2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-1753 Chelsea Plaza Homes/Partners Working Against Crime
Kansas City, Kansas
Glenda Jordon (913) 281-1399

Chelsea Plaza Homes, through the tireless efforts of its manager, Glenda Jordan, has formed a strong partnership with neighborhood homeowner's associations, businesses, civic groups, service providers, government entities and local law enforcement. This partnership, called Partners Working Against Crime, was born through the encouragement and support of the local HUD office and initially only had four members. It has now grown to include 46 partners and service/support providers. The focus of the partnership is to unify a once fragmented and disenfranchised community into a forceful committed group to address, not only the serious criminal and drug-related problems in this urban neighborhood, but to connect the residents of the community with the many service providers available to them. Chelsea Plaza now acts as the HUB for the Northeast area of Kansas City, Kansas, sponsoring numerous social and educational activities as well as serving as service referral point for the community.

2000-49 Enforcing HUD’s Fair Housing Guidelines: Identifying Design and Construction Violations
Omaha, Nebraska
Gary Fischer (402) 444-6675

This organization identifies design and construction violations, partnering with State and Federal enforcement agencies to ensure that legislation is passed and laws changed. The main objective of this organization is to increase adequate accessible new construction housing stock. They work closely with the Nebraska EEOC and the FHIP and FHAP in the area and operates as a program of Family Housing Advisory Services, Inc.

2000-210 Unscrupulous Lending and Home Improvement Task Force
Kansas City, Missouri
Donovan Mouton (816) 513-3513

The Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor's Unscrupulous Lending and Home Improvement Task Force includes representatives from the Mayor's Office, the Missouri Attorney General, U.S. Attorney, Legal Aid, Neighborhood Alliance, AARP, Consumer Credit Counseling, Community Revitalization, Mortgage Bankers, City Council, Jackson County Prosecutor, Kansas City Star, Metropolitan Lutheran Ministries, Missouri Division of Aging, and HUD. It is established to monitor predatory lending and home improvement scams and make recommendations for remedies to the City and to advocate for legislation locally and nationally.

2000-52 Fair Housing Faith and Community Fair
Kansas City, Missouri
Wallace Hartsfield (816) 923-3689

Led by the Metropolitan Baptist Church, a coalition of church leaders, Federal agencies, schools and colleges sponsored an all day fair housing and civil rights fair.

2000-205 Missouri Commission on Human Rights-partnering in the fight for fair housing
Jefferson City, Missouri
Donna Cavitte (573) 522-1019

Missouri Commission on Human Rights is partnering with a Housing Counseling Agency-Columbia Interlight Ministry-MCHR has provided fair housing training to the agency staff and CIM has provided complaints in the four counties it serves. MCHR also has arranged to train the Extension Agency staff in all counties and those offices now refer complainants to the Commission. In addition, MCHR has developed a fair housing quiz show that it takes to state and county fairs. This gets a lot of attention at those fairs and helps educate the public about fair housing issues.

2000-1434 Junction City, Kansas Housing Authority - Resident/Parent Career Resource Center
Junction City, Kansas
James H. Tate (785) 238-5882

One of Junction City Housing Authority's (JCHA) policies is to move families from a dependent lifestyle to a self-sufficient one. With this in mind, JCHA identified the need for career counseling for those families affected by the Welfare Reform Program. JCHA converted on of their family units into a Resident/Parent Career Resource Center. The Center is in close proximity to other units, ensuring easy accessibility by the residents. Residents are given the opportunity to prepare themselves and developed the skills necessary for today's job market. JCHA has also provided several computers for the Career Resource Center to aid the residents in the preparation of resumes and computer training. This program works in collaboration with the USD #475 Geary county Heas start Program. Parent Involvement, Nutrition and Health, Education and Transition Coordinators from the Head Start program provide training and supervision to all the residents. JCHA also has a "professional closet" where they furnish the residents with business attire for their prospective interviews.

2000-615 Workout Efforts on Delinquent Loans
Springfield, Missouri
Chuck Marinec (417) 864-1097

The City of Springfield, Missouri has developed innovative and proactive procedures to minimize its losses on delinquent loans provided through the City's owner-occupied rehab program. These workout procedures include the participation of various City staff, including the project specialist, housing assistance officer, assistant City attorney, and risk management administrator, as well as the Loan Committee. The workout process is initiated when (1) the borrower defaults on a loan ahead of the city loan, or (2) the borrower dies and the heirs will not cooperate with the City in paying off the amount due as a result of these measures, the City has recouped its public investments and recycled the funds for use by other needy homeowners.

2000-1837 Foxmoor Housing Development
Kansas City, Kansas
Richard Rulz (913) 677-0100

Development of eleven (11) units of single-family housing on land donated by Brotherhood Bank & Trust to ECI Development Corporation, a local non-profit development entity working under the auspices of El Centro, Inc., a non-profit social service agency serving residents of Kansas City, Kansas. Project neighborhood is the site of a stalled market-rate single-family development not located in an area of low-income or minority concentration. In 1995, ECI Development received a donation from Brotherhood Bank & Trust of 20 undeveloped lots in a half-finished subdivision of Kansas City, Kansas. Working in partnership with the City’s Housing and Community Development Division and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, El Centro/ECI was able to identify sources of funds with which to carry out the development of ten (10) of these lots.

2000-2018 SAVE Housing

SAVE, Inc.'s mission is to provide housing services to HIV and AIDS challenged individuals and families to enable them to live with personal dignity. SAVE, Inc. was founded in 1986 and has been the sole source provider of housing and housing related services to individuals who are both infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. SAVE, Inc. has worked since 1986 to meet the growing demand of the HIV/AIDS population and has successfully housed and/or assisted more than 1,500 individuals in a sixteen county service area, administering housing assistance subsidies to all Missouri clients (except the St. Louis region) who are homeless or in danger of homelessness because of HIV/AIDS. In 1999, SAVE, Inc. was awarded a contract by the Missouri Department of Mental Health to administer 200 affordable housing vouchers for clients with either mental health or HIV/AIDS disabilities.

2000-2946 The Housing Authority of the City of Noel, MO (NHA)
Noel, Missouri
Joyce Short (417) 475-3195

The NHA is a small, rural PHA comprised of 100 units - 60 family units and 40 elderly. The complex is located in McDonald County, MO, one of the poorest counties in MO. NHA residents are primarily employed at a local poultry processing plant. Waiting lists for subsidized housing, particularly for larger families are long. In the past three years, a large Hispanic immigrant population from Mexico and the State of Texas have arrived to enjoy local employment opportunities at the processing plant. The community of Noel is unique in that the population is around 2,000 (1140 in the 1990 census) and 35-40 percent is now Hispanic speaking. Aware of a dirth of homes in Noel which are structurally unsound and in need of repair and concern over the continued shortage of rental properties, the NHA Board of Commissioners decided to improve these properties throughout the community, so a Homeownership plan for the PHA was devised: - NHA resident and community-wide low-income preferences were established - Eligible qualified residents can elect a percentage of rent set-aside for an escrow towards a down payment and/or closing costs - "Sweat equity" opportunity for qualified applicants to escrow for down payment and/or closing costs - Partnerships were formed with local employers for information dissemination, translations and release time for instruction and meetings - Partnerships were formed with local lending institutions to provide and information and service to qualified applicants - Partnerships were formed with local Realtors and landlords to participate in the Homeownership plan.

2000-2962 Dodge City Housing Authority-Young Resident Clean-up Committee
Dodge City, Kansas
Matthew Brady (316) 225-1965

The Dodge City Housing Authority (DCHA) established a clean-up committee utilizing the children of the complex with supervision from some of the mothers. The committee member patrol the grounds and clean up any trash located on the premises every weekend. DCHA then provides a party for all the children who participated. These parties usually consists of pizza or bar-b-ques where the PHA staff prepares the food. Prizes are given and a Certificate of Appreciation is given to each child at the end of the year. This event started as a summer project, but because of entrance and participation it has become a year around event. The clean-up event is highly supported by the community with participation by the Chief of Police, and the t-shirts are donated by the Community Recycling Agency.

2000-627 Shorey Estates Subdivision-Infill Housing
Topeka, Kansas
Kevin M. Rooney (785) 368-4484

The City of Topeka has successfully redeveloped a city owned, vacant parcel of ground, which once was the site of one hundred severely deteriorated public housing units. This former complex known as Northland Manor was in extremely poor condition, with numerous functional, structural and mechanical problems. It was determined the apartments had exceeded their economic life and were beyond repair and should be demolished. The City received from HUD, one hundred additional Section 8 certificates to enable affordable housing to be provided to the residents displaced by this proposed demolition action. By late 1997, all public housing occupants were relocated and the apartment complex was demolished. The former Northland Manor (New Town Communities Subdivision) public housing site is being converted into the Shorey Estates Subdivision, a new 24-unit, single-family housing subdivision.

2000-462 Increasing the Independence of People with Mental and Physical Disabilities through Minor Workplace
Lenexa, Kansas
Janet K. Hoffman (913) 492-6161

Johnson County Developmental Supports (JCDS) was formed in 1972 as an agency of Johnson County government to provide community-based services for people with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. JCDS assists over 500 individuals annually across all levels of support needs. A full 76% of persons served have at least one disability in addition to mental retardation that seriously impacts vision, speech and hearing, mobility, functional abilities and physical/mental health. For the past six years, the agency has received around $36,000 annually in CDBG funds to help no- or low-income people with severe physical and mental disabilities expand their capacity to function independently and productively at home and in useful jobs.

2000-216 Region 7 Environmental Justice Dialogue

Under the leadership of EPA's regional Environmental Justice Program Manager, Althea Moses, Federal agencies in Kansas City with concerns about environmental justice have been meeting to educate each other about roles and responsibilities and to discuss coordinated efforts to promote environmental justice.

2000-486 Marketing Historic Properties
St. Joseph, Missouri
Greg Sekula (816) 271-4648

In order to address the problem of deteriorated vacant housing in the City's core neighborhoods, the City of St. Joseph, in partnership with non-profit groups, launched an aggressive real estate marketing campaign to attract private reinvestment in endangered historic properties. The concept was to aggressively identify distressed properties and to establish contact with the owners in an effort to encourage rehabilitation or to offer assistance in helping to place the house on the real estate market and locate preservation-sensitive buyers who would follow through with rehabilitation. The City plays an active role in helping to identify distressed historic properties and to help facilitate connecting property owners with the non-profit organizations that are involved. Historic properties are advertised in a publication known as THE ST. JOSEPH HISTORIC PROPERTIES EMPORIUM which is a quarterly listing of properties that are available for sale and restoration. Some of the new owners have taken advantage of local incentive programs, including the City's HUD-funded Low Interest Loan Rehabilitation program and the Residential Historic Preservation Loan Program.

2000-206 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights- Central Region-Partnering for Fair Housing
Kansas City, Kansas
Melvin Jenkins (913) 551-1400

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (UCCR) is holding forums in small towns throughout the Great Plains area to educate the public about various civil rights including fair housing.

2000-2634 Great Plains Office of Public Housing E-Mail Communication System with Housing Authorities
Kansas City, Kansas
Andrew L. Oeddeker (913) 551-5582

The Kansas City Hub Office of Public Housing has established a state of the art communication system for all Housing Authorities in its jurisdiction that have e-mail (currently over 90% of over 400 Housing Authorities) capability. Using the latest technology available, and with the assistance of the IT staff in Kansas City and Denver, a Lotus Notes mailbox has been set up for use by the Public Housing staff and Housing Authorities in the Great Plains area. This mailbox, GPOPH@hud.gov, allows the staff in the Kansas City Hub Office of Public Housing and the Omaha, NE and St. Louis Public Housing Program Centers to share a common Lotus Notes mailbox to communicate to our clients the latest information from HUD, including Notices, Federal Register Publications (proposed, interim and final rule), training opportunities (satellite and live on-site), and the latest updates on REAC processes, the Reform Act, and NOFA processes and deadlines.

2000-2378 Economic Growth Group Micro-enterprise Creation and Development
Kansas City, Missouri
Donna M. Colding (816) 274-2301

EGG uses a case management model to provide professional technical support in the form of financial analysis, cash management, marketing and operational systems evaluation. These business creation and development supports are integrated with affordable business space, and complemented by a broad range of business services including bulk mailing, faxing, computer training, business resource library, world wide web access, telephone answering and copier services. Each incubator office is completely furnished. Program beneficiaries are individuals wishing to start a business or existing business owners wishing to enhance their skills and managerial expertise. Participants enter into a five year partnership. The program has strong linkages to both traditional and non traditional lending sources and serves as a loan packager and intermediary for financial resource acquisition. The program offers articipants a stipend to offset the cost of securing outside professional services.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011