HUD Archives: Cuomo Salutes HUD "Best Practices" Winners; Delivers Housing Transformation Report

HUD No. 00-215
Further Information:	For Release
In the Washington, DC area: 202/708-0685	Thursday
Or contact your local HUD office	August 10, 2000

CUOMO SALUTES HUD "BEST PRACTICES" WINNERS; DELIVERS HOUSING TRANSFORMATION REPORT

WASHINGTON - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today announced the 100 community housing programs selected by HUD for the most innovative use of HUD assistance in improving residents' lives. Cuomo made the announcement at HUD's Second Annual Best Practices and Technical Assistance Symposium.

"This is an incredible story -- how your successes have made this country stronger through all of the good work that you do in every state and territory," said Cuomo.

The conference, Building a Better Tomorrow: Sharing, Preparing and Succeeding, concluded after four days today in Washington D.C.

Cuomo also released the report, A Promise Being Fulfilled: The Transformation of America's Public Housing, which chronicles how the Clinton Administration, in partnership with public housing authorities, families, local communities and Congress, has transformed the public housing program.

The report describes how:

From 1993 to 1995, HUD began the reforms by stepping up technical assistance to and intervention in the management of poorly managed public housing authorities (PHAs) and by implementing the HOPE VI program Congress included in appropriations legislation.

In 1995 and 1996, HUD worked administratively and under piecemeal appropriations laws to put together a strategy for public housing reform: demolish and replace the worst projects; facilitate and demand better management, especially of "troubled" PHAs; bolster security by demanding increased resident responsibility, as well as providing steady funding; and promote resident self-sufficiency, through incentives that reward work and linkages to vital supportive services.

In 1997, Secretary Cuomo supplied a key missing piece by announcing the 2020 Management Reform Plan, which restructured HUD's operations to make HUD a more effective partner and included fundamental initiatives such as independent physical inspections of public housing.

In 1998, after six years of legislative effort and with progress evident in public housing, Congress and the President agreed upon the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, also known as the Public Housing Reform Act (PHRA). PHRA is the largest overhaul of the public housing and voucher programs in the programs' history.

Together, Management 2020 and PHRA set a framework for lasting reform that is producing a dramatic turnaround in the public housing system.

The report says that HUD has transformed the public housing stock by providing large-scale funding for demolishing and replacing deteriorating housing and creating more communities through HOPE VI, which through 1999 has delivered $3.7 billion in grants to revitalize more than 120 neighborhoods nationwide.

The report also says that approximately 100,000 obsolete units that have been approved for demolition, and about 50,000 of these have actually been demolished. About 45 percent of the demolished units will be replaced with public housing and about 55 percent with vouchers.

Best Practices Winners

The Best Practices stamp of excellence is awarded to HUD-funded programs that significantly improve the lives of residents in the communities they serve.

"I salute today's Best Practices winners," Cuomo said. "They're our success stories at using HUD assistance for innovative programs that revitalize communities and bring new opportunities to American families. By honoring their efforts, we help communities across the nation learn from each other."

A HUD best practice is defined as a program or project, management tool, or technique that fulfills at least two of the following characteristics:

Generates a significant positive impact on those it is intended to serve or manage.

Can be replicated in other areas of the country, region, or local jurisdiction.

Demonstrates the effective use of partnerships among government agencies, non-profit organizations, or private businesses.

Displays creativity in addressing a problem, and demonstrates effective leveraging of resources.

The 100 winners were selected from more than 2,800 nominations in the following categories: Fighting for Fair Housing, Increasing Affordable Housing and Homeownership, Reducing Homelessness, Promoting Jobs and Economic Opportunity, Empowering People and Communities, and Restoring Public Trust.

The full text of "A Promise Being Fulfilled: The Transformation of America's Public Housing" can be accessed on the HUD website at pubhouse/amerpubhousing.html. A list of the Best Practices recipients is attached.

Best of the Best 2000

Bright Beginnings Preschool (Andalusia, Alabama)
Martha Carter, executive director of the Andalusia Housing Authority, a 120-unit public housing authority in southern Alabama, created a "bright beginning" to assist the public housing children who could not afford to attend private preschools. The long-term goals are to reduce aggressive behaviors and school failure when the children enter kindergarten and elementary school.

Marrulut Eniit Assisted Living Facility (Dillingham, Alaska)
The Bristol Bay Housing Authority, through a collaboration with the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, Cordes Development of Sunset Beach, CA, Bristol Bay Health Corporation, and HUD, developed the Marrulut Eniit Assisted Living Facility, the first state-licensed assisted living facility in remote Alaska. The completion of this facility enables the elders to remain in the local area and interact with family, youth and the greater community, and have quality living accommodations under the supervision of licensed caretakers 24 hours per day.

Rio Puerco Acres (Fort Defiance, Arizona)
Rio Puerco Acres will provide 100 new, single-family homes on tribal lands held in trust for the Navaho Nation. The project replaces a 28-year old structurally deteriorating multifamily development with energy efficient, three and four bedroom homes. Fifty full-time construction jobs have been created and four families will be employed in the long-term maintenance and management of the project. Some of the project's cash flow is funding an aggressive training program for semi-skilled construction workers.

United Community Health Center (Green Valley, Arizona)
In a medically under-served rural area of Southern Arizona, United Community Health Center delivers primary health care at three clinics. Its staff of 40 has an active patient base of 5,500. The center works proactively with school districts, churches and community groups by sending staff into neighborhoods and schools to raise public health awareness through education campaigns.

South Tenth Avenue Historic Preservation Project (Tucson, Arizona)
In Tucson, Arizona, the South Tenth Avenue Historic Preservation project rehabilitated historic homes in Barrio Historico and increased affordable housing while providing job training opportunities for the homeless and at-risk high school students.

Wilson School Coalition (Phoenix, Arizona)
The Wilson School Coalition was formed in response to deteriorating conditions in their neighborhood, to provide needed services for families and children attending the Wilson. Coalition members provide resources for afterschool programs, field trips, reading programs, student job internships, private high school tuition and ongoing tutoring, career fairs, training and job placement for parents of Wilson students, primary medical and dental care, new housing construction and renovation, neighborhood clean up and crime prevention. Early results include an increase in student test scores and infusion of funding from outside the community of more than $13 million for rehabilitation of 300 apartments and construction of four single-family homes.

Ragon Homes (Fort Smith, Arkansas)
Ragon Homes, was a crime-infested haven of drug dealers and gangs. The vacancy rate was about 50 percent and it was hardly a healthy environment in which to live and raise families. Determined to change this environment, the Fort Smith Housing Authority and the City of Fort Smith worked in concert to eliminate crime, renovate the physical plant, provide residents with opportunities to improve their quality of life and establish an atmosphere that would allow families to grow and thrive in the project.

Mather Community Campus (Mather, California)
A pioneer in creating the first transitional housing on a former military base, Mather Community Campus provides housing and job training and employment programs for 300 previously homeless adults and children.

Centro del Pueblo and Plaza del Sol (San Francisco, California)
Centro del Pueblo is San Francisco's first nonprofit-owned, mixed-use office and affordable housing complex. The 52-unit Plaza del Sol serves low- and moderate-income San Francisco residents who receive a variety of direct services and advocacy on site from Centro del Pueblo agencies.

Parker-Kier Building (San Diego, California)
The Parker-Kier Building, a 34-unit rental housing facility, provides affordable housing to an underserved population of homeless persons living with mental illness while preserving a piece of San Diego's architectural heritage. Parker-Kier houses 22 low-income mentally ill adults whose rent is subsidized through Shelter Plus Care funds from the HUD, and 11 very low-income adults.

Fremont Family Resource Center (Freemont, California)
The Fremont Family Resource Center is a "one-stop" source of family-friendly services provided through a consortium of 22 city, county, state, and private nonprofit organizations. he career center attracts 120 participants daily. Accessible childcare has allowed families to participate in the Welfare-to-Work program and to attend youth and family service workshops.

The Telemedicine Program in Public Housing (Monterey Park, California)
The Telemedicine Program in Public Housing demonstrates an innovative use of technology to bridge the health care gap in urban communities. Using advanced telecommunications technology, the program provides public housing residents with on-site access to early diagnosis and treatment.

Renaissance Entrepreneur Center (San Francisco, California)
Hailed as the nation's first micro-enterprise training and incubator program, the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center helps low and moderate income residents develop small businesses and grow existing ones.

HomeAccess Program (Denver, Colorado)
A pilot project between the Colorado Department of Human Services and key partners has become a valuable resource to low-income persons with disabilities who want to become homeowners. Eligible families obtain loans through participating lenders who sell the loans to the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority through the agency's HomeAccess Program which in turn offers comprehensive mortgage assistance.

Precision Wood Products (Hartford, Connecticut)
Precision Wood Products (PWP) is a nonprofit furnishings and millwork precision manufacturing plant designed to train and employ those who have multiple challenges to sustainable wage employment its first year, PWP achieved sales of $30,000, which grew to $1 million in the second year of operation. In the year 2000, the program expects to more than double last years record and reach $2 million in sales.

Neighborhood Action Initiative (Washington, DC)
The Neighborhood Action Initiative engages citizens in the decision-making processes of Washington, DC, government by linking their priorities to the planning and budget processes. More than 3,000 people participated in a Citizen Summit that included a seven-hour, facilitated discussion about their priorities for the city and their neighborhoods.

Wilmington Housing Project (Wilmington, Delaware)
The Wilmington Housing Partnership is a consortium of financial, corporate and governmental institutions that have committed more than $4 million to initiatives aimed at addressing the city's housing problems. The Partnership developed a number of new, innovative activities for prospective homebuyers and renters, including a transfer tax waiver program, a vacant house auction program, and a renter assistance program. As a result of the Partnership, the city has provided down payment and settlement assistance to 210 first-time homebuyers and assisted 37 first-time homebuyers with a transfer tax waiver. Through its citywide vacant building auction program, the Partnership helped 43 low- and moderate-income families purchase homes.

Delaware Rural Housing Consortium (Dover, Delaware)
The Delaware Rural Housing Consortium is comprised of seven rural housing nonprofit developers that are doing together what they could not do alone—providing housing assistance to low-income, homeless and special needs populations in rural Delaware. The consortium fostered awareness of rural housing needs through the Rural Housing Summit held in fall 1999, a video called "More Than Bricks and Mortar," and a report, Ten Ways To Increase the Supply of Affordable Rental Housing in Rural Delaware. The three-year Housing Development Plan, established in January 2000, will have a dramatic impact on low-income households in rural Delaware because it calls for the construction of 11 new housing projects yielding 750 new housing units.

Habijax Lot Preparation (Jacksonville, Florida)
Habijax Lot Preparation—a Habitat for Humanity project—provides homeownership for low- and moderate-income families who are unable to obtain home financing through conventional means.

HOPE VI (Jacksonville, Florida)
The Jacksonville Housing Authority was awarded a 1996 HOPE VI grant to restore Florida's oldest public housing development, Durkeeville, built in 1936. This had been a vibrant community and a stable neighborhood full of small businesses, recreation, schools, and churches. Over the years, as homeowners aged and died or left the community, businesses began to close, and the dynamics of the neighborhood changed. The Jacksonville HOPE VI is intended to revitalize the Durkeeville community and create economic development by building the area's first new shopping complex full of minority owned businesses, a medical clinic, road replacement and the Durkeeville Historical Society.

Cease Fire Tampa (Tampa, Florida)
The goal of Cease Fire is to decrease the number of injuries and deaths due to firearm violence, particularly among children. The group has developed a gun buy-back for unwanted guns, an innovative firearm safety education program for third graders, and an evening community education program for the entire family. Free gun locks are also offered to participants.

HomeStretch (Roswell, Georgia)
Housing Initiative of North Fulton addresses the lack of emergency, transitional and affordable housing in North Fulton County through HomeStretch, a transitional housing program. Staff and volunteers collaborate to assist homeless families better manage their life, money and future to return to housing self-sufficiency.

PASSAGE Program (Atlanta, Georgia)
PASSAGE—Promoting Alternatives, Suggesting Solutions and Generating Excellence, is a technology based, after-school program that has served over 1,200 public housing children and youth over a six-year period. Its primary goal is to support and educate children and youth by increasing individual and group development, and encouraging alternative lifestyles that prevent high-risk behavior.

Hampton East Mixed Use (Albany, Georgia)
Hampton East is a development in Albany that was created as a replacement for the unprecedented number of low-to moderate-income homes that were destroyed in a 1994 flood. The flood damaged 5,805 housing units, or 23 percent of the housing units in the Albany area. Approximately 90 acres of mostly vacant land was developed to provide modern, affordable housing for an estimated 200 low- and moderate-income families, some of whom were flood victims. Hampton East is an 87-acre development in Albany that can be a model for combined-use subdivision development. This planned community provides, not only affordable housing, but a daycare center, recreation facilities, a shopping center and small business development opportunities as well.

The Pavilion at Campbell-Stone (Atlanta, Georgia)
Campbell-Stone Apartments, a Section 202-funded senior facility, added an assisted living center to serve its growing number of patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

Alternative Structures International (Waianae, Hawaii)
Alternative Structures International, doing business as Ohana Ola O Kahumana, works within the HUD Continuum of Care model to help residents move from homelessness to permanent housing.

Homeward Bound (Boise, Idaho)
Homeward Bound is a model comprehensive two-year transitional housing program for homeless families with children. Homeward Bound client families are offered a full range of social services including career development, education, case management and counseling, budgeting and credit sessions, nutrition, home maintenance, and parenting workshops.

Deborah's Place II (Chicago, Illinois)
Deborah's Place II Apartments, a 39-unit permanent housing complex, provides affordable housing and a variety of other human services for the homeless women of Chicago. To help residents combat mental, emotional and physical disabilities, as well as unemployment, substance abuse, physical or sexual abuse, and chronic health problems, Deborah's Place works with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital and other medical centers to provide a full range of medical and counseling services.

Community and Economic Development Program (Chicago, Illinois)
Mid-America Leadership Foundation's (MLF) Community and Economic Development Program was established to help low-income families in impoverished communities. MLF's program combines matched savings accounts, financial literacy training, workforce enhancement, and business opportunities to help these families realize the dream of owning their own home.

Back Home in Indiana (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Back Home in Indiana assists people with disabilities to become homeowners.

Tibbs Court (Indianapolis, Indiana)
The Westside Community Development Corporation and the Indianapolis Housing Agency established the Tibbs Court Homeownership Preparedness Program for the development's residents. By participating in this program, residents can reside in one of the Tibbs Court units, while attending a series of classes on homeownership.

NAACP Community Development Resource Center (Gary, Indiana)
To help the citizens of Gary increase homeownership, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Community Development Resource Center developed and offered a homebuyer workshop program, providing first-time homebuyers with the knowledge and tools necessary to benefit from the city's down payment assistance program.

Housing Trust Fund (Polk County, Iowa)
The Polk County Housing Trust Fund is a public-private partnership working to improve and increase affordable housing for low-income families. The trust fund has financed 838 units of affordable housing and funds six programs that include a wide range of supportive services to support the housing need of low and moderate income families in Polk County.

Building Blocks for a Better Tomorrow (Des Moines, Iowa)
The mission of the Community Housing Development Corporation is to provide safe, decent, affordable homeownership opportunities for families with incomes below 80 percent of the area median income. This year, 50 homes will have been completed, generating more than $1.2 million annually in construction projects and $50,000 in owner-occupied repair services.

Stay N Play Child Care Center (Clinton, Iowa)
The Clinton Housing Authority, with the assistance of HUD and many local and state partners, has created a child care center that enables Section 8 and public housing parents to obtain quality child care at an affordable price. The Stay N Play Child Care Center offers age-appropriate activities, including a structured "preschool," a summer camp for school-aged children that centers around daily field trips and community involvement.

NHS Homeownership Mobile Unit (DesMoine, Iowa)
Neighborhood Housing Services, a central Iowa-based nonprofit, acquired a 35-foot Winnebago recreational vehicle and converted it into a mobile field office for use as a local point of contact and outreach in rural communities.

Shorey Estates Subdivision (Topeka, Kansas)
The City of Topeka has successfully redeveloped a city-owned, vacant parcel of land that was once the site of 100 severely deteriorated public-housing units. The land has been re-platted to support a new 24-unit single family subdivision for low- to moderate-income families.

Owensboro Shelter and Information System (Owensboro, Kentucky)
This comprehensive program is designed to assist the most vulnerable of the homeless population -- battered women and their children -- who have complex problems that could not be addressed by a 30-day emergency program. The project evolved from an emergency shelter for domestic violence victims and now includes more comprehensive domestic violence services, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health services, medical assessment and wellness, career development and child development services.

Reach Higher (Bowling Green, Kentucky)
Reach Higher assists a large number of public housing and Section 8 residents living solely on welfare assistance. REACH HIGHER offers a six-month work and training program culminating in job placement. This program will provide training and job placement opportunities for women in the construction trades, including accreditation for 72.5 hours of apprenticeship training and a two-month internship with a local construction company. To date, 137 individuals have graduated from the REACH HIGHER and approximately 84 percent are still employed.

Community Support Program, Inc. (Shreveport, Louisiana)
Community Support Programs, Inc., serves persons diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness through transitional shelter. Its provides individualized services and fosters independence, resulting in programs designed to fit the individual. Crossroads is a 45-day emergency shelter for homeless, chronically mentally ill adults.

Bayview Heights Community Collaborative (Brunswick, Maine)
Bayview Heights Community Collaborative purchased and renovated a building for senior residents. By partnering with Kids Katering and the Stone Soup Kitchen, the Collaborative offers culinary and food service training to at risk youths and homeless individuals.

1000 in 2000 (Annapolis, Maryland)
The Annapolis Housing Authority developed the "1000 in 2000" initiative after a resident survey revealed that 80 percent wanted greater access to computers and the Internet. USi and Annapolis provided computer teachers, security, and workstations in neighborhood community centers, allowing for two daily after-school training sessions at each location, as well as an adult session twice a week. As of April 2000, more than 350 residents received certificates in computer skills.

Baltimore Coalition to End Predatory Lending (Baltimore, Maryland)
The South East Community Organization in Baltimore convened the Baltimore Coalition to End Predatory Lending in order to curb predatory real estate practices in the city. With representatives from community and nonprofit organizations, city agencies, and HUD, the coalition simultaneously works to help victims of predatory lending find alternative housing and assists the victims' lawyers in getting sub-prime lenders to establish appropriate mortgages in line with the real value of each property.

Lead-Safe Cambridge (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Lead-Safe Cambridge, a lead hazard control program serving low- and very low-income residents of Cambridge, Mass., targets the most at-risk neighborhoods in Cambridge to prevent childhood lead poisoning and create affordable lead-safe housing. By providing services, such as financial and technical assistance, lead inspections, blood lead testing, patient education, soil lead testing and mitigation, and community outreach and education, Lead-Safe Cambridge has deleaded more than 300 affordable housing units.

GrandFamilies House (Boston, MA)
Boston Aging Concerns, Young and Old United and other nonprofits have formed the GrandFamilies House. The GrandFamilies House is the first housing development in the country to serve the physical and economical needs of grandparents raising their grandchildren without any assistance from the parents.

Families in Transition Program (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
The Families in Transition Program helps move high-risk families with children toward stability, self-sufficiency, and permanent housing. Scattered-site housing in neighborhoods throughout the city, coupled with the appropriate supportive services, attracts the participation of homeless families who are reluctant to or who have been prohibited from joining a structured social services program because of factors such as erratic rental histories, substance abuse, or poor credit standing.

H.O.M.E. Program (Jackson, Mississippi)
The Mississippi Regional Housing Authority provides a comprehensive homeownership program to qualified families called the H.O.M.E. program. The housing authority uses its Section 8 Administrative Fee reserves to purchase single family houses from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) foreclosure inventory, and makes them available for purchase by qualified low-income persons who successfully complete the housing authority's Family Self-Sufficiency Program.

Home of Your Own Program (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)
The Home of Your Own (HOYO) program of The Institute for Disability Studies: Mississippi's University Affiliated Program, helps residents with disabilities realize the dream of home ownership. Through proven relationships with coalition members, disability service providers, housing organizations, lenders and project volunteers, individuals with disabilities receive counseling that promotes long-term homeownership.

SAVE, Inc. (Kansas City, Missouri)
Since its inception in1986, SAVE, Inc. has been the only provider of housing and housing-related services to individuals who are both infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. For more than two decades, it has successfully housed and/or assisted some 1,800 individuals in the 15-county service area. SAVE provides a continuum of services, including short-term emergency housing, intermediate-term transitional housing, permanent housing, hospice care, and housing assistance for vouchers and other subsidies for scattered-site housing.

St. Louis HUD Sweat Equity Program (St. Louis, Missouri)
The Sweat Equity Program developed by the St. Louis HUD office permits any homebuyers who are applying for a FHA-insured loan to exchange manual labor on their new home for a percentage of their down payment. Prospective homeowners can plant grass seed around their house for a 1 percent discount on their down payment and can paint the inside of their home for a 2 percent discount.

Doorways Interfaith Program (St. Louis, Missouri)
Doorways is an Interfaith Program, which provides innovative residential settings in which HIV affected individuals, and families can receive coordinated community resources. Doorways operates four programs: The Residential Program, the Own Home Program, the Clearinghouse, and the Supportive Housing Program. Doorways also houses up to 450 persons each month through its rent/mortgage subsidies, and independent and supportive living facilities. In the near CHFA's future, the program plans to expand its work into other St. Louis neighborhoods.

Montana Preservation Project (Statewide, Montana)
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. 410 units, have been preserved for lower-income elderly and families.

Montana Homeownership Network (Helena, Montana)
The Montana Homeownership Network is a partnership of organizations that work together to increase homeownership in Montana, particularly in rural areas.. 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.

New Creations Transitional Housing Program (Omaha, Nebraska)
As the result of a Supportive Housing Program Grant and a sponsorship by the Siena/Francis House, a pastor from the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church created the New Creations Transitional Housing Program, a program that provides housing and treats the chronically-addicted homeless.

Resident Empowerment and Housing Preservation Project (Lockwood, Nevada)
Residents of the Lockwood Mobile Home Park formed a nonprofit organization to purchase their park from the IRS. The majority of residents are senior citizens, disabled, or female heads of households. Low- and moderate-income residents occupy more than 60 percent of the park, which has 94 spaces for manufactured housing and 12 manufactured housing apartments.

Home Ownership for Permanency Program (Trenton, New Jersey)
The Home Ownership for Permanency Project creates affordable home ownership opportunities for low- and moderate-income potential adoptive families and relative caregivers to reduce the number of special needs children in foster care. Under the Home Ownership for Permanency Project, the New Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) provides homebuyer mortgages at below market interest rates of 1 to 4 percent, with 100 percent financing if needed for those faced with inadequate or unaffordable housing.

Regional Opportunity Counseling Program (East Orange, New Jersey)
The Regional Housing Opportunity Counseling Program promotes strategies that help low-income residents use Section 8 vouchers to choose neighborhoods that offer better housing, education and employment opportunities.

Brother to Brother (East Orange, NJ)
Now in its fourth year of operation the Isaiah House's Residential Program for Adolescent Boys, Brothers with Brothers, supports 14 homeless inner city males ages 15 to 19 with housing, 3 meals per day supported by full social, emotional, and recreational services for up to 4 years.

Project FOCUS Neighborhood Networks (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
The Sandia Vista: Project Focus, using funds awarded under a HUD Drug Elimination Grant, has helped create a more cohesive and economically healthy community through concentrated efforts to eliminate drugs and gangs at the property.

Schenectady Inner City Ministry (Schenectady, New York)
SICM is an ecumenical partnership of 53 congregations working together to "relate the resources of the churches to the human needs of the city." A wide range of services are offered from running the county's largest emergency food to serving the needs of people infected with and/or affected by HIV/AIDS. Locally well-known programs in this group include Project SAFE and SAFE HOUSE (outreach to prostitutes and runaway youth) Bethesda House (downtown day shelter for the homeless), and Hill and Vale Affordable Housing (a community land trust).

Home Ownership Services (Rochester, New York)
The Home Ownership Services Program of the Housing Council in Rochester, NY, is a one-stop shop for addressing the needs of potential homebuyers who are at low- to moderate-income levels. The program helps first-time buyers prepare for homeownership by enhancing their consumer skills and explaining the homebuying process through pre-purchase counseling.

StoreWorks (New York, New York)
The StoreWorks Project is the purchase, redevelopment and return to private ownership of vacant, deteriorated, city owned, mixed-use buildings. These buildings generally contain a storefront at street level and one to eight residential units above. By bringing new occupants into these renovated storefronts and the apartments above them, a StoreWorks building speeds the recovery of the neighborhood in which it is located.

READS Program (Durham, North Carolina)
The Housing Authority of the City of Durham and Learning Assistance, Inc. established the READS program as an education-oriented nonprofit organization. READS provides post-secondary educational scholarships and stipends to eligible individuals residing in public housing. Students from area schools who have been accepted to attend a college or university are eligible to receive a scholarship.

Entrepreneur Training Program (Minot, North Dakota)
The Entrepreneur Training Program promotes self-employment as a legitimate option for low-income participants to become self-sufficient. etiquette, and dressing for success provide participants with the tools for success in business. The program has created an entrepreneurial support system that features a small loan-pool for start-up businesses, a mentoring program, and job placement support for those program participants who are not ready to start a business.

Better Housing League (Cincinnati, Ohio)
The Better Housing League has established a pilot program—the Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program—to provide grants and homeownership counseling to very low-income households in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Volunteers of America Crossroads (Sandusky, Ohio)
The Volunteers of America Crossroads assists homeless individuals and families in obtaining and maintaining appropriate permanent housing. The organization operates a 1,500 sq. ft. emergency shelter for homeless individuals and a transitional housing program for homeless veterans, individuals and families.

Choctaw Nation Modular Home Program (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
The Choctaw Nation Indian Housing Authority operates a Modular Home Program that provides affordable housing for low-income Native Americans. The benefit of modular construction is that these homes are not subject to the elements and can be built faster than conventionally built units. The Modular Home Program also provides employment for Choctaw tribal members and an opportunity for training in a skilled craft.

May 3rd Tornado Recovery (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
On May 3, 1999, a rash of tornadoes swept through the central portion of Oklahoma. Forty-six people were killed and another 800 were injured. Eight thousand buildings were either heavily damaged or destroyed. It was the most expensive tornado in U.S. history with $1.5 billion in damages. The Oklahoma City HUD office immediately activated an Advance Team (A Team) and a Response Team (R Team) to address the recovery efforts.

Bi-State Regional Housing and Community Development Partnership (Portland, Oregon)
The Portland-Vancouver working group is actively exploring ways to increase the supply of affordable housing. By establishing a concrete regional work plan despite the existence of state boundaries, the Portland partnership demonstrates to others that regional housing and community development cooperation is possible.

Reading Buddies (Philadelphia, PA)
In Philadelphia, through an innovative mentoring program called Reading Buddies, elderly volunteers are helping inner city youth learn to read. HUD-subsidized housing communities are partnering with local churches, schools and the community to organize this low-cost, easily replicable volunteer program that matches up elderly residents with children from the Philadelphia school district.

Universal Companies (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Universal Companies is a consortium of nonprofit organizations that takes a holistic approach to community revitalization in promoting opportunities for positive community change through real estate development, workforce development and education in South Central Philadelphia. Universal Companies provides quality, affordable housing, education for children and adults, employment opportunities and economic development, including scores of well-designed and maintained new and rehabilitated townhouses, a charter school, a new small business support center and a six-story workforce development center.

Saint James Manor (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
With only 14 units of transitional housing available for homeless individuals with special needs in Lackawanna County, the county ran out of available space. A long-vacant building in Scranton—central to a day shelter, soup kitchen and emergency shelter—fit the bill for location and availability for renovation. Several local, county and state agencies and nonprofit organizations contributed resources to renovate the Saint James Manor into a 16-unit furnished transitional housing facility for individuals and families with special needs, including homeless veterans, chronic mentally ill individuals and homeless individuals who completed substance abuse treatment programs.

"Rayo de Luz (Ray of Light)" (Ponce, Puerto Rico)
This comprehensive 2-year project is slated to assist six public housing communities in three municipalities of Puerto Rico, which suffered severe effects on their economic and service infrastructures due to the passage of Hurricanes Hortense in 1996 and Georges in 1998.The program offers job training and employment search components, self-improvement and individual and group counseling opportunities and academic tutoring and computer training.

Help at Home (Coventry, Rhode Island)
The Help at Home Program provides assisted living services to residents in their own homes, including three meals a day, medication monitoring, wellness and health intervention and education, personal care assistance, transportation, day care, friendly visitor, case management and a caregiver support group.

World of Work Plus (Providence, Rhode Island)
World of Work (WOW+) services help TANF, Section 8 and public housing recipients find stable employment. The program offers case management services, a six-week job readiness program in English and Spanish, community work experience, job placement and retention services, and adult education services.

Voorhees-Denmark Community Center (Denmark, South Carolina)
The Voorhees-Denmark Community Development Center (VDCDC) is a buzzing one-stop resource for more than 1200 low- and moderate-income residents, including students, female heads of households, at-risk youth, and senior adults each year. The VDCDC was created to provide facilities and resources to enhance social and economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents of the community.

Green Hills I Development (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
The South Dakota Housing Development Authority, Sioux Empire Housing Partnership, Costello Companies, Stencil Construction, Security Mortgage Corporation and Citibank partnered to obtain low-interest financing to acquire and develop land for the construction and sale of affordable single-family homes and lots in Sioux Falls.

Lane Garden Apartments (Nashville, Tennessee)
Through quick response, community education and partnership building, a HUD team and its community partners relocated 186 very low-income families to better and safer affordable housing when the owner notified them of its intention to prepay the FHA mortgage and opt out of the Section 8 Program. The HUD team immediately turned to the community, calling upon the local housing authority, private landlords, community organizations, churches, charities, rental management agents, and government agencies.

Austin Works Together (Austin, Texas)
The Housing Authority of the City of Austin developed the Austin Works Together Project to help welfare recipients and other eligible individuals make the transition from welfare dependence to self-sufficiency. Case managers assess client interests, strengths and needs and tailor the services accordingly. The program then provides partners for education, training and job placement services.

Texoma Housing Partners (Bonham, TX)
Texoma Housing Partners is a regional partnership of public housing authorities (PHAs) covering four north central Texas counties. The one large entity is more efficient, and more powerful than 16 smaller separate entities. In addition, capital improvements such as foundation issues are now being addressed, vacancy rates are improving as a result of capital improvements and improved marketing, and HUD monitoring staff can now work with one administrative staff.

Central Dallas Ministries-Church Health Ministries (Dallas, Texas)
Central Dallas Ministries provide food pantries, GED training and life skill programs, kids' summer camp and a variety of social services. The program was expanded to include a preventive clinic that offers physicals, pap smears, well-women exams, cancer screenings and other health services. Services continue to expand and now include a no-cost, walk-in clinic at a neighborhood community church.

The Village at Fox Creek (Killeen, Texas)
The Village at Fox Creek provides low and moderate income families access to new housing units located near a main thoroughfare as well as life enhancing amenities. This is the first affordable housing development within the community that combines housing units near multiple services—employment opportunities, shopping and medical services—specifically for the low- and very low-income community.

Habitat for Humanity (Lubbock, Texas)
A partnership between Lubbock Habitat for Humanity and Lubbock Independent School District provides Vocational Education for students and results in housing for low- to very low-income families. Lubbock Habitat provides materials and the licensed labor needed to build a house, and the students build it.

Job Creation through Small Business Development (Marshall, Texas)
The community of Marshall undertook four programs that have responsible for the creation or expansion of 61 micro-businesses, resulting in 195 jobs benefiting low and moderate-income workers.

Sidewalk Job Training Project (Wichita Falls, Texas)
The CDBG Sidewalk Job Training Project fulfills two purposes: sidewalks at existing public facilities are reconstructed and meaningful job training opportunities are provided. This unique program is a six-month job training opportunity for unemployed or low/no skill workers that teaches participants the basics of concrete work using sidewalk construction.

Northeastern Housing Partnership (Roosevelt, Utah)
The Northeastern Housing Partnership is an innovative solution to producing quality affordable housing units while at the same time teaching job skills to inmates in the local prison. On average, it takes between three to four months to complete a home, which cost between $55,000 to $58,000 while other homes in the area cost approximately $86,240 to build. The cost savings allow the homes to be affordable for low-income families.

Habitat for Humanity Northern Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah)
Habitat for Humanity Northern Utah is building townhouse-style units in Brigham City for low-income families. Upon completion in December of 2000, the Habitat's City Creek Estate Project will have 17 critically needed homes for families who have no other way of becoming homeowners. The units will be sold to low-income families with 0 percent interest and no profit mortgages.

Section 8 Lease Up Extravaganza (Salt Lake City, Utah)
The Housing Authority of Salt Lake City (HASLC) hosted a Section 8 Lease Up Extravaganza to put the 200 Welfare-to-Work Vouchers it was awarded in January of 2000 to immediate use by extremely low-income families. The program allowed the State of Utah's Department of Workforce Services to successfully establish a maximum lifetime benefit in the amount of 36 months for welfare recipients. Furthermore, the program resulted in 200 extremely low-income families living in the safe and sanitary housing of their choice.

Homeless Veterans Apartment Complex (Salt Lake City, Utah)
The Housing Authority of Salt Lake City (HASLC) brought together nontraditional funding partners to acquire and rehabilitate a 14-unit complex for homeless veterans who were willing to enter into a lease requiring a mandatory work component. The goal is to give the residents an opportunity to learn new marketable skills and transition into the private sector for both employment and affordable housing.

Good News Garage (Burlington, Vermont)
Good News Garage (GNG) provides safe, reliable and affordable means of transportation to low-income residents and puts them on the road to self-sufficiency. The GNG seeks and receives donated vehicles, which are restored and provided to low-income applicants.

Statewide Homeownership Center (Burlington,Vermont)
The Vermont Housing Finance Authority initially funded four area nonprofits to create homeownership centers to assist low- and moderate-income people trying to find and purchase affordable housing. The centers provide a full range of housing services, including homebuyer education, housing counseling, loss mitigation services, rehabilitation counseling and limit funding for rehabilitation, post-ownership and credit counseling.

The Housing and Communities Show (Burlington, Vermont)
The "Housing and Communities" television program educates approximately 140,000 Chittenden County, VT, viewers whom otherwise might not have access to information on housing and community development issues. The program provides information on topics such as homeownership opportunities, affordable housing development, homeless issues, and community and economic development subjects.

Chesapeake Affordable Homeownership Partnership (Chesapeake, Virginia)
The Chesapeake Affordable Homeownership Partnership is a public-private nonprofit partnership of the Chesapeake Redevelopment and Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity and the Tidewater Builders Association. The partnership provides quality, affordable housing for low-income residents in Chesapeake, VA.

New Road Community Development Group (Exmore, Virginia)
The New Road Community Development Group of Exmore—a community-based nonprofit organization located on the Virginia eastern shore peninsula—was established in 1992 to fight for a new sewer and water system that would provide services to 90 substandard housing units in the New Road community.

Fair Housing Accessibility (Richmond, Virginia)
HUD reviewed the nation's four model building codes to assess the extent to which they were consistent with the requirements for accessibility outlined in national fair housing legislation. Because the Fair Housing Act is a civil rights law, rather than a building regulation, it is not a "required" component of building codes. However, the Act encourages state and local jurisdictions to review their permitting processes and adopt building codes that comply with the Act.

Cultivating Communities (Seattle, Washington)
Cultivating Communities, a community-supported agriculture enterprise in Seattle, Washington, operates market gardens at three of Seattle Housing Authority's large public housing garden communities. Many of the housing authority's public housing residents are recent immigrants from Ethiopia, Cambodia, Somalia, Laos, Vietnam and other countries where agriculture is a way of life. These immigrants had little or no preparation for life in urban America. Many of them are learning a new language, obtaining citizenship and finding employment.

Housing at Sand Point (Seattle, Washington)
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Navy decommissioned the 151-acre Sand Point Naval Station. Following a three-year re-use planning process involving neighborhood groups, civic organizations, and homeless service providers, the property was transferred to the city of Seattle for the provision of housing, supportive services and employment opportunities for people who are homeless.

YWCA Transitional Housing Project (Charleston, West Virginia)
The YWCA Transitional Housing Project in Charleston, WV, provides affordable apartments and supportive services to homeless and battered women and children. Residents may stay up to 24 months. They receive a variety of supportive services to help them become self-sufficient, such as case management, adult education, budgeting guidance, job training and parenting education.

Replacement Housing Program (LaCrosse, Wisconsin)
The program uses Community Development Block Grants to buy and demolish dilapidated housing. After a parcel is cleared for construction, Home Investment Partnerships funds—approximately $186,000—are used to finance the construction of a new home. The students of the Wood Technologies class at Western Wisconsin Technical College do the actual construction of the home.

Wind River Reservation (Riverton, Wyoming)
Housing Partners, Inc. developed a program to increase homeownership at the Wind River Reservation, home to the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes. By coordinating the activities of nonprofits, businesses, schools, and the Tribes, Housing Partners addresses some of the challenges to private homeownership on the Reservation's trust lands.

HUD Archives: News Releases