2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-660 Mayfair Commons/Loudoun House Conversion
Vienna, Virginia
Contact: Richard Hauler (703) 641-9000

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The owners of Loudoun House, a 100%project based rental assistance apartment complex, exercised the option to pre-pay this 1971 HUD 236 financed property. This project had 248 units and the condition was so poor that the rehabilitation required closure of the entire project for one year. This required 100% relocation of tenants. The County of Loudoun Housing Services was informed of the pending sale in September of 1998, the property sold in December 1998 and all tenants had to be relocated by March 1999. Loudoun County had a 1% vacancy rate and increasing rents as the families relocated. Directly across the street was the other HUD 236 project that sold in May 1998, which did not require off site relocation, but added stress to market conditions and staff resources.

2000-229 Neighborhood Action
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Joseph P. Goldman (202) 727-2823

Anthony A. Williams ran for Mayor in the District of Columbia on a platform of government accountability and improved service. After decades of mismanagement and pervasive distrust of the government, Williams maintained that the Mayor’s Office must be held accountable for providing top-rate services to citizens. Government alone, however, cannot solve all of the District’s problems. Only by involving the entire community in the development and implementation of the city’s priorities can the District become a city worthy of being our nation’s capital. Williams sought to build faith in the District’s future by actively engaging the community in the governance process and showing the community that the government would listen and act upon their priorities. Several months after his election Williams launched his Neighborhood Action initiative which aimed at developing a new cycle of governance in the District as well as engaging citizens in the development of the government’s FY2001 budget priorities and strategic plan. This process involves the Washington community in setting shared priorities, connects those priorities to the city’s budget process, and holds each sector responsible for doing its share to implement those priorities. The process—which was designed and facilitated by AmericaSpeaks—has brought several innovations to the public sector, most notably the use of technology to engage citizens in priority setting through large-scale forums and the linking of community input with a strategic planning process, budget process and performance management system. Before beginning the planning process or engaging the community, extensive research was conducted on past planning and citizen input efforts. In years past, the District had engaged in a large number of such efforts and it was important that Neighborhood Action not be perceived as attempting to "reinvent the wheel." Following this review of past efforts as well as input about citizen priorities which had been received by the Mayor and his agencies since taking office, a cabinet retreat was held to launch the Citywide Strategic Planning Process. At the Retreat, cross-agency teams were created to develop draft strategic plans for six priority areas: Building and Sustaining Healthy Neighborhoods, Investing in Children and Youth, Strengthening Families, Making Government Work, Economic Development, and Unity of Purpose and Democracy. Over the course of several months, the cross-agency teams worked with community stakeholders to develop the draft plans. In November, the draft plans were presented to 3,000 District residents at a Citizen Summit. At the Summit, citizens participated in a seven-hour, facilitated discussion about their priorities for their city and their neighborhoods. Citizens talked about their vision and priorities for the city, gave feedback on the draft plan, and discussed actions which needed to be taken in their neighborhoods. Citizens sat at 10-12 person round tables with trained facilitators. Each table had a networked laptop computer and 12 wireless polling keypads. Upon reaching consensus on questions posed to them during the program, each table could enter their messages to the Mayor into their laptop computer. The data instantly was sent to a "theme team" of staff, whose responsibility was to identify themes from the data. Through the work of the "theme team," Mayor Williams could respond to the themes coming from citizens in real time, letting citizens know their voices were being heard. The polling keypads allowed the Mayor and the Summit’s moderator to poll citizens throughout the program on questions ranging from demographics to policy priorities to their satisfaction with the event. The results of each poll could be seen instantly on large screens at the front of the room. Using their polling keypads, 94% of the Summit participants said they had the opportunity to "fully participate," 91% of the participants rated the Summit as "excellent" or "good," 96% said the technology added value to the forum, and 99% said Neighborhood Action was an important program. Over 300 pages of feedback were collected from citizens at the Summit. Input about citizen priorities was also collected through the Neighborhood Action web page, a discussion guide which was published in the Washington Post and Washington Times with a feedback form, and phone lines which were available to citizens who watched the Citizen Summit live on cable television. The input was analyzed and grouped into themes by a team of 15 staff people. A report on the citizen priorities was presented to the Mayor’s agency directors and was also sent to every participant from the Summit. At a Cabinet Retreat in December, the Mayor’s agency directors discussed how the Citywide Strategic Plan could be modified based on the citizen priorities which were articulated through the Summit. On January 29, Neighborhood Action convened 1,500 citizens to present revisions to the Citywide Strategic Plan based on input from the Summit. Once again, citizens participated in facilitated, round-table discussions with wireless polling keypads. They were provided with the revised plan, as well as a document describing how the plan responded to each strong citizen priority. Final input was collected from citizens at the January 29 forum and the Citywide Strategic Plan was finalized in February. The finalized plan drove the development of the Mayor’s FY2001 budget request which was released in early March. Accompanying the Mayor’s budget request was a document which described how each of the citizen’s priorities were being funded in the city’s budget. The next steps for Neighborhood Action will be three-fold: ? Implementation: The Citywide Strategic Plan will be implemented by government agencies. A performance management system has been developed to hold agency directors and their staffs accountable for implementing citizen priorities and the plan. A public scorecard will also be used to hold the government accountable for doing its part in implementing citizen priorities. ? Employee and Multi-Sector Alignment: Neighborhood Action will work with government agencies to ensure that the activities of the agencies and their employees are fully aligned with the priorities of the Citywide Strategic Plan. Neighborhood Action will also work with businesses, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and civic groups to align their activities with citizen priorities and the Citywide Strategic Plan. ? Neighborhood Planning: Beginning this Summer, Neighborhood Action will convene neighborhood planning processes in 39 neighborhood clusters throughout the city. These planning forums will focus on developing neighborhood work plans to implement neighborhood priorities and prepare for the Mayor’s FY2002 budget request.

2000-1094 Train the Trainers Seminar on Home Buyers Education Learning
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Thomas Bankins (202) 275-9200

Seminar focusing on HUD's HELP Program to train potential trainers from Counseling Agencies to significantly improve the quality and comprehensive homeownership counseling service to prospective renters and homebuyers.

2000-1570 Small and Minority Business Loan Program
Alexandria, Virginia
Contact: Lawrence A. Roberts (703) 768-1440

Fairfax County applied for and received $1,000,000 in HUD Section 108 Loan funds to establish and capitalize a Small and Minority Business Loan Program (BLP). In addition, an Economic Development Initiative grant was also awarded in the amount of $150,000 to supplement the implementation of this program. The BLP is being administered for the County by the non-profit subrecipient Community Business Partnership (CBP), which was formerly South Fairfax Regional Business Partnership, Inc.. CBP operates the program by making loans either directly or as a guarantee to borrowers for working capital, the purchase of equipment and/or the purchase of other assets to new small businesses getting started or extending existing businesses in the Richmond Highway commercial corridor area.

2000-1695 10th Grade Fair Housing Curriculum for National, State and Local Government Classes
Washington, D.C.
Contact: James E. Black (202) 275-9200

The Montgomery County Maryland Human Relations commission (HRC), in cooperation with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), Street Law, Inc. (contractor), and the Fannie Mae Foundation, has developed a comprehensive fair housing curriculum for use in approximately 100 10th grade social studies classes in all 23 of the district's high schools. Believing fully that it is critical to provide children with fair housing and human rights instruction, the HRC, and the interagency Fair Housing Coordinating Group (an advisory group to the Fair Housing program), have worked with MCPS and the contractor to develop lessons which create an awareness of housing discrimination, diversity, and promote tolerance. This is of increasing importance as the demographics of both Montgomery County and the country continue to change. This joint effort has resulted in an innovative curriculum that also meets some of the state requirements in history, sociology, economics and civics. Students will be asked to envision their ideal home and neighborhood; to imagine how life would be different today if fair housing had been the reality for everyone throughout history; and to analyze historical methods of housing discrimination, indicators that housing discrimination still exists, and strategies aimed at halting housing discrimination.

2000-1809 Entrepreneurial Seminars
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Joyce L. Rummin (202) 275-9200

The Washington DC Metropolitan Field Office (WDCMFO) in partnership with the Howard University Small Business Development Center developed and has been implementing small group Entrepreneurial Seminars, held at the HUD Next Door Store site. The Entrepreneurial Seminars accommodate 35 individuals and include three sessions each of: Introduction to Business Ownership; Starting a Business; and one final session of Orientation to the Business Plan. The sessions are scheduled every 3rd Wednesday of the month from January through July 2000. More than 400 preregistrations were received for attendance at the seminars from individuals from the Washington Metropolitan area, and there have been an average of 15-20 participants attending the sessions thus far. The first two sessions were held in Spanish to encourage those with English as a second language to consider entrepreneurship as a means for economic development. The materials were provided in Spanish and the instructor from the Howard University Small Business Development Center was extremely knowledgeable and helpful for those participants who were able to think in their native language and pursue the information they needed in comfort. The seminars were an outgrowth from the WDCMFO's Entrepreneurial Forum which was held in April 1999 at the Washington, DC Convention Center, where more than 400 individuals attended the one day overview session for becoming an Entrepreneur.

2000-1982 DC Link and Learn
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Archie B. Prioleau (202) 554-7400

D.C. Link-and-Learn (DCLL) is a one-of-a-kind 40,000-sq. ft. state-of-the-art applied education facility located in Waterside Mall in southwest Washington, DC. DCLL's web site is at http://www.link-learn.org. DCLL features a full service Family Technology Center, industry-certified Workforce Readiness Institute, and Micro-Enterprise Incubator. DCLL is also a partner in the Regional Jobs Initiative. DCLL is the first community technology center of its kind in the nation. The purpose of DCLL is to create and sustain skilled IT manpower from the economically distressed and educationally underprivileged areas of the District of Columbia. DCLL serves younger persons through programs offered by DCLL's on-site business partners such as Sprint, Xerox, and the DC Dept. of Employment Services and through contracted summer programs such as Summer Youth Enrichment Program sponsored by the DC Department of Employment Services. FEI believes that the IT education DCLL provides is the means to economic self-sufficiency for DC's disadvantaged citizens. Students can earn industry certifications in one of four IT-based institutes: „X DCLL Networking Technology Institute „X DCLL Software Development Training „X DCLL Multimedia Institute [under development] „X DCLL Geographical Information Systems Institute [currently under development] In addition, DCLL offers General Workforce and Skills Classes, General Proficiency Training for Senior Citizens, Computer Training for Kids and Teens, Preparatory Program for Teachers, Trainers, and Parents, General Proficiency Training for small businesses and nonprofits, and the Pillars of Success Lecture Series. Just as critical, DCLL has pioneered methods in which the center strives to develop new businesses. These businesses serve to provide internships and practicums for the people being trained. They also serve to provide a revenue stream for the training that is provided. Technology centers in America are often created but left alone because they do not have the ability to pay for high price, industry certified trainers. DCLL has made a major move to solve this issue without requiring additional philanthropically support.

2000-2113 Association of Neighbors/PUENTE - YO PUEDO (I Can) Project
Hyattsville, Maryland
Contact: Modesto A. Ulerio (301) 431-6518

The "Yo Puedo" ( I Can) Project, is a comprehensive, culturally sensitive, literacy project for Latinos ages 18 and over. Project participants are from Prince George's and Montgomery County MD. The project is aimed at developing and enhancing the participants skills in order for them to attain empowerment through being successful at passing U.S. Citizenship exams, as new citizens participating in local government, learn about government resources such as HUD's Products and Services, available first time homeowners programs in their jurisdictions and participating in Home Buyer's Education Clubs. The "YO PUEDO" education project is presently carried out at a local policing center in Prince George's County. Groups of residents meet twice a week on evenings since most work during the day and have 1-2 jobs. Groups also meet on weekends for special activities and events including seminars and workshops on different topics.

2000-2238 FREEDOM 2000 Homeownership
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Muslimah Ramadan (202) 291-6153

Developed a multi-disciplined Homeownership Program for the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), which addressed four goals: Increasing affordable housing and homeownership; Promoting jobs and economic opportunity; Empowering people and communities; Restoring public trust. Increasing Affordable Housing and Homeownership: The District of Columbia Housing authority (DCHA), through its Homeownership Program is transforming public housing residents into homeowners. One major challenge confronting DCHA had been managing its scattered sites. Scattered sites are 310 single-family homes (usually row or townhouses) scattered throughout all quadrants of the city. By it’s description one can imagine the logistical difficulty for property management. The homes comprising the scattered-sites were purchased in the 1960’s in response to the need for additional public housing units for households displaced by urban renewal. Many of the current residents of scattered sites have been residing in these homes since that time. It is because of the long-term residents of these properties that David Gilmore, the Receiver of DCHA, determined that the opportunity of homeownership to public housing residents offered an excellent vehicle to encourage independence and self-reliance. To ensure that the home would be affordable for the eligible purchasers, the Scattered Site Homeownership Program sold the units at below market prices. A homeownership credit and a soft second trust were the instruments used to reduce the purchase price. The homeownership credit gives the resident credit for the number of years s/he has resided in the scattered site. This credit recognizes the resident’s contribution toward the repair and upkeep of the property. The resident earns one full year of credit for each year of residency in the scattered site unit. The resident earns an additional credit for the number of years residing in other assisted housing. A credit of ½ year is earned for each year of residency in other assisted housing. The combination of these credits result in a substantial reduction in the purchase price. Given the range of value in the scattered site housing stock, it was determined that the homeownership credit was a fair and equitable method to provide below-market terms. Additionally, if the homeownership credit is not sufficient to meet the program affordability standards, a soft second trust will be utilized to further reduce the price. The soft second will close the gap between funds needed for acquisition and the borrower’s affordability. Jobs and Economic Empowerment The properties are in good repair but major systems must replaced and plumbing and electrical upgraded as a condition for conveyance. The program requires the cost estimates of rehabilitation and repairs to fit within the affordability guidelines that have been developed by DCHA. This feature allows DCHA to justify a reasonable expectation that homeownership will be affordable to the purchasers. The terms of the sale shall include measures to assure that the work will be completed within a reasonable time after conveyance, not to exceed two years. To ensure this outcome, DCHA will require the purchasing resident to have an independent home inspection. The independent inspection of each property by a certified home inspector determines the required repairs needed to meet the requirements of 24 CFR 906.6 (b); housing code violations, replace major systems, address energy efficiency issues and other minor systems and appliances that are near the end of their useful lives. Cosmetic improvements will be allowed if they are in the realm of affordability. The inspector performs the work write-up for the property. The work write-up includes the cost estimates of all required repairs. The required repairs and upgrades must be performed in the following order: 1. Meet local housing code or housing quality standards established by HUD for Section 8 Housing Assistance Program. 2. Repair or replacement of major systems. 3. Address energy efficiency issues. 4. Cosmetic repairs and upgrades The average cost of repair for each house is about $15,000. First Union Mortgage Corporation is providing the private financing for the purchase and rehabilitation of the property. FUMC requires the purchasers’ contractors to be approved. The scope of work is not economically attractive to major development companies. It is work that a local small contractor could handle. But due to the licensing and bonding requirements it makes it difficult for the small minority firms to pass the bank’s scrutiny. We were able to secure a local minority firm, Tito Contractors which is approved by FUMC, that agreed to hire local certified craftsmen and coordinated the work schedules and rehabilitation. The total rehabilitation amounted to approximately $500,000. These dollars were spent with local small community businesses, which would not have had the opportunity to obtain this work. The construction phase of the project provided the residents with the capacity to hire small minority businesspersons. This gave them a sense of pride knowing that they were contributing to the economic empowerment of the local small business community. In addition, many of the contractors employed youth to assist in the rehabilitation process, which fostered job development and economic empowerment. Empowering People and Communities The goal of the homeownership program was to empower residents to become self-sufficient, self-reliant and productive contributors to their communities. To accomplish this goal counseling is provided to prospective purchasers. The counseling program was based on a strategic approach to financial counseling. The primary objectives of financial counseling is to enable participants to increase their financial management skills, develop confidence in decision-making skills, and to gain more control over their lives by taking charge of their finances. The strategy of financial counseling is to identify perceptions that affect how persons make decisions; how they use money; how they view their personal business and financial goals. Once perceptions are identified counseling focuses on supplying new information that is intended to motivate persons toward learning and developing new behaviors and attitudes. The methodology is a case study approach. The practical application of the case studies teach the requisite skills for appropriate financial decision-making and adhere to the counseling principle that as you increase the information to persons, you increase their freedom of choice. Increasing a person’s freedom of choice builds trust, and the person is least likely to feel trapped or cornered into making a financial decision. This methodology teaches the participant how to make intelligent financial decisions based on quantifiable information and empowers them. Empowering the residents to make sound financial decisions will provide the necessary assurances that they will be able to maintain and sustain their homes. Maintaining their homes will impact the economic stability of their neighborhoods. Thereby, encouraging members of the community to recognize that public housing residents can become successful homeowners and viable contributors to the community. Successful homeownership among public housing residents will change the public perception regarding persons who live in assisted housing. It will empower the community to recognize that a persons circumstance is not an indicator of their inability to be good neighbors and productive contributors to the community. To further stabilize the communities where the scattered-sites were sold, the actual appraised values of the homes were maintained. Although the homes were sold at a reduced price to the residents, the sales transactions maintained the true value of the home and thus made no negative impact on the neighborhood or community-at-large home values. Use of this financing strategy accomplished HUD’s strategic goal of Restoring Public Trust

2000-2404 East Capital Center for Change/East Capitol Brothers and Sisters for Change Apprenticeship
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Curtis Watkins

This effective, neighborhood-based youth intervention initiative is a participant in the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise's Violence Free Zone initiative. The effort is led by founder and director of the East Capitol Center for Change, assisted by Mrs. Evelyn Brown, the president of the East Capitol Dwellings Resident Council. With a foundation of trust that has been build through consistent personal outreach to the at-risk and high-risk youths in what had been one of the District's most violence plagued neighborhoods, ECCC was able to establish peace in the community and engendered remarkable transformations in the lives of the neighborhood's young people many of whom were formerly involved with drugs. Once peace was established and the youths began to move in a positive direction, ECCC sought to create partnerships that would offer them opportunities for training, employment, and education and would facilitate their re-integration into family and community life. As public and private sector partners and local residents joined in this community revitalization effort, ECCC's outreach developed into twelve program areas.

2000-2571 Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Marc A. Weiss (202) 554-7440

The Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership was created in June, 1998, as part of National Homeownership Week in the nation's capital. It is modeled on the National Partners in Homeownership and the many state and local partnerships that are officially recognized by HUD through the National Homeownership Strategy. Indeed, the Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership was officially recognized by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo in April, 1999, as a designated partnership of the National Homeownership Strategy. The Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership has 100 active members, representing both organizations and individuals, both for-profit and non-profit entities, engaged in all aspects of promoting affordable housing and homeownership, along with empowering people and communities, and promoting jobs and economic opportunity, three of HUD's six Strategic Goals. The Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership was created as part of the overall effort initiated by the Congress, the Control Board, the DC government, the private business sector, civic leaders, community-based organizations, and faith-based groups, to produce the Strategic Economic Development Plan for Washington, DC, which was officially completed and released on November 12, 1998 at the city's Economic Summit held at the World Bank. That document, entitled "The Economic Resurgence of Washington, DC: Citizens Plan for Prosperity in the 21st Century", identified attracting and retaining residents as a key goal for increasing prosperity and quality of life for people and communities, and specifically included Action 18 -- "Promote Homeownership with Employers, Churches, and Schools" -- as one of the 40 key actions of the strategic plan, and identified the Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership as the main public-private partnership that would provide the leadership in successfully and effectively carrying out this action. Working with HUD's local office, especially through Community Builders such as Joyce Drumming and Lorraine Richardson, with the DC Housing Finance Agency and the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with the Mortgage Bankers Association of Washington, with the DC Building Industry Association, with the Washington DC Association of Realtors, with the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, with LISC and the Enterprise Foundation and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation and Habitat for Humanity, with the housing and homeownership counseling agencies, with many individual lenders, insurers, appraisers, inspectors, realtors and realists, counselors, educators, developers, builders, community leaders, employers, churches, schools, communications media, and other major public and private institutions, the Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership has succeeded in exceeding its ambitious goal for two consecutive years of creating more than 1,000 new low- and moderate-income homeowners in the city's neighborhoods. Indeed during both 1998 and 1999, homeownership and home sales activity increased by a higher percentage rate in Washington, DC than in any other jurisdiction in the metropolitan region or in any other major central city in the nation. The Washington, DC Partners in Homeownership and all of its constituent members played vital roles in producing these results, working together in many ways, including the seven committees of the Partnership: Attracting and Retaining Residents (Action 18); Building Communities; Education and Counseling; Financing; Legislative; Marketing; and Production. The Partnership has taken on projects ranging from coordinating the celebration of National Homeownership Week during 1999 and again this year (2000); producing a comprehensive loan product notebook and a homeownership resource guide; developing a standard curriculum for homeownership education and counseling; dealing with loss mitigation and foreclosure prevention; scattered-site homeownership for public housing residents; employer-assisted homeownership working with Fannie Mae, and several universities, hospitals, and banks; and many other initiatives.

2000-2674 Springvale Terrace
Washington, D.C.
Contact: John W. Shanley (202) 275-9200

The United Church of Christ Home, Inc. (UCCHI) was incorporated in 1963 to provide retirement housing and services for older adults in a non-denominational, non-profit setting. A successor to the Congregational Homes, Inc., of Washington DC, UCCHI established Springvale Terrace in 1965. This non-profit retirement home was designed to meet the physical, social, spiritual and psychological needs of the elderly. For over thirty years, the UCCHI board of Directors has devoted its energies to contributing to the health, security, usefulness and happiness of Springvale residents. Springvale Terrace is managed by Coordinated Services Management, Inc. (CSM, Inc.) CSM took over management of Springvale Terrace in May 1996, Springvale Terrace has made a dramatic turnaround. The vacancies were running at 50% units (68% occupancy). In just one year, May 1997, this decreased to 20 vacant units (87% occupancy). As of June 1999, Springvale Terrace has been at 99-100% occupancy. One of the major factors in the successful occupancy at Springvale Terrace is the services offered. In 1987, Christ Congregational Church (UCC) provided seed money to begin the process of offering Personal Care Service. The provided support and a contract was granted by Maryland Office on Aging. In addition to Personal Care, Springvale Terrace offers one additional level of care: Enhanced Personal Care as well as Residential Living.

2000-2922 La Clinica Del Pueblo
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Staci N. Gilliam (202) 708-0614

La Clinica del Pueblo is a minority non-profit medical center that provides primary care, education and advocacy to low-income Latinos in the District of Columbia. La Clinica received funding to implement an education and training program targeting African Americans and Latinos living in Enterprise Community Census Tracts in the District of Columbia. They specifically target the subgroups of parents of young children and construction/building workings living in these areas. They reached these target groups by utilizing Spanish radio and television to air lead awareness messages. La Clinica developed effective partnerships with local community-based organizations, churches, health care providers, and employers revolving around the issue of lead poisoning. They provided lead based paint awareness literature in both English and Spanish at local health fairs, schools, clinics, and churches throughout the community. La Clinica del Pueblo is responsible for encouraging blood-lead screenings for children within the Latino population of Washington, DC, and has worked to promote safe work practices for those working in the housing remodeling industry.

2000-1707 Washington DC Metropolitan Area Hispanic Housing and Community Development Collaborative
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Jose Rodriguez (202) 588-5102

This project is a regional coalition whose members are representatives and Leaders from diverse entities (non-profits and for profit community organizations, other community organizations, government officials, lending institutions) serving the Washington DC Metropolitan area. The collaborative was formed in 1999 by community leaders to address identified gaps in services, policy and funding for housing and community development and an identified need for an advocacy group that would voice the concerns and housing needs of the Hispanic community in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area. HHCD serves as a clearing house and an advocacy organizations for the unique and diverse housing and community development issues affecting the Regional Latino community. The collaborative serves as a mechanism for Regional leaders to discuss and come up with solutions to diverse and common issues affecting Hispanic communities in the region. The HHCD monitors national political forces to: ensure and promote public housing policy that is responsive to the needs of Hispanic communities in the Region; participates in dialogues with and presentations to public officials from government and private agencies; sensitizes and educates individuals/groups, regarding cultures and needs of Hispanic communities in the Washington DC Metropolitan area, and to support and increase access to services and programs; facilitates training on housing and community development and ensures participation by Regional nonprofit agencies.

2000-1509 Adopt-A- Family
Washington, D.C.
Contact: Ronald J. Herbert (202) 275-9200

Adopt-A-family was created thirteen years ago by Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless (AACH) to further the mission of permanent housing and self-sufficiency. The program provides 12 to 24 months of transitional services to families leaving emergency shelters and creates a network for re-entry into private housing. Adopt-A-.Family features rental assistance, case management, employment counseling and a wide variety of supportive services.

2000-3273 Good Shepherd Housing and Family Services
Alexandria, Virginia
Contact: Shirley M. Marshall (703) 768-9404

Good Shepherd Housing has a two-prong approach to preventing homelessness. These programs address different aspects of clients' lives. First, there are services geared at making long-term changes in families' lives. Such programs include "A-B-C, Apartments, Budgeting, Counseling", Homeless Transition, Budget Counseling, Positive Parenting and Children's Resources. The second type are services to help families get through short-term crises and keep down expenses. These take the form of emergency services and may be a small grant to prevent eviction from one's apartment, assistance with a security deposit on a home, and a furniture recycling program.

2000-1269 FSS/RISE Family Self Sufficiency/Resource Initiatives for Self Employment
Largo, Maryland
Contact: Mary Lou McDonough

FSS/RISE is a partnership between the Prince George's Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Housing Authority of Prince George's County, MD. It is a welfare reform initiative targeting services to families living in and/or eligible for Section 8 Housing, who also receive Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA). The program targets the resources of two agencies to assist families in achieving economic self sufficiency. The Program is the first major mutual effort by the separate agencies to assist the needs of mutual recipients of services.

2000-2797 Villages of Montpelier
Laurel, Maryland
Contact: Kat Walsh (301) 953-2316

Villages of Montpelier is a 520 unit mixed-income, multifamily housing community located in Laurel, Maryland. The neighborhood was once characterized by a high volume of drug trafficking and criminal activity, as well as vacant and run-down buildings. Housing Opportunities Unlimited (HOU), took the lead role in targeting the residents and surrounding community to find attack the problems and resolve it in a group effort. The complex offers a variety of residential services to the tenants and surrounding community.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011