National Alliance of Community 
Economic Development Associations
July 7, 201 5
Federal News

Senate Appropriators Advance HUD Spending Bill With Deep Cuts To HOME, Other Critical Programs

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the FY 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill on June 25. The bill would have harsh consequences for low-income families, primarily due to Congress's failure to lift Sequester Spending Caps put in place in 2011. The Senate THUD bill would:
  • Practically eliminate the HOME program, reducing funding $66 million, or 93 percent less than FY 2015 enacted levels;
  • Cut the Community Development Blog Grants (CDBG) program $100 million below the current funding level and $100 million below the House passed FY 2016 level;
  • Provide $352 million less for voucher renewals than HUD estimates will be needed to prevent a cut in the number of families assisted;
  • Cut maintenance and repair of public housing by $132 million (7 percent);
The House bill is not much better. The consensus among DC advocates is that a funding bill adequately serving low-income communities cannot be achieved unless Congress lifts the spending caps arbitrarily imposed by the 2011 sequester. Advocates outside DC should prepare for a broad-based advocacy campaign to lift those spending caps. NACEDA will be active in that advocacy campaign and alert you to advocacy opportunities between now and early September.

Supreme Court Affirms Fair Housing Act Protections Against Discrimination

On June 25, the Supreme Court ruled that policies that maintain segregation or discrimination -even if unintentionally - violate the Fair Housing Act.  The case of Inclusive Communities vs. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs questioned the legality of using disparate impact analysis for fair housing complaints. The justices ruled that disparate impact is a valid legal tool for proving housing discrimination, including in cases when seemingly neutral policies cause a disproportionately negative impact on protected classes. The court ruled against remedies that use outright racial quotas. 

HUD Issues Revised Rental Assistance Demonstration Notice

The revised Rental Assistance Demonstration notice formalizes the expansion of the demonstration and makes several changes to streamline and strengthen the program. The notice strengthens resident rights and protections, affirms public control of RAD properties, streamlines conversion processing and encourages the greening of affordable housing. The comment period is open for two additional changes: prioritizing RAD applications that are part of broader neighborhood revitalization efforts and that have higher needs, and limiting conversions under the "First Component" of RAD to public housing.

Treasury Announces $3.5 Billion in New Market Tax Credit Allocations 

On June 15, The Treasury Department's CDFI Fund announced more than $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit awards aimed at stimulating investment and economic growth in low-income communities. A total of 76 organizations across the country will receive tax credit allocation authority. This round of awards marks the last available round of New Market Tax Credit allocation authority. Congressional action is needed in order to extend the program.

California Required to Repay $331 Million in National Mortgage Settlement Funds

A California court ruled that the state must return $331 million that it took from a fund designated to help troubled borrowers but instead used to plug holes in the state's budget. The suit was filed by three housing nonprofit groups offering housing counseling to homeowners and has implications for other states that diverted funds from the $25 billion nationwide settlement with the country's largest banks over mortgage servicing improprieties. Read the New York Times article

HUD Announced Finalists for National Disaster Resiliency Competition

On June 22, HUD announced 40 finalists for the National Disaster Resiliency Competition, which is designed to help states and local communities recover from disasters and improve future resiliency through strategic community investments.

NACEDA News

Save the Date for the NACEDA Annual Meeting Event - October 5-6, Chicago IL

Housing Action Illinois and the Chicago Rehab Network are hosting the NACEDA network in Chicago on October 5-6 for our Annual Meeting Event. The event will feature a tour of South Side Chicago as well as numerous interactive round tables for association professionals. NACEDA will not offer a full summit this year because of the People & Places Community Conference. Think of this event as "summit lite."

                             

Member News

 

DC Council Approves $100 Million for Housing Production Trust Fund

 

The Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development in Washington, DC led the Housing for All Campaign for a FY 2016 city budget that includes major investments in housing programs. The budget, approved on May 27, provides $100 million for the Housing Production Trust Fund with 80% of the funds benefiting extremely-low-income and very-low-income city residents. Read the NLIHC coverage

 

California Supreme Court Rules on Inclusionary Housing

 

The California Supreme Court released an opinion that affirms the ability of cities and counties to adopt inclusionary housing ordinances, which are municipal and county planning ordinances that require a given share of new construction to be affordable by people with low to moderate incomes. The ruling affirms the power of local governments to adopt inclusionary ordinances and states that such laws are "reasonably related to the broad general welfare purposes." Inclusionary housing ordinances  have produced approximately 30,000 new affordable homes throughout California.

 

Housing Action Illinois Awarded $307,000 in HUD Housing Counseling Funds

 

Housing Action Illinois received $307,000 to channel resources to 12 housing counseling agencies working in Illinois and Indiana communities. This is Housing Action's first award as a HUD Approved Housing Counseling Intermediary serving the Midwest. Read their press release

Indiana's "Planning Prosperity" Conference Releases Call for Presenters

 

The Indiana Association for Community Economic Development and the Indiana Chapter of the American Planning Association released a call for session proposals for their Planning Prosperity for Indiana's Next 200 Years conference on October 7-9 in South Bend, IN. Topics include re-imagining community, local generators, policy advocacy, and collective impact.  

 

Member Conferences:

Partner News

CFED and President Bill Clinton Kick off Campaign for Every Kid's Future

The Campaign for Every Kid's Future seeks to connect 1.4 million kids with savings accounts to help them go to college and secure a stronger future. Research shows that low-income students with just $500 in college savings are three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate. The campaign asks individuals to sign onto the campaign and asks local, state and national organizations to add their organizations' name to the list of formal partners by contacting Carl Rist.

Events and Educational Opportunities

NCLR Annual Conference - July 11-14 in Kansas City, MO. Registration and information.

Housing Opportunity 2015: Better Places, Better Lives - July 13-15 in Minneapolis, MN. Urban Land Institute conference on developing exceptional affordable homes that support broader opportunities for low-income families. 

Integrating Financial Capability Services: Exploring the WHY and HOW - July 16 webinar. Bank of America's Connecting Leaders to Learning Series. Registration

NeighborWorks Inclusionary Housing: Making it Work in Your Community - August 19 in Philadelphia. Introductory session provides an understanding of policies and programs and teaches best practices through case studies. Course details

National CAPACD's 15th Annual Convention - September 28-30 in Washington, DC. 

National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders 10th Annual Conference 
 - October 6-8 in Chicago, IL. Save the date for the NALCAB conference .

National Community Land Trust Network National Conference - October 19-22 in Lexington, KY. Announcement

Equity Summit 2015: All I
n for Inclusion, Justice & Prosperity - October 27 in Los Angeles, CA. PolicyLink summit brings together thousands of diverse and passionate leaders to craft strategies for just and fair inclusion .

Funding Opportunities & Resources
Look for More Funding Opportunities on the NACEDA Website.  
We're posting funding opportunities as we find them on the NACEDA website. Just a few of the grant opportunities you'll find on the website are listed below. Go to the full list of funding funding opportunities.


Innovation Challenge - CDFI Fund. New and innovative ways of expanding services in low-income and distressed communities. Announcement

Our Town Technical Assistance Program - National Endowment for the Arts. Execute projects to further inform the Arts Endowment in its understanding of the creative placemaking field. July 21 deadline. Program solicitation

Rural Cooperative Development Grant Program - USDA. Grants to provide development support to rural cooperatives. July 30 deadline. Announcement.

National Disaster Resiliency Competition - HUD. Propose specific projects that advance community's comprehensive resilience plans. October 27 phase two deadline. Information.

Home Depot Community Impact Grant - Home Depot Foundation. For those improving the physical health of their community through volunteerism. Rolling deadline. Program.  

Click here  
for the full list of funding opportunities on the NACEDA website. 
Publications & Resources

Stanford Study Highlights "Neighborhood Gap" Between Blacks and Whites

According to Neighborhood Income Composition by Household Race and Income , white and Asian-American middle-income families are more likely to live in good, middle-income neighborhoods, while black middle-income families tend to live in lower-income neighborhoods. These neighborhood gaps are due to a variety of reasons: voluntary choices of where to live, wealth gaps and net worth between races, and generational practices of housing discrimination.

Harvard Joint Center Releases Annual Report on Housing Market Data and Trends

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released State of the Nations Housing 2015, finding that there are no signs that America's housing insecurity crisis will end soon; as demand for affordable rental housing grows, supply is not keeping up; wages are not keeping pace with rising housing costs; and public resources for affordable housing are far below the levels needed to tackle the problem. 

National Housing Coalition and Children's Health Watch Releases New Report

The younger and longer a child experiences homelessness, the greater the cumulative toll of negative health outcomes, which can have lifelong effects on the child, the family and the community, according to Compounding Stress from Children's HealthWatch and the Center for Housing Policy at the National Housing Conference.

Rent Burden Rises in Most U.S. Cities According to Housing Landscape Report

According to the NYU Furman Center/Capital One National Affordable Rental Housing Landscape, the supply of affordable rental housing failed to keep pace with demand in the 11 largest U.S. cities in 2013. Read more about rising rent burden in Renting In America's Largest Cities

Urban Institute Publishes Report on America's Rental Affordability Crisis

According to Five Things You Need to Know About America's Affordability Crisis, the affordability crisis in America worsening. Currently, 11.3 million extremely low-income renters in the U.S. who face a shortage of affordable housing options. Only one in four eligible households receive rental assistance. Some cities such as Austin and Boston are stepping up to solve this issue. 

New Paper by Cato Institute Examines Housing Scarcity

The Cato Institute's new white paper on Reforming Regressive Regulation to Boost US Economic Growth examines how land-use regulations are creating artificial housing scarcity. According to author Brink Lindsey, these barriers to entry hamper the formation and growth of new businesses and depress economic performance.

Housing Assistance Council Publishes Rural Research Report

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been funding mutual self-help housing since the 1960s. The self-help housing model uses homeowner contributed labor to reduce the costs of their homes. A Brief History of Rural Mutual Self-Help Housing provides a historical overview of the program, including a brief narrative summary and detailed tables.

Employment Opportunities

CEO, Urban Edge - Boston, MA . One of the oldest and largest CDCs in Massachusetts seeks a dynamic new CEO.  Announcement .  

Want to post a job opening? Contact Suzanne Gunther at sgunther@naceda.org. A $25 donation for each job posting is requested.

National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations
email: info@naceda.org
phone: (202) 518-2660
web: http://www.naceda.org