2000 Best Practice Awards
Program and Geographical Winners: Montana
Best Practice: Billings Community Housing Resource
Board
Fair Housing Education and Outreach Program
Results in Renters and Homebuyers Empowerment and Increased
Awareness of Their Rights
Billings.
Working to insure fair housing for all, the Billings Community Housing
Resource Board (CHRB), a private, nonprofit group has created an education
and outreach program that informs renters, homebuyers, landlords and home
sellers about anti-discrimination regulations and guidelines. The CHRB has
developed several outreach methods designed to reach specific audiences.
The Board publishes a series of brochures and audio tapes in English and
Spanish that provide information on basic fair housing laws, the Montana
landlord tenant law and fair housing issues related to disability. The CHRB
also has created a video based on Montana incidents of discrimination. In
addition, the CHRB has developed a series of fact sheets for individuals
with limited reading skills and uses these fact sheets in targeted outreach
to disability-related organizations and providers. As a result of its education
efforts, the CHRB has reached hundreds of people informing them of the state
and federal fair housing laws.
Contact: Janet Ludwig, Phone: (406) 248-7113
Tracking Number: 2449
Winning Category: Program (Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity)
Best Practice: Off Net Picture Tel
State Office Expands Use of System to Include
Communication with Remote Areas
Helena.
The Montana State Office has expanded the use of the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Developments (HUD) PictureTel system. It uses the
system for program implementation to communicate with clients in the most
remote areas of the state. The office does this by linking PictureTel with
other commercial services, such as the MetNet system. By linking Picture
Tel with this system, staff from Montana to Colorado can conduct live video
consultations with each other. The office has connected government agencies,
community and tribal colleges, universities and hospitals to HUD staff throughout
the state.
Contact: Paula Booth, Phone: (303) 672-5267
Ext. 1857
Tracking Number: 162
Winning Category: Program (Office of Administration)
Best Practice: Fort Peck Electric Utility Innovative
Energy Program
Energy Efficiency Program Helps Tribal
Members Save Money While Reducing Energy Consumption
Poplar.
The Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes provide opportunities for energy
efficiency upgrades through the Innovative Energy Program and Fort Peck
Electric Utility (FPEU). The FPEU program, organized and operated in partnership
with The Heritage Foundation, provides reliable, low-cost electricity and
generates economic benefits and services for its customers. The program
was formed through funding from federal grants and allocations from regional
utilities that allow the Tribes to take advantage of an allocation of energy
at a wholesale rate and save an estimated $750,000 per year for Reservation
customers. The upgrades to the aging stock of Reservation residences and
buildings will further reduce energy consumption, improve building comfort
levels, and increase energy savings.
Contact: Lawrence Gallagher, Phone: (406)
768-5719
Tracking Number: 2768
Winning Category: Geographical
Best Practice: Montana Homeownership Network
Montana Homeownership Network Helps Families
Purchase Homes
Great Falls.
The Montana Homeownership Network is a partnership of organizations that
work together to increase homeownership in Montana, particularly in rural
areas. When gaps in rural homeownership were identified in 1996, the network
developed a pilot project to help families buy homes in 10 rural Montana
counties through downpayment assistance and FHA mortgages. Neighborhood
Housing Services of Great Falls and the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
provided funds for downpayments, while the Montana Board of Housing provided
30-year, 6-percent interest FHA insured mortgages. This program helped 14
families purchase homes and has been replicated in other areas. The network
has also supported other cooperative efforts including a successful partnership
between the Montana Rural Housing Services and the Montana Board of Housing
to provide leveraged homeownership loans. The network has had positive,
tangible results: more than 1,000 low- income families have bought homes,
more than $21 million in mortgages and 255 loans to rural communities in
three years.
Contact: Nancy OBrien, Phone: (406)
761-5861
Tracking Number: 362
Winning Category: Program (Community Planning and Development)
Best Practice: Montana Preservation Project
Affordable Housing for Low-Income Elderly
and Families Preserved Forever
Statewide.
Eight apartment complexes scattered throughout western Montana were sold
to nonprofit sponsors preserving their affordability to lower-income households
without a fixed expiration point in the future. These rental complexes,
housing 410 units, have been preserved for lower-income elderly and families
forever. In addition to preserving these units for lower-income housing,
they were also upgraded to assure quality housing for these families.
This Best Practice is unique because Section 236 interest reduction payments
were maintained by dropping the FHA insurance available to five complexes
and moving the mortgage into second position to a risk share first position
mortgage. The purchase and the $3.6 million in rehabilitation were financed:
$9.2 million in first mortgages, $4.16 in tax credit proceeds, $2.9 in second
mortgages, $1.43 from the Federal Home Loan Bank, and $111,000 in seller
held paper.
Mr. Bruce E. Brensdal, Phone: (406)444-3040
Tracking Number: 89
Winning Category: Geographical and Program (Housing - Multifamily)
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