2000 Best Practice Awards

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 state’s Council on Housing and the Delaware State Housing Authority select recipients based on the community’s 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 program’s 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 Supermarket—sponsored by the faith-based nonprofit housing organization, Interfaith Housing—offered 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 city’s 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 alone—providing 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

Content Archived: April 20, 2011