HOPE VI Main Street grants provide assistance to smaller communities in the development of affordable housing that is undertaken in connection with a Main Street revitalization effort.

History and Background

National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing
The HOPE VI Program, originally known as the Urban Revitalization Demonstration (URD), was developed as a result of recommendations by the National Commission on Severely Distressed Public Housing, which was charged with proposing a National Action Plan to eradicate severely distressed public housing. The Commission recommended revitalization in three general areas:

• physical improvements,
• management improvements, and
• social and community services to address resident needs.

As a result, HOPE VI was created by the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993 (Pub.L. 102-389), approved on October 6, 1992.

HOPE VI Appropriations and Funding History

	FY 2006 Funding Information
	FY 2005 Funding Information
	FY 2004 Funding Information
	FY 2003 Funding Information
	FY 2002 Funding Information
	FY 2001 Funding Information
	FY 2000 Funding Information
	FY 1997-1999 Grant History
	HOPE VI Appropriations
	Program Authority and Funding History

Program Authority

HOPE VI operated solely by congressional appropriation from FY 1993 - 1999. The FY 1999 appropriation included the congressional authorization of HOPE VI as Section 24 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. Section 24 was implemented in the FY 2000 NOFA, and was reauthorized in conjunction with the American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003. Grants are governed by each Fiscal Year's Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), as published in the Federal Register, and the Grant Agreement executed between each recipient and HUD.

Grants Awarded

Awards	Grant FY Totals	Funding
35	Planning Grants 1993-1995	$14,752,081
236	Revitalization Grants 1993-2006	$5,828,856,376
285	Demolition Grants 1996-2003	$391,585,505
45	Neighborhood Networks 2002-2003	$9,967,500
6	Main Street Grants 2005-2006	$2,959,509
607	Total	$6,248,120,971

About Us

Housing Research is private, nonprofit organization based in metro Washington, D.C. (United States). We are concerned with improving America’s public housing through research, education, and technical assistance.

This website and blog concentrates on two public housing issues: ‘the revitalization of severely distressed properties and communities through the HOPE VI program, and the challenge of providing a continuum of supportive housing options for low-income seniors and disabled persons‘.

The site collates detailed information, links to websites, and press cuttings about different aspects of these two issues. In addition, reports and further documents are provided in PDF format (which require the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader to view).

For further information on Housing Research.org write: Leon “Nathaniel” Rock, CEO HousingResearch.org@GMail.com or contact us by phone at: (202) 204-2700

Chicago Residents Join Rally to Save Atlanta Public Housing

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, The Atlanta Progressive News (June 27, 2007)

Photographs by Jonathan Springston, Senior Staff Writer

(APN) ATLANTA Residents of, and advocates for, Chicago public housing joined Atlanta residents and advocates today for a rally at Atlanta City Hall. About 100 in total protested Atlanta's plans to demolish public housing. The rally coincided with the first day of the US Social Forum.

Organizations represented included the Task Force for the Homeless, ACORN, Women in Transition, Poor People's Human Rights Campaign, and Atlanta public housing resident associations. Tuna sandwiches and orange-colored drink were served for the homeless.

"I heard there's a public housing crisis. I said, oh no, that's where I wanna be. This is public housing people. This is family," Willie JR Fleming, of the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, said.

"This is a clear cut national plan of economic cleansing. In United Nations talk, this is an atrocity, a crime against humanity. This is what we call human rights violations," Fleming said.

"We're here to protect rights of public housing [residents]. We represent ten Housing Associations. We're at risk of being displaced. There's organizations coming in, condos. They said it's [Chicago public housing units are] physically obsolete. We want a structural engineer to come in. They're trying to block her," Lonnie Richardson, of Southside Together Organizing for Power (STOP), in Chicago, said.

More HERE

Federal Budget Cuts' Impact Public Housing

10 percent of phoenix's public housing units empty.

Crystal Lopez paints the toenails of her daughter Alexis, 2, while Areana, 5, and Anthony, 11 months, play outside her Phoenix apartment. Lopez says she moved more than 15 times in the two years she waited to get into public housing.

Thousands of people in Phoenix are waiting for a place to call home

Casey Newton
The Arizona Republic

More than 13,000 people are desperate to move into Phoenix public housing, which offers stable, affordable and relatively safe housing to the city's poorest residents.

Despite the long waiting list, nearly 10 percent of Phoenix's public housing is vacant, with the average unit sitting empty for more than five months before the city's housing staff places a new tenant.

Some 250 units are going unused, costing the city as much as $600,000 a year in lost revenue - revenue that would fund the very operations needed to fill the units more quickly.
The reason, housing officials say, is a staff shortage brought about by budget cuts at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Two years ago, Phoenix laid off 30 percent of its Housing Department staff. Today, the city lacks the resources to quickly refurbish apartments after they're vacated, officials say, or to process applications in a reasonable amount of time.

Funding shortfalls have required painful cuts across the nation, with housing authorities laying off staff members by the hundreds. But in other cities, vacancy rates remain far lower.

Phoenix maintains 2,473 federally subsidized apartments and homes, and the average unit sits empty for more than 23 weeks. Despite facing similar budget pressures, cities such as Dallas and San Antonio move new tenants into vacated units in as little as three weeks.

Concerned about the department's performance, some Phoenix City Council members are discussing dismantling the Housing Department, either privatizing it or folding it into another city department. More HERE

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Employment Barriers among HOPE VI Families

Relocation Is Not Enough

Employment Barriers among HOPE VI Families

Author(s): Diane Levy, Mark Woolley

Other Availability: PDF | Printer-Friendly Page

Permanent Link: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=311491

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

The text below is an excerpt from the complete document. Read the full brief in PDF format, or view a summary of the seven briefs in this series.

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Abstract

In addition to providing residents with an improved living environment, the HOPE VI program seeks to help them attain self-sufficiency. However, while there have been dramatic improvements in quality of life, there have been no overall changes in employment. HOPE VI residents' poor health impedes their ability to work. Efforts that address physical and mental health and other key barriers, such as education and safe, affordable child care availability, could prove more effective than job training or placement efforts alone in improving the chances that former and current public housing residents move into employment or retain jobs they already have.

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Introduction

The HOPE VI program seeks to improve economic self-sufficiency among original residents of severely distressed public housing developments and to improve the developments themselves. The self-sufficiency goal is particularly challenging in light of the extreme poverty, low education levels, and poor health many residents experience. Underlying the goal are hypotheses about how change would take place—that families would realize gains by moving to resource- and job-rich areas, by living among neighbors who could serve as role models and sources of employment information, or by accessing job and education services through the program's community and supportive services, or CSS, component (Cove et al. forthcoming; Popkin et al. 2004).

HOPE VI's CSS, which at many sites offers job training and placement services, is intended to benefit residents directly and to increase families' chances of meeting criteria for living in the new mixed-income developments—an important point in light of employment requirements for tenancy at some redeveloped sites.1 Employment affects not only a family's self-sufficiency, therefore, but its housing options as well. However, there are no established standards for CSS service packages or implementation practices. To date there is no evidence on the effectiveness of the voluntary CSS services for improving residents' self-sufficiency.

Through the HOPE VI Panel Study, we have tracked residents from five sites where relocation began in 2001 (see text box on page 9). We surveyed residents before relocation in 2001 and again in 2003 and 2005. According to evidence from the study, HOPE VI has led to improved life circumstances for many residents, who report living in better housing located in safer neighborhoods (Buron, Levy, and Gallagher 2007; Popkin and Cove 2007; Comey 2007). But these improvements in living conditions have not affected employment. At baseline, 48 percent of the working-age respondents were not employed—the same share as at the 2003 and 2005 follow-ups. In this brief, we explore why there has been no change. Our findings suggest that HOPE VI relocation and voluntary supportive services are unlikely to affect employment or address the many factors that keep disadvantaged residents out of the labor force.

(End of excerpt. The complete brief is available in PDF format.)

Related Research

• HOPE VI'd and On the Move >>
• Safety Is the Most Important Thing >>
• Housing Choice Vouchers >>