2000 Best Practice Awards

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 Development’s (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 O’Brien, 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)

Content Archived: April 20, 2011