Michigan Development News, 11/17/08
LSJ: $6M for Lansing housing inspires hope. Cities across the state are getting federal assistance to fight foreclosure and keep families in their homes. Here are the details:
In Michigan, 23 stabilization grants, totaling $263.6 million are being apportioned. The largest share – $98.7 million – is going to the state, which can give needy communities an additional grant on top of what they are getting directly from HUD.
Lansing has the ninth highest rate of foreclosure in the state at 9.3 percent, according to HUD. The state average is 7.1 percent…
In general, the goal is to put families into homes. There are a number of tools to accomplish that, such as offering direct down payment assistance for residents or demolishing and rebuilding run-down properties or rehabbing others. There’s even a plan to create a “neighborhood empowerment center” in the Comstock Park area. The center would house services such as foreclosure-prevention counseling.
Abandoned homes attract trouble – vandals, drug users and thieves, looking to strip a house of its copper piping, according to city officials.
“This is a start,” Bernero said of the $6 million grant. “It sounds like a lot of money, but really we are – in a sense – just scratching the surface of a very large problem.”
WLNS: Residents Discuss Ways to End Homelessness. Homelessness is a year-round issue, but it’s nice to see locals giving it extra attention as the weather gets chilly. To learn how you can help fight homelessness in our state, visit www.mihomeless.org.
People in the community gathered to discuss ways to help the homeless in the community. The presentation was held at the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Lansing. The “hot food and hot topics” discussion focused on ways to educate adults on homelessness and suggest ways for them to volunteer. A volunteer coordinator also told the audience where they could turn to get further information.
Dave Borzenski, Deacon for St. Therese Catholic Church: “It does give our parishioners a little more knowledge about the subject, so if people, their friends, do ask about it they have the material, they’ll have a pamphlet to give them, they’ll have the knowledge to share with them.”
Model D: Goodwill Industries to ‘flip the script’ at new facility. A great jobs program in Detroit is getting a new home:
Goodwill Industries has relocated its “Flip the Script” program from its headquarters near the Motor City Casino Hotel to the Grand Boulevard/Woodward area, giving it double the capacity.
Flip the Script works with males aged 16 to 30, specifically in terms of work-readiness. Since its establishment in 2003, 80 percent of the program’s graduates have engaged in meaningful careers, many in the world of construction. The new space, located at 7700 Second Ave., will allow 180 men to participate in the 16-week program each year…
“This is part of a national initiative that has now found its way to Detroit,” says Keith Bennett, Flip the Script’s program manager. “It will work with low- and moderate-income families and start getting them involved in some real financial literacy.”
Bennett calls the program’s new space “very, very aesthetically nice,” and has noticed the effect that its other professional tenants have had on his clients. “As soon as they hit the doors, it makes their behavior go up a couple of notches — it’s a different environment than high school or middle school — we’re here to take care of business.”
Michigan Development News, 11/9/08
WLNS: Helping The Homeless. Folks in Charlotte are trying to raise awareness about homelessness in our area. Follow the link to watch WILX’s story from last night:
A little card board and tape, it’s all some people have. Their source of heat, blankets. Their source of food, whatever they can find. And during a season where survival can be difficult, often times the only glimpse of hope for the homeless comes from the people who are willing to open their hearts, and Saturday it was people in Charlotte who may make the difference this year after experiencing what being homeless is all about.
“It’s one week out of the 52 where we can hope to reach out to the public and educate a little bit about the homeless problem in our community,” Nancy Oliver, of SIREN/Eaton Shelter Inc, says.
And Oliver doesn’t use the word “problem” lightly. A count conducted in July showed that at least 150 Eaton County residents have no place to call home, but those people aren’t your stereotypical homeless.
“More than half the homeless population is families and more than a third of it is young children,” Oliver says.
Capital Gains: Lansing Habitat for Humanity Gets $24,342 For New Builds. This is why we fought so hard for the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund:
This is the first year the Habitat for Humanity of Lansing has received funds from the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund to establish new Habitat for Humanity homes.
Habitat for Humanity of Lansing received $24,342 from the fund.
“This $24,000 is going to help us with three specific projects, and it’s providing what we call gap funding,” says Julie Burtch, with Habitat for Humanity of Lansing.
The funding allows the organization to build three new homes in Lansing rather than rehabbing three homes.
Detroit News: New housing targets grandparents raising grandchildren. In case you missed it, there was a neat story about a new development for “grand families”:
Pamela Mason worries that she’ll have to turn her five grandchildren over to foster care someday because she’s barely making it.
They sleep on pallets on the floor. Money is tight. They live in a northwest neighborhood dotted by abandoned homes.
But by year’s end that will change when she moves into a new development in the southwest section of the city that is designed for grandparents raising their grandchildren. The $6.1 million Springwells Townhomes project has 24 units and is being marketed toward “grand families,” and will have resources, including staff to help find healthcare programs and babysitters, for them. The development, near Springwells and West Vernor, will be the first in the city and is believed to be the first in the state, developers said. Similar projects are in New York and Boston. [...]
The 2000 Census found 17,000 grandparents in Detroit raising their grandchildren. Carrie Harnish, executive director of Bridging Communities Inc. of Southwest Detroit, the nonprofit building the homes, said those numbers make the project a priority.
“It is a giant population and it is only going to get bigger,” she said.
Save the Date: June 1-3, 2009. Just a friendly reminder that the 2009 Michigan Conference on Affordable Housing is already less than eight months away. We’ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.
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