2000 Best Practice Awards

2125 Project FOCUS Neighborhood Network

The residents of Sandia Vista established the Project Focus Neighborhood Networks Center to bridge the digital divide and bring technology education and internet access to the residents of Sandia Vista. By partnering with the Walmart Foundation and local Walmart store, the residents have secured the resources and support to continue operations of the 12 PC computer center after HUD funds disappear

731 State of New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority

The State of New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority has formed a partnership with Working Classrooms, Inc to produce four bilingual public service announcements on Fair Housing.

3237 New Mexico & Arizona Colonias Profiles/Needs Assessment

The North American Development Bank - created through NAFTA to finance US-Mexico border infrastructure--has provided funding for the New Mexico and Arizona HUD colonias specialist community builders to hire, train and supervise university graduate students to prepare detailed profiles/needs assessments of the New Mexico and Arizona colonias. The New Mexico Morgage Finance Authority also has provided financing for a portio of this project. Colonias are rural communities and neighborhood located within 150 miles of the US/Mexico border. Colonias typically have high rates of poverty and unemployment, most lack basic services such as sanitary sewer and water systems, affordable housing, roads, solid waste disposal, street lighting, public transportation to jobs and other services. The profiles will include detailed information on the colonias' history and land use, demographics, economy, housing, community services, infrastructure (such as availability and quality of water and sewer services/septic systems, utilities, solid waste, roads), and infrastructure investments and financing made by HUD and other federal agencies such as the NAD Bank, USDA Rural Development, EPA, as well as state and local governments and private foundations.

2672 Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

Among small housing authorities, Truth or Consequences is a leader in utilizing a variety of services to address the needs of its residents and the broader community. Truth or Consequences is the consummate good neighbor that all housing agencies should strive to become. Through its Public Housing Drug Elimination Grants, Truth or Consequences has provided summer work experience to high risk youth referred by Juvenile Court for the last four years. This effort has resulted in a 90 percent reduction in repeat referrals to juvenile court among youths participating in the program. Through the Public Housing Technical Assistance Grants, Truth or Consequences has helped the City and County (Sierra) develop an understanding of spatial data collection and mapping for both public housing security and the security of all residents in the community. While their overall proficiency with either HUD 2020 or other mapping software is not that of a professional geographic information systems provider, TorCHA effectively collects and provides the resources to geocode, map and graphically display crime data for use in program evaluation, hot spot analysis, and physical security assessments for itself and the City and County. The TorCHA Executive Director, Rick Courtney, began implementing the Summer Youth Employment Program in 1995 and has continued the program annually each year. Each year, the program becomes more effective and more targeted. The mapping program was begun in 1997 through a Technical Assistance Grant and has since developed a highly effective crime tracking system that informs housing authority management policy and assists residents and police battle crime. The Truth or Consequences Housing Authority will continue to lead other public housing authorities in prevention and crime mapping as it moves toward fulfilling its strategic goal of becoming a leader within the community for a safer environment for all. Systems and Data Acquisition Procedures TorCHA has developed a working relationship with the Juvenile Court and the Truth or Consequences Police Department to develop these programs. While TorCHA utilizes the HUD 2020 geographic information systems software linked to several databases storing crime data and other information relevant to security and safety in the Sierra County area, they also contract with SPARTA Consulting Corporation to provide more detailed mapping of crime on an annual basis using MapInfo. The TorCHA staff utilizes a Windows-based, Pentium processor computer for data downloads, manual data entry, and manipulation of crime data from the TorC Police Department. Monthly, TorC staff receives a text file from the TorC Police Department containing all crime data for the preceding month. Those data are inclusive of all calls for service and contains several detailed fields indicating address, time, date, responding officer, disposition code, outcome code, description notes, and an indication of whether the an incident was filed for an actual incident. The partnership between TorCHA and the TorC Police Department for data delivery is one of the greatest strengths of the crime tracking system. This partnership, brokered by TorCHA, is an example of effective interagency cooperation to reduce crime and enhance resident livability in and around public housing. A similar partnership exists between the TorCHA and the Juvenile Courts. Each year, the Juvenile Court provides TorCHA a list of juveniles 16-18 years of age who have been referred to the Court in the past 12 months. The Executive Director interviews and selects 12 to 16 youths to participate in the Summer Youth Work Experience Program based on their residency in or near public housing neighborhoods within the community. The Juvenile Court tracks the progress of the youth during and after the program and provides periodic reports to the Housing Authority on the results of the program.

2737 Pueblo de Cochiti Youth Development Facility

There is a dire need for a facility to accommodate the rapidly growing population. The Economy: Historically, Cochiti has had no private employers or enterprises. This was changed with the creation of Cochiti Community Development Corporation, which acquired the Town of Cochiti Lake. The Town of Cochiti Lake was established under a 99-year lease agreement with private investors to establish residential housing units under a strict building code and relative covenants. The property has been under the direct management of Cochiti since the early 1980’s and has been the primary revenue source for the community. The Pueblo de Cochiti has provided tribal members with housing under the Housing and Urban Development Agency (HUD)

1228 Albuquerque Human Rights Activities

Contact information: Virginia Candelarra-Martinez, Executive Director, Plaza Del Sol Bldg., Suite 520, P.O. Box 1293, Albuquerque, NM 87103; (505) 924-3380; (505) 924-3372 fax

1364 Mr. Edward R. Gutierrez, Housing Developer/203k Consultant

Mr. Gutierrez is the most active 203k Consultant in New Mexico. He has been a 203k Consultant since 1993. To date, Mr. Gutierrez has consulted on 35 FHA 203k loans. Not only does he provide personal consultation to each homebuyer, but this year he also recruited and trained a new 203k lender, Island Mortgage. Mr. Gutierrez knows what it takes to make the program work; therefore, he does whatever it takes. Mr. Gutierrez took Island Mortgage under his wing and provided them with all the skills necessary to process 203k loans. He began by introducing Island Mortgage to the local HUD staff and willingly participated, as a trainer, in a 203k training seminar held in our office. Island Mortgage has now processed and closed six 203k loans. Due to Mr. Gutierrez’ proactive partnership with HUD and his expertise and advocacy in the 203k program, Island Mortgage is now one of our active 203k lenders and has successfully increased use of the 203k program in New Mexico. The Single Family 203k goal has always been a great challenge to most HUD offices across the country. Mr. Gutierrez’ marketing and outreach efforts for the 203k Loan Program, especially to the lending and real estate industry, has made a tremendous positive impact on HUD’s program goals. Mr. Gutierrez’ proactive approach to the program and tenacity to make HUD’s program work has afforded many homebuyers with the homes they want to purchase and live in, creating a positive impact on the people we serve.

3200 The T or C Housing Authority's Family Sufficiency Program

The T or C Housing Authority's Family self-sufficiency Program assists Public Housing and Section 8 families achieve self-sufficiency through education and training, job search and placement, and Home Ownership efforts. The Family Self Sufficiency program works with various agencies throughout Sierra County to secure necessary resources for FSS participants. The Home Ownership Program provides participants an opportunity to use their FSS Escrow funds to assist them in achieving home ownership.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011