2000 Best Practice Awards
Program and Geographical Winners: Wisconsin
Best Practices: Home Sweat Home Beloit
Housing Authority
Beloit Housing Authority Offers Residents
Training for Carpentry Employment
Beloit.
The "Home Sweat Home" program offers a public yearlong employment
and training opportunity in carpentry and housing rehabilitation to housing
residents. The Beloit Housing Authority established the program in partnership
with Beloit Neighborhood Housing Services, Rock County Opportunities Industrialization
Center, and the Beloit Foundation. Phase I of the program involves in-class
training in math, interview techniques and resume writing, as well as hands-on
instruction in carpentry and construction techniques. Upon graduation, participants
receive a certificate and a set of tools before moving on to Phase II, an
internship program in rehabilitating houses. The participants apply the
knowledge and the skills they learned from Phase I and spend six months
working under the supervision of two carpenters. They are also required
to attend a multiple-week Home Buyers Club course. For public housing residents
that meet additional criteria, their labor or "sweat equity" may
be applied toward the down payment on a house that they help rehabilitate.
Participants also receive a minimum wage stipend for 20 hours of work each
week. To date a total of five public housing residents have graduated from
Phase I and one resident has graduated from Phase II.
Contact: Catherine Percell, Phone: 608-364-8750
Tracking Number: 1782
Winning Category: Program (Public and Indian Housing)
Best Practice: Eastpointe Apartments
Renovated Eastpointe Apartments Reserve
Complexes for Low-Income Residents
Madison.
Future Madison Eastpointe, Inc., a 501(c)(2) not-for-profit organization,
spearheaded the renovation of Eastpointe Apartments, a 20-building complex.
These buildings house 120 families in the Madisons Darbo-Washington
neighborhood. The renovated apartments will include refrigerators, oven
ranges, garbage disposals, carpeting, patios, blinds, laundry hook-ups or
a common laundry room, and outdoor surface parking. Twenty-four units are
reserved for tenants with household incomes at or below 50 percent of the
County Median Incomes (CMI) for Dane County and 48 units are for tenants
at or below 60 percent of the CMI. The rents, including utilities, do not
exceed 30 percent of the median income. The Wisconsin Housing and Economic
Development Authority and HUD ensured that the appropriate funding from
the public and private sectors was obtained. The project was creatively
financed with loans from the city of Madisons Home Investment Partnerships
funds and with tax credits sold to a local bank. This project has been the
catalyst behind the revitalization of a declining neighborhood in Madison.
Contact: Fritz Grutzner, Phone: (608) 836-1152
Tracking Number: 104
Winning Category: Program (Multifamily Housing)
Best Practices: Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention
Program
Milwaukee Health Department Reduces Lead
Poisoning in Children
Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Health Departments Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention
Program was developed in response to a higher than national average for
childhood lead poisoning. It includes an intervention program that protects
at-risk children while maintaining the affordable housing stock. A Lead-Safe
Housing Standard, codified in two city ordinances, was developed following
identification of windows as a likely source of lead exposure, and adoption
of a cost-effective abatement procedure for windows. Through grants from
HUD and city funds, certified lead abatement contractors were hired to conduct
window abatement, at the cost of $135 per window. Property owners also invest
an average of $400 per unit for lead-safe maintenance. The results: window
treatment that will protect children for 15 or more years, a cost-effective
program that encourages voluntary participation and maintenance of the affordable
housing stock. A working group of 20 affordable property owners has helped
to develop and refine the standard. Since 1997, 1,700 housing units have
seen lead hazard reduction. The standard has also enabled establishment
of a registry of lead-safe housing, and may be adopted statewide.
Contact: Amy Murphy, Phone: (414) 286-8028
Tracking Number: 3211
Winning Category: Program (Office of Lead Hazard Control)
Best Practice: City Hall Square
City Hall Square Offers Residential and
Commercial Space in Downtown Milwaukee
Milwaukee. City
Hall Square provides 136 units of mixed-income residential and commercial
space in the heart of downtown Milwaukee. The project is located directly
across from the city hall, a Flemish Renaissance building, and along the
recently developed Milwaukee River Walk. The project cost $17 million, of
which more than $8 million was financed with a FHA-insured mortgage. Putting
together the financing package was a particularly complex process involving
three kinds of tax credits: low-income housing, historic preservation, and
tax-exempt bonds. In addition to a FHA-insured mortgage, the Wisconsin Housing
and Economic Development Authority, the city of Milwaukee and a major private
investor, Kimberly-Clark Corporation of Neenah, WI, provided financing.
To accommodate the various players, the Wisconsin HUD office guaranteed
speedy processing and reasonable flexibility.
Contact: Lynn Fournier, Phone: (972) 281-1460
Tracking Number: 106
Winning Category: Program (Multifamily Housing)
Best Practice: Deconstruction, Recovery & Reuse
of Building Materials for Affordable Housing
Milwaukee Uses Recovered Materials to Provide
Affordable Housing
Milwaukee.
The Harambee Ombudsman Project, the REEHouse Development Company, Guaranty
Bank, and North Shore Bank have partnered to create a unique arrangement
in which condemned buildings are demolished by hand, and building materials
from these structures are recovered and reused to build affordable housing.
At-risk youth are trained to carefully demolish the buildings, offering
continuous on-the-job training that allows these workers to better understand
the construction process. This training is enhanced by in-shop construction
of wall systems and other tasks and further supplemented by at least one
full day of classroom training per week on construction techniques. The
partnership plans to use recovered materials to build two to five affordable
homes annually in the economically disadvantaged Harambee community. The
Wisconsin Conservation Corps provides five trainees from the local neighborhood
and two supervisors to help deconstruct existing structures, process recovered
materials, fabricate wall components, and build new houses. Because the
Corps pays crewmember salaries, labor costs to the partnership are reduced
and the newly constructed homes are more affordable.
Contact: Casandra Slade, Phone: (414) 272-3933
Tracking Number: 1566
Winning Category: Program (Community Builders)
Best Practices: Homeownership Counseling Education
Consortium
Education Helps Potential Homeowners
Milwaukee.
The Homeownership Counseling Education Consortium, started in 1994, is a
partnership of state and local government, nonprofit organizations and private
business, working together to expand housing opportunities by offering comprehensive
training for homeownership counselors and educators. The consortium works
on the premise that education helps to overcome obstacles to homeownership,
and that well-informed consumers can better protect themselves from discriminatory
practices and feel less threatened by the home buying process. The weeklong
training program, based on case studies, introduces participants to homeownership
counseling techniques and mortgage and real estate guidelines. It also includes
fair housing and fair lending information. The consortium started continuing
education classes in 1999offerings include consumer regulations, fair
housing, insurance, and diversity issues. Each partner brings its own expertise
to the trainingfor example, Metro Milwaukee Fair Housing Council conducts
fair housing education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee provides program
coordination, lending institutions provide the underwriting criteria, and
the city and county provide clients. Because the consortium provides a standardized
approach toward homeownership counseling, it has gained the support of area
lenders.
Contact: Carole Jones, Phone: (414) 278-5251
Tracking Number: 3205
Winning Category: Program (Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity)
Best Practice: The Milwaukee Community Capacity
Project
Project Builds Communitys Ability
to Solve the Problem of Childhood Lead Poisoning
Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Community Capacity Project (MCCP) organizes communities to
address childhood lead poisoning in high-risk, minority neighborhoods in
Milwaukee. Created in collaboration with the educational arm of the Wisconsin
Citizen Action Fund, the state's largest advocacy organization, the MCCP
builds the communitys ability to be a part of the solution to the
problem it faces. As part of the MCCP, the Milwaukee Health Department Childhood
Lead Poisoning Prevention Program establishes contracts with community-based
organizations to prepare neighborhood-specific education initiatives, promote
risk-reduction behaviors, and develop community empowerment and capacity
to support primary prevention. A resident leadership group designs projects
and influences decisions that increase lead-safe housing availability in
each neighborhood. Through basic community health education activitiessuch
as presentations, health fairs, neighborhood canvassing and community meetingsorganizers
have been able to raise awareness and concern while identifying potential
leaders in their community. Community awareness events have reached hundreds
of residents, and a Primary Prevention Ordinance was passed in Milwaukee
requiring owners to fix high-risk rental properties before children are
lead-poisoned.
Contact: Sara Schubert, Phone: (414) 286-5537
Tracking Number: 3242
Winning Category: Program (Office of Lead Hazard Control)
Best Practice: Regional Opportunity Rental Initiative
Initiative Offers Many Freedom to Relocate
by Reducing Financial Barriers
Milwaukee. Through
the Regional Opportunity Counseling (ROC) program, HUD seeks to promote
regional strategies for helping Section 8 certificate and voucher recipients
choose neighborhoods that offer the best housing, education, and employment
opportunities for them. Recognizing that ROC program participants were frequently
unable to accomplish a move to better areas because of the financial barriers,
Milwaukee County applied to the State of Wisconsin's Housing Cost Reduction
Initiative (HCRI) program. The HCRI program provides grants to local units
of government, public housing authority, American Indian tribes, and nonprofit
organizations for projects that reduce the cost of housing for low-income
renters and homebuyers. The HCRI grant, used as a revolving loan fund, supplies
an immediate source of security deposits, first and last months' rent and
assistance to tenants in bringing their utility bills up to date. All other
funds are repayable at zero interest, with flexible terms designed to accommodate
each family's financial circumstances. This initiative has provided security
deposits equaling $18,285 to 33 households; first and last month's rent
of $6,967 to 20 households; utility assistance in the sum of $5,745 to 17
households; and moving expenses of $12,471 to 28 households.
Contact: Nancy Olson, Phone: (414) 278-4899
Tracking Number: 2188
Winning Category: Program (Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity)
Best Practice: SCO Self Help Housing Program
Milwaukees South Community Organization
Doesnt Sweat the Down Payment
Milwaukee.
The South Community Organization, Inc.s Self Help Housing Program
is a housing rehabilitation and homeownership program that enables low-income
homebuyers to reduce down payment requirements, earning sweat equity through
self help labor. Applying the successful self help model used throughout
rural Wisconsin to an urban environment, the organization helps families
purchase rehabilitated or newly constructed houses. The program serves low-income,
larger families that are effectively priced out of segments of the housing
market. By performing an average of 400-600 hours of work, including demolition,
clean up, interior painting, and floor sanding, homebuyers can earn up to
10 percent of the development cost of a single or two-family home as their
equity investment in the property. Families receive technical assistance
and training and homeownership counseling. To date a total of 19 units are
completed or under construction, 13 have been purchased, and seven families
are in the process. In addition, the program has trained families to maintain
and repair their properties, and many of the participants have learned new
skills and been able to find better jobs in the building trades.
Contact: John M. Bach, Phone: (414) 643-7913
Tracking Number: 2134
Winning Category: Geographical
Best Practice: The Wisconsin Homeownership for
People with Disabilities Collaborative Institute
Wisconsin Helps People with Disabilities
Buy Homes
Milwaukee.
The Wisconsin Homeownership for People with Disabilities Collaborative Initiative
is a multi-agency, statewide project that helps low- and moderate-income
people with disabilities become homeowners. While homeownership overall
in Wisconsin is 70 percent, the National Home of Your Own Alliance estimates
that less than 5 percent of those receiving Social Security disability benefits
are homeowners. This project enables people with disabilities to access
mortgage products specifically designed for them. In addition, two collaborative
members, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority and Fannie
Mae, expanded flexibilities within mortgage underwriting guidelines to qualify
credit-worthy homebuyers with disabilities. The initiative also creates
financial support mechanisms for homebuyers who wish to purchase new homes.
This collaborative design will be promoted as a model at the National Council
for Independent Living Conference in July 2000.
Contact: Charlene Dwyer, Phone: (262) 782-2480
Track Number: 1475
Winning Category: Program (Community Builders)
Best Practice: Best of the Best
Wausau Community Development Department
Puts Good Ideas to Good Use
Wausau. Staff
members from the city of Wausaus Community Development Department
attended the Best Practices Symposia in Charlotte, NC, in 1998 and Kansas
City, Mo., in 1999, where they learned about successful programs sponsored
by communities and nonprofits. These Best Practices were borrowed and customized
by Wausau in the spirit of taking good ideas and applying them to improve
local community development activities. The citys Community Development
Department now offers housing counseling to help low- and moderate-income
residents purchase new homes. The department also developed a partnership
with the Marathon County Health Department to undertake lead hazard reduction
in Wausau homes. A fair housing message is now included on resident water
bills, and the department organized a neighborhood council to serve low-
and moderate-income residents under the Building Better Neighborhoods program.
Finally, the department developed a pamphlet to help first-time homebuyers
find answers to questions related to real estate closings. These programs
assisted 15 low-income families purchase their primary residence, and assisted
over 150 potential home buyers, assisted 12 households with lead issues,
and mailed out 14,300 fair housing messages.
Contact: Ann M. Werth, Phone: (715) 261-6680
Tracking Number: 2865
Winning Category: Geographical
Best Practice: Long Term Flood Mitigation Strategy
Wauwatosa Removes its Homes from its Flood
Hazard Area
Wauwatosa.
On June 21, 1997, the city of Wauwatosa suffered tremendous flood damages
to more than 1,000 of the citys 6,000 homes and caused Wauwatosa to
lose more than $8 million from private property damage. A single business
had over $1 million worth of damage while another went out of business.
In 1998, there was another incidence of flooding along the Menomonee River,
signaling the need for immediate action for serious flood mitigation. HUDs
Milwaukee Community Planning and Development office was the first to extend
aid to the city. The HUD Disaster and Recovery Money served as the instigator
for additional funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District. Combined, the funds will eventually lead to the removal
of all 67 residential and 10 commercial properties from the flood hazard
area, resulting in the removal of two-thirds of the citys flood hazard
area. Along with these projected goals, all of FEMAs designated repetitive
loss properties will also be removed. Thanks to the flood mitigation efforts,
over 120 individuals have been relocated from flood-prone housing to equal
or improved housing locations.
Contact: Mr. Robert Harris, Phone: (414) 479-8957
Tracking Number: 1627
Winning Category: Program (Community Planning and Development)
Best Practice: Replacement Housing Program
Replacement Housing Program Provides Students
to Construct Homes
LaCrosse. The
Replacement Housing Program is a collaboration between the city of LaCrosse,
the Western Wisconsin Technical College and Community Action Program (CAP).
The program uses Community Development Block Grants to buy and demolish
dilapidated housing. After a parcel is cleared for construction, Home Investment
Partnership funds are used to finance the new home construction. The actual
construction of the home is done by the students of the Wood Technologies
class at Western Wisconsin Technical College. The students serve as the
construction work crew performing all tasks from digging and setting the
foundation to last minute internal finishing details. A city of LaCrosse
construction manager and the professor of the Wood Technologies class supervise
the students. The students work on-site during the morning and attend classes
in the afternoon. While the home is being developed, the city of LaCrosse
works with CAP to do homebuyer counseling for income eligible clients.
Contact: John Florine, Phone: (608) 789-7512
Tracking Number: 745
Winning Category: Program (Community Planning and Development)
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