2000 Best Practice Awards

Best Practices: Safe Communities Law Enforcement

Building Trust Through Community Involvement

Annapolis. The Safe Communities Law Enforcement program is a partnership between the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis and select law enforcement officers from the Annapolis Police Department who employ community-oriented policing concepts to gain community trust. This is a critical ingredient in effective crime fighting. The Safe Communities team includes two liaison officers who coordinate activities between the housing authority and police department, and 10 officers who patrol the public housing communities, investigate criminal activity and engage in community activities to gain trust and cooperation. As off-duty police officers contracted by the housing authority, they work on behalf of the housing authority. Officers respond to all resident complaints and use those opportunities to get to know the residents. They participate in community events: they coach youth basketball teams and lead the community’s drum and bugle corps. In addition, they host training sessions on crime prevention for residents and housing authority staff. Arrests of public housing residents have declined dramatically since the program was implemented. In 1999, arrests of residents declined by 17 percent to 475. In the first four months of 2000, there were only 25 arrests of public housing residents, representing less than 5 percent of arrests citywide.

Contact: P. Croslan, Phone: (410) 267-8000
Tracking Number: 143
Winning Category: Geographical

Best Practice: Baltimore Repair and Maintenance Study

Study Helps Identify Cost-Effective Control Treatments for Lead

Baltimore. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Lead Hazard Control and the Kennedy Krieger Research Institute initiated the Baltimore Repair and Maintenance Study to assess the effectiveness of three lead hazard control treatments in high-risk urban dwellings during a five-year period. To identify which combination of low-cost interim control treatments were most effective, it was essential that researchers maintained contact with participating families. Researchers visited the homes every six months to collect dust samples for lead analysis, visually inspect the treatments, sample blood from children in residence and administer brief surveys. They were able to retain 90 of the initial 107 dwellings after three years. After five years, 80 percent of the dwellings were sampled. The willingness of project staff to develop relationships with participating families was key to the successful retention of so many participants. Staff assisted families with a variety of lead- and non-lead related housing concerns. Each family was invited to an annual skating party where they could have fun and at the same time learn about the study’s progress. The number of dwellings retained in the study should be sufficient to allow statistically valid comparisons between intervention groups and help in making informed decisions on how to effectively minimize lead hazards in pre-1950 inner city housing.

Contact: Mark Farfel, Phone: (410) 955-3864
Tracking Number: 2384
Winning Category: Program (Office of Lead Hazard Control)

Best Practice: Baltimore Task Force Database

Baltimore Develops Database to Combat Predatory Lending

Baltimore. When the HUD imposed a 90-day foreclosure moratorium on Baltimore to address the problem of predatory lending, the Philadelphia Homeownership Center performed detailed reviews of 265 FHA-insured loans with origination dates since 1997. The results of these reviews were collected and reported in the Baltimore Task Force Database, which was created to organize the reviews and help identify trends in predatory lending and fraud in Baltimore. By collecting the information electronically and storing it in a single database, users will have immediate access to the data, which subsequently can be manipulated to track the activities covered by HUD’s new Fraud Protection Plan. HUD will use the database to identify FHA homeowners in Baltimore that have been victimized by fraud or predatory lending practices and to target lenders, brokers, appraisers or loan officers that have engaged in illegal lending practices. Copies of the Baltimore Task Force Database were provided to the Atlanta, Denver, and Santa Ana homeownership centers, and the system may be easily implemented in other cities across the United States.

Contact: Michele Buruschkin-Szupper, Phone: (215) 656-0503 Ext. 3392
Tracking Number: 2053
Winning Category: Program (Housing - Multifamily)

Best Practice: Empower Baltimore Management Corporation

Empower Baltimore Improves Residents’ Quality of Life

Baltimore. In 1994, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) designated six census tracts within Baltimore as empowerment zone communities. Although home to approximately 72,000 residents and 1,600 businesses, according to 1990 census information, 40 percent of empowerment zone residents were living in poverty. The City of Baltimore was charged with developing a model for the nation to re-energize residents and businesses to improve the quality of life in its most distressed neighborhoods. Empower Baltimore Management Corporation is Baltimore’s vehicle for change. Its mission is to foster sustained economic opportunities within the empowerment zone by stimulating business development, facilitating job readiness and training, reducing crime, increasing public safety, providing opportunities for homeownership and entrepreneurship, encouraging community and business partnerships, and, ultimately, transforming neighborhoods into quality locations for living and working. The corporation’s four-pronged approach includes business development, including a business empowerment center, financing resources and entrepreneurial training; workforce development, including career centers, customized employment services and work transportation programs; quality of life, including homebuyer assistance, public safety programs, and afterschool programs; and community capacity building, including community leadership training and community partnership building. As one of the first six cities to receive empowerment zone funding, Baltimore has made significant progress in improving the quality of life in six of its most economically-distressed communities.

Contact: Diane Bell, Phone: (410) 783-4400
Tracking Number: 1964
Winning Category: Geographical and Program (Community Planning and Development)

Best Practice: Lead Abatement Action Project

Lead Abatement Action Project Reduces Lead Hazards in Baltimore

Baltimore. The Lead Abatement Action Project is designed to prevent lead poisoning in and around Baltimore through cost-effective lead hazard reduction projects. Using HUD funding, the Baltimore City Health Department, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning have helped reduce lead hazards in nearly 1,200 privately owned housing units in Baltimore. Priority areas for spending the hazard control dollars are communities at high risk for lead poisoning cases, including HUD-designated Empowerment Zone areas. Participants include homeowners, owners of low-income rental housing, and developers. Owners apply for grants to cover all or part of the hazard reduction costs and approval is often contingent upon the owner agreeing to upgrade the property to meet code, address plumbing problems, or repair structural problems. The scope generally includes window replacement, stabilization of chipping or flaking paint, enclosure of leaded bath or kitchen walls, enclosure of floors and stairs to provide washable surfaces, adjustment of doors to reduce abrading surfaces, and specialized final cleans. The Lead Abatement Action Project educates individual owners and occupants during the course of lead work, and promotes compliance with local, state, and federal regulations concerning lead. The Lead Abatement Action Project has efficiently distributed grants to hundreds of home and building owners, fostered the remediation of serious lead hazards at relatively low costs, and succeeded at leveraging private resources to improve Baltimore’s housing stock.

Contact: Amy Spanier, Phone: (410) 396-4530
Tracking Number: 960
Winning Category: Program (Office of Lead Hazard Control)

Best Practice: HotSpot Homeownership Initiative ("Four at Four")

Initiative Lends Money for Home Buying to Stabilize Neighborhoods

Crownsville. To complement its Smart Growth initiative, the State of Maryland established the HotSpot Homeownership Initiative to stabilize neighborhoods by emphasizing homeownership. Fifteen HotSpot communities — areas statistically characterized by high crime — were invited to share in $4 million earmarked for the development of strategies promoting homeownership. Applicant communities, eligible for up to $500,000, were evaluated on the community’s overall revitalization strategy, including public/private partnerships, financial leveraging, readiness to proceed, commitment of other funding and promotion of economic diversity. Partners provided incentives for home purchases, such as closing cost and down payment assistance, leveraged and forgivable loans, and funds for crime-control measures. Homebuyer education is mandatory for all loans under this initiative and home inspections are required on all existing homes. The initiative began Feb. 9, 1999, and to date, 25 loans totaling $2.2 million have been closed.

Contact: William Manahan, Phone: (410) 514-7535
Tracking Number: 2412
Winning Category: Program (Housing - Single Family)

Best Practice: Maryland Multi-Family Lead Safe Housing

Maryland Uses High-Volume Approach to Lead Abatement

Crownsville. To tackle the problem of lead hazards in low-income, multifamily housing in Maryland, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development collaborated with other state agencies and the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning to conduct a series of lead abatement and lead-safe housing outreach projects. Maryland’s lead-safe housing initiative is unique because it is the only high-volume, multifamily lead abatement project in the country using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds. By working with large housing complexes, Maryland is maximizing the number of units that can be abated at one time and minimizing expenses associated with temporarily relocating tenants during abatement. The scope of work includes risk assessment; removal and replacement of windows and doors; paint stabilization; blood level tests; community education; and data collection and monitoring. As a result of this initiative, more than 1,300 rental housing units in 25 multifamily buildings are lead-safe or lead-free.

Contact: Raymond Skinner, Phone: (410) 514-7001
Tracking Number: 744
Winning Category: Program (Office of Lead Hazard Control)

Best Practice: Baltimore Coalition to End Predatory Lending

Coalition Helps Save Victim’s Homes

Baltimore. The South East Community Organization in Baltimore convened the Baltimore Coalition to End Predatory Lending in order to curb predatory real estate practices in the city. With representatives from community and nonprofit organizations, city agencies, and HUD, the coalition simultaneously works to help victims of predatory lending find alternative housing and assists the victims’ lawyers in getting sub-prime lenders to establish appropriate mortgages in line with the real value of each property. The Coalition has helped several victims save their homes, refinance artificially inflated mortgages or find other housing. By raising the visibility of the issue of predatory lending, the Coalition garnered enough attention that it contributed to the creation of a national Task Force on Predatory Lending—which is spurring state and federal legislation to fight predatory lending.

Contact: Ken Strong, Phone: (410) 327-1626
Tracking Number: 1548
Winning Category: Program (Community Builder)

Best Practice: 1000 in 2000

Housing Authority Seeks to Improve Resident’s Computer Skills

Annapolis. The Housing Authority of the city of Annapolis and its technology firm partner, Usinternetworking (USi), tripled the housing authority’s resident computer training program goal to 1,000 residents who improve their computer skills by the end of 2000. The housing authority developed the "1000 in 2000" initiative after a resident survey revealed that 80 percent wanted greater access to computers and the Internet. USi provided computers, software and Internet access for two new community computer centers, expanding the authority’s computer resources from 12 to 32 workstations. Annapolis provided computer teachers, security, and workstations in neighborhood community centers, allowing for two daily after-school training sessions at each location, as well as an adult session twice a week. USi also sponsors a home personal computer award program, providing a personal computer and Internet access each month to five students who show the greatest progress and promise—providing a powerful incentive for resident participation. The computer centers have been used to capacity every day, serving 200-300 youth per week. As of April 2000, more than 350 residents received certificates in computer skills.

Contact: P. Croslan, Phone: (410) 267-8000
Tracking Number: 169
Winning Category: Program (Public and Indian Housing)

Content Archived: April 20, 2011