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Fannie
Woods
1222 Spruce Street, St. Louis, MO 63103-2836
Phone: (314) 539-6561 |
For
Release
Thursday
January 20, 2005 |
HUD ST. LOUIS FIELD OFFICE RECOGNIZES OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY PARTNERS FOR 2004
Six Missouri organizations were presented with HUD St. Louis Field
Office Shining Star Awards recognizing their contributions to meeting
HUD national and local goals. Collectively, in fiscal year 2004,
these HUD partners
produced approximately 2,300 housing units in
eastern Missouri; improved the quality of life for public housing
youth and high school drop outs; ensured high school drop outs received
general equivalency diplomas and subsequent employment; and produced
a national award winning fair housing documentary that had the potential
of educating 50,000 St. Louis City families about their fair housing
rights. The 2004 Shining Star Recipients are:
Advent Enterprises,
Inc., a 2002 HUD YOUTHBUILD grantee, for developing and implementing
the Columbia Builds Youth YOUTHBUILD Program, Columbia, Missouri.
The program has produced three new single-family homes for low-income
families in Columbia and achieved an 88% percent employment rate
for its graduates.
The Homebuilders Association
of Greater St. Louis for producing CITIRAMA, a single-site showcase
of new homes in the Gaslight Square Area of St. Louis, Missouri. Through
CITIRAMA, homeownership opportunities were available to homebuyers
seeking homes priced between $175,000 and $400,000. When completed,
the Gaslight Square Block will include approximately 70 units for
families seeking homeownership opportunities.
The Macon Housing Authority
for developing and implementing the Youth Empowerment Garden Project,
which provided an opportunity for public housing youth to receive
training in soil sampling and improvement, planting, and general education
about various fruits and vegetables that are indigenous to southeast
Missouri. It also provided an opportunity for public housing youth
to develop new skills, such as gardening, woodworking, networking,
marketing, and fiscal accountability.
The Missouri Housing Development
Commission (MHDC) for the significant impact it has made
in the preservation of affordable housing in the State of Missouri.
Over the last two fiscal years, MHDC has provided funds for the refinancing,
rehabilitation, and preservation of almost 2000 housing units located
in eastern Missouri.
Pyramid Construction,
Incorporated for its acquisition and on-going renovation of the Paul
Brown Building, which will add 222 rental-housing units to the downtown
St. Louis housing market. Of the 222 rental housing units, 106 will
be affordable to low- and moderate- income families.
St. Louis CITY TV-10 for partnering with the HUD St. Louis Field Office and the Metropolitan
St. Louis Equal Housing Opportunity Council to produce the national
award winning documentary, Fair Housing: Keeping the Dream
Alive. The production and subsequent airing of this documentary
on the St. Louis City cable station educated an undeterminable number
of city residents about their fair housing rights and remedies available
to them if those rights were violated. The repeated airing of the
documentary, and the interview with Carolyn Y. Peoples, HUD's Assistant
Secretary for FHEO, ensured maximum public viewing.
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