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2000 Best Practice AwardsProgram and Geographical Winners: Delaware
Best Practice: Neighborhood Revitalization Fund
Delaware Housing Authority Awards City
Financing for Housing Repairs
Dover.
The Neighborhood Revitalization Fund, launched by the Delaware State Housing
Authority in 1995, addresses the problem of substandard housing in Delaware.
The fund assists low-income homeowners and landlords renting to low-income
families in covering the costs of housing repairs. Homeowners may apply
for loans up to $35,000 and landlords may apply for loans up to $25,000
per unit. Funds may be used to repair heating, electrical, plumbing, and
roofing problems, or to correct other health and safety hazards. Unlike
most housing rehabilitation programs, the Neighborhood Revitalization Fund
requires that the community, not an individual homeowner, undergo a competitive
application process to receive funding. The states Council on Housing
and the Delaware State Housing Authority select recipients based on the
communitys housing rehabilitation needs and its comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization plan. Because proposals must demonstrate a clear benefit
to the community and a commitment on behalf of the community at-large, the
application process promotes community cooperation and a sense of pride.
Once selected, community leaders take an active role in marketing the program
to area residents and landlords. Since the programs inception four
years ago, the fund has awarded financing to 50 communities throughout Delaware
for much-needed housing repairs and modifications.
Contact: Christina Hardin, Phone: (302) 739-4263
Tracking Number: 1344
Winning Category: Program (Community Builder)
Best Practice: Interfaith Community Development Symposium: Leading Communities
into Wholeness and Health
Interfaith Advisory Committee Develops
Symposium on Community Leadership
Newark.
Many religious organizations are poised to have a profound impact in their
neighborhoods and communities, but they lack the knowledge and expertise
to effectively focus their resources. The Delaware Association of Community
Based Development Organizations, Citigroup, HUD, the Center for Community
Development and Family Policy at the University of Delaware, and the Methodist
Action Program together established the Interfaith Advisory Committee. The
committee is charged with providing guidance to the faith community on how
to address the housing, employment and economic revitalization needs of
their communities. In November 1999, the committee sponsored a very successful
statewide symposium. More than 190 participants received hands-on training
from experienced and nationally known community and economic development
practitioners. Attendees participated in one of three tracks: Leadership
and Vision Casting, Organizational and Legal Structure, and Project Development.
They were encouraged to have representatives from their organizations attend
separate tracks to maximize the information each group would take away from
the symposium. A resource exhibit center, with representatives from local
and national trade associations, financial institutions, technical assistance
providers and others, provided additional opportunities for information
exchange. Feedback surveys completed by 92 percent of the participants concluded
that 87 percent of them believed that the symposium met its goals and should
be an annual event.
Contact: Theresa Hasson, Phone: (302) 683-5096
Tracking Number: 2076
Winning Category: Geographical
Best Practice: Interfaith Housing Delaware
Homeownership Program Helps Educate Low-Income
Buyers
Wilmington.
The first annual Housing Counseling Supermarketsponsored by the faith-based
nonprofit housing organization, Interfaith Housingoffered a comprehensive
selection of products and services for affordable homeownership in Wilmington,
all under one roof. Through its HUD-certified housing counseling program,
Interfaith Housing invited income-qualified families to meet with the counselors,
representatives from local banks, mortgage companies, real estate agencies,
insurance companies, and home inspection firms. The housing counselors conducted
intake interviews for families interested in educational programs pertaining
to homeownership. Concentrated fast-track programs were also offered to
prospective buyers who were already pre-qualified for mortgages. A local
bank provided telephone service and a computer bank for on-the-spot credit
checks. The Housing Counseling Supermarket is unique in that it brought
together under one roof all of the services prospective homebuyers need.
For people without access to transportation, having all of these services
in one place was very important. Approximately 50 families attended the
event and met with bankers, mortgage lenders, and related housing professionals.
Ten families became housing counseling clients, and three have since become
first-time homebuyers.
Contact: Dennis Sheer, Phone: (302) 995-7408
Tracking Number: 1673
Winning Category: Program (Community Builder)
Best Practice: Wilmington Housing Project
Partnership Develops Housing Program for
First-Time Homebuyers
Wilmington.
The Wilmington Housing Partnership is a consortium of financial, corporate
and governmental institutions that have committed more than $4 million to
initiatives aimed at addressing the citys housing problems. Of the
28,500 households in Wilmington in 1990, 31 percent had housing problems,
ranging from affordability to overcrowding, with low-income households facing
the most acute housing challenges. The city felt that it had to take immediate
action to address these problems by developing programs to increase homeownership,
making housing more affordable to all segments of the population, and providing
assistance to existing homeowners throughout the city. To augment its on-going
homeowner housing rehabilitation program, the Partnership developed a number
of new, innovative activities for prospective homebuyers and renters, including
a transfer tax waiver program, a vacant house auction program, and a renter
assistance program. As a result of the Partnership, the city has provided
down payment and settlement assistance to 210 first-time homebuyers and
assisted 37 first-time homebuyers with a transfer tax waiver. Through its
citywide vacant building auction program, the Partnership helped 43 low
and moderate-income families purchase homes.
Contact: James Sills, Phone: (302) 571- 4100
Tracking Number: 951
Winning Category: Program (Community Builder)
Best Practice: Delaware Rural Housing Consortium
Delaware Builds Low-Income Housing in Rural
Areas
Dover.
The Delaware Rural Housing Consortium is comprised of seven rural housing
nonprofit developers that are doing together what they could not do aloneproviding
housing assistance to low-income, homeless and special needs populations
in rural Delaware. Rural developers and the families they serve often operate
and live in remote areas and have limited access to resources. By cooperating
through the consortium, these organizations have access to technical assistance,
training and education, they share in grant writing and government relations,
and collectively solve problems. Rather than competing with each other for
scarce resources, these organizations coordinate their housing development
activities to better serve those in need. The consortium fostered awareness
of rural housing needs through the Rural Housing Summit held in fall 1999,
a video called "More Than Bricks and Mortar," and a report, "Ten
Ways To Increase the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing in Rural Delaware."
The three-year Housing Development Plan, established in January 2000, will
have a dramatic impact on low-income households in rural Delaware because
it calls for the construction of 11 new housing projects yielding 750 new
housing units.
Contact: Joe Myer, Phone: (302) 678-9400
Tracking Number: 1048
Winning Category: Geographical
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