2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-764 Wyoming Partners in Homebuyer Education
Casper, Wyoming
Contact: George D. Axlund (307) 265-0603

The Wyoming Partners in Homebuyer Education was created in the fall of 1999 to provide a comprehensive home buyer education program for Wyoming residents. The program will be made available to residents throughout the State of Wyoming via broadcast through University of Wyoming’s compressed video system. The partners have met on a regular basis to determine the best approach for the program, prepare course material, and develop a budget and marketing plan. In ongoing meetings, the partnership is garnering support from lenders, realtors, and the communities. The resulting home buyer education program, available on a statewide basis, will provide potential home buyers with the basic tools they need to make informative choices on home buying, including the preparation to purchase, the purchase process, and maintaining the home and mortgage once the process is completed.

2000-729 Wyoming Manufactured Housing Association
Riverton, Wyoming
Contact: Laurie Urbigkit

The Wyoming Manufactured Housing Association (WyMHA) is an association of persons from various segments of the manufactured housing industry of Wyoming. The association was created to promote "HUD Code homes" and fight discrimination within the state.

2000-2964 Increasing Homeownership Opportunities On The Wind River Reservation
Riverton, Wyoming
Contact: Cathy G. Yochheim (307) 857-1988

Housing Partners, Inc., a non-profit HUD approved counseling agency and Community Development Housing Organization under the HOME program, has developed a program to help coordinate activities to increase homeownership on Indian Reservation land. There is a severe housing shortage on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Currently, the two tribes that occupy the reservation and BIA are allowing a 25-year lease, with the option of renewal for an additional 25 years for building homes on trust land. However, many Native Americans on the reservation are still struggling to find suitable housing. With the use of Housing Partners staff, resources (Housing Partners’ executive director is the founder of the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate) and donated time and materials, it has become possible for more people to have safe, decent and affordable housing.

2000-1464 Creation of The Wyoming Statewide Homeless Collaborative
Casper, Wyoming
Contact: Dennis L. Royal (307) 235-9491

The Wyoming Statewide Homeless Collaborative was formed in January 2000 to develop a statewide continuum of care for homeless services in a large, sparsely populated state with few resources. It is a confederation of four existing local collaboratives based in Casper, Cheyenne, Gillette, and Riverton. The lead entity for the statewide collaborative is the Natrona County Human Services Commission (HSC), a public (city/county) community action agency based in Casper. The area presently covered by the Wyoming Continuum of Care includes two metropolitan cities (Cheyenne and Casper) and 14 of the 23 counties in Wyoming. By 2001, the goal is to expand the Coalition from four regional coalitions to five and represent all 23 Wyoming counties.

The mission of the Coalition is to plan, develop, and implement a statewide continuum of care; to identify and eliminate gaps in service; to reduce duplication of service; and to mobilize nonprofit organizations, government agencies, businesses, and others in an ongoing effort to break the cycle of homelessness. Key aspects of the system include prevention, outreach/assessment, emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, permanent housing and supportive services.

2000-779 World Changers Project, City of Casper
Casper, Wyoming
Contact: David Hough (307) 235-8220

World Changers is a public/private partnership designed to provide meaningful volunteer opportunities for young people and to upgrade homes of low- and moderate-income citizens. World Changers is a project of the North American Mission Board. Through an affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention, young persons from Baptist churches throughout the country volunteer to spend one week in a community and to work as volunteers helping with rehabilitation efforts on housing units pre-selected by the community. The City of Casper utilizes CDBG funds to provide the materials needed, selects beneficiaries, and helps with the logistics of the week-long project. Low- and moderate-income households who qualify for the program are provided grants to cover the cost of materials. The City advertises the program in the local media and sends letters to service providers who work with low- and moderate-income persons. The city rehabilitation specialist and a World Changers supervisor conduct an on-site review of each applicant to determine project feasibility. There is a maximum of $2,500 in material costs per job, and each proposed project must be able to be completed in a one-week period and at a skill level of the young volunteers. The project must also provide an enhancement to the overall neighborhood. Typical jobs include repair/replacement of roofs, porches, and windows; yard clean up; painting; fence repair; and building ramps for handicapped accessibility. 322 volunteers will be participating this year with young people traveling from Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Colorado, California and Florida at their own expense. They will "camp out" in the gym at one of the local high schools, which will also serve as headquarters for all their activities. The local Southern Baptist churches provide a cadre of volunteers to act as crew chiefs, provide meals, and organize events prior to the arrival of the volunteer youths. This year, a total 27 homes are scheduled to be rehabilitated. In addition to the work these young people will do in Casper, they also have recreational time for river rafting, ball games and picnics. They leave behind happy homeowners who have received needed rehabilitation work, spin-off construction by other neighbors, and an improved community.

2000-925 City of Casper Citizen Participation Process
Casper, Wyoming
Contact: David Hough (307) 235-8220

One of the key goals of the Casper City Consolidated Plan is to enhance citizen participation. In the past, public hearings have been advertised in the "Legal Notices" section of the daily newspaper. Hearings were held in the City Council chambers. Organizations interested in receiving CDBG funding presented their projects to the Commission in the public hearing process, but turnout by the public was poor, at best. Using a new, more comprehensive approach to citizen involvement in the consolidated planning process, the City of Casper increased their efforts to go above and beyond citizen participation requirements. Instead of just holding public hearings as required by program regulations, the city used neighborhood meetings as a vehicle to gather input and take the program to the people. The neighborhood meetings were held in three elementary schools located in low-income neighborhoods. Flyers announcing the meetings were sent home with 524 school children. The media covered the meetings with news stories on television, radio and newspaper. This is the first time such meetings have been held in this community. Meetings were held in the evenings to maximize attendance. The agenda for each meeting included an overview of the CDBG Program, how CDBG funds have been used in Casper in the past and an explanation of the upcoming five-year Consolidated Plan process. Another step in obtaining participation was to bring together organizations in the community with mutual interests. This step took the form of four industry meetings. As part of the meeting, a training session was offered to the organizations who were interested in applying for CDBG funds. The attendees represented persons who had never participated in such a process before. Since this was the first such effort by the City of Casper to hold such meetings, the city was pleased with the response, the increased participation, as well as the outcomes of the meetings. The new approach both educated the citizen on what CDBG funds have been used for in the past, but also garnered many ideas and suggestions for use in the near future. Finally, the city held two public meetings where many organizations were allowed to explain proposed activities. One meeting was held in the afternoon and one in the evening. Only one of the meetings were held in the Council Chambers, the second meeting was held in the City Hall meeting room.

2000-3156 PHDEP TA- Creating Partners in Drug Elimination Programs
Ft. Wasakie, Wyoming
Contact: Cheryl Arthur (307) 332-5832

HUD sent a consultant to the tribal entity to assist in coordinating partnerships in crime and drug prevention. The housing staff met with local agencies to improve its relationships and coordination. This included the Wind River Police Department, which resulted in enhanced crime reporting and data collection of crime statistics for its drug elimination program. Meetings w/ senior citizen centers led to exploring opportunities for intergenerational programs that provide drug prevention activities, such as doing crafts together or mowing senior citizen's lawns.

2000-569 State of Wyoming Citizen Participation Process
Casper, Wyoming
Contact: Edward Atencio (303) 672-5414

The State complied with its citizen participation plan by using an effective and modern technique to involve and communicate with citizens: The state mailed notices and faxes to announce the public hearings for the action plan. Public notices were also published in newspapers throughout the state. The public hearings were held state wide via the electronic real time Compressed Video System. The system allowed citizens in ten different locations throughout the state to attend the citizen participation hearings. The system allows for questions and answers in real time. The hearings had over 70 people in attendance and many advisory comments were made on program improvement.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011