Policy Update

Join Movement For Greater Investment In Affordable Homes and Communities

The budget proposed by the Trump administration would cut a host of HUD and USDA programs, essentially ending urban and rural community development funding as we know it. The Our Homes, Our Voices Week of Action campaign has resources for rallies, press conferences, teach-ins, site visits. social media, plus a national call-in day on July 27. Participate in an existing action in your state or organize one. The Week of Action is coordinated by the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding, a coalition of more than 70 national organizations (including NACEDA) who work to ensure the highest allocation of resources for affordable housing and community development. NACEDA members in California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington are organizing events.

Senate Requests Tax Reform Input — Weigh In for LMI Communities!

Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) issuing a request to stakeholders, launching the Senate's formal process for soliciting ideas on tax reform. Submit recommendations by the July 17 deadline. NACEDA is a member of the Tax Alliance for Economic Mobility, which provides information about how tax reform can benefit low- and moderate-income people and places. 

Attorney General Bans Settlement Payouts To Community Organizations

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has prohibited the Department of Justice (DOJ) from reaching settlements that require payouts to “third-party organizations” that were “neither victims nor parties” to the lawsuits. After the foreclosure crisis, DOJ allowed settlement dollars to go to approved community and legal groups to address the damage to communities. Now, settlement money not paid to parties directly involved in the lawsuit will go to the U.S. Treasury. View the Sessions memo and article in the Huffington Post.

Thriving Networks

HUD Awards New Jersey Network $300,000 for Housing Counseling

HUD awarded the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey (the Network) $300,106 to support the housing counseling services of nine nonprofit sub-grantee organizations. As a funded, certified housing counseling intermediary, the Network provides pass-through funding to its network of qualified sub-grantee affiliates to deliver housing counseling services throughout New Jersey. The Network provides administrative oversight around providing excellence of services, technical assistance, compliance, reporting, and training. In addition to the nine sub-grantees supported by this funding, the Network partners with more than 35 community based non-profit organizations that offer housing counseling services in their communities. Funding for the Network’s housing counseling efforts has more than doubled since its first award in 2014. HUD awarded a total of $50 million nationally in housing counseling grants to hundreds of national, regional and local organizations. Shown: Housing counseling session at St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society in Camden, New Jersey.

Prosperity Indiana Announces Solar United Neighbors Funding

Prosperity Indiana — the statewide community economic development association — announced $350,000 in funding to bring solar power to community organizations that serve low-income individuals in the Duke Energy Indiana service territory. Applications are due July 14. Prosperity Indiana is administering a settlement agreement between Duke Energy Indiana, Citizens Action Coalition, Save the Valley, Sierra Club, Valley Watch, the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, the Duke Industrial Group, and Nucor Steel. To make the settlement money go further and do more, Prosperity Indiana and its partners plan to negotiate discounted pricing for pre-evaluated solar products and installers through a transparent, competitive purchasing process so the community organizations will not have to become experts in solar, or lose time getting and evaluating multiple bids.  Shown: Workers install solar panels on top of a youth opportunity center in Muncie, Indiana.

Introducing the Arizona Housing Coalition

The Arizona Housing Alliance merged with the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness to form the Arizona Housing Coalition, which serves some 200 organizational members throughout the state. Co-Executive Director Val Iverson, a NACEDA board member, stated: "The goal of the merger is to have a greater impact on policy decisions and resources for housing and homelessness and to better serve our members." The merger took effect July 1 after about two years of exploratory preparation on membership benefits and dues structures, legislative advocacy priorities, and combined agency programming. Most of the programming and the signature events from the original agencies will remain in place. 

Healthy Places

Access Health Equity Presentations From People & Places 2017

How are local partnerships improving health and the quality of life in communities? How can community developers engage the health providers? What's working to keep kids lead free in New Jersey? And, how can we help the healthcare providers connect with the community in a culturally relevant way? Placemakers and national thought leaders addressed these questions at People & Places 2017. Access presentations and information about all four health places sessions.

Shown: Terri Baltimore of Hill House Association, Destiny-Simone Ramjohn of Kaiser Permanente, and Doug Jutte of Build Healthy Places Network were panelists on "Health Equity & the Zip Code Improvement Business" moderated by Katrina Badger of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Shelterforce Editor Miriam Axel-Lute Shelterforce details lessons learned from that panel in Look Outside the Box with Health and Housing Partnerships.

Toolkits Makes It Easier To Host Healthy Communities Events

Planning a conference to promote economic mobility and improve health outcomes? The Healthy Communities Initiative tool makes it a whole lot easier. Compiled by the the Build Healthy Places Network, it includes resources from Healthy Communities Conferences hosted by regional Federal Reserve Banks in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Healthy Communities Initiative Tool includes: 

1. A meeting directory listing each Healthy Communities Conference with summaries, speaker lists, conference materials, and more. 
2. Conference-in-a-box with meeting templates, examples, and guidance for those who are interested in hosting their own healthy communities meeting. 
3. Blog series spotlights promising cross-sector initiatives taking place.

Creative Places

Art-Powered Places Engages Philadelphia Residents In Transforming Neighborhoods

Just Act and the Philadelphia Association of CDCs are engaging four neighborhoods in using art-based strategies to analyze neighborhood development issues and create a shared vision of transformation. This Art-Powered Places initiative was developed as part of NACEDA's Creative Placemaking Immersion Program and is presented in collaboration with four Neighborhood Advisory Committees. "All of the groups will leave each session with insights about what it means to collaborate with one another around pressing issues in their neighborhoods," explained Just Act Executive Director Lisa Jo Epstein.

Some of the creative exercises include story circles, soundscapes of change, image theater and role playing, and creating issue trees whose branches represent the impact on the community's health and well-being. Participants cover these negative effects with “blooms" representing positive visions for transforming issues, which then enables them to chart pathways to obtain this change. A project evaluator who collaborates closely with Just Act is capturing the themes, values, and ideas that emerge from each session and providing data and analysis to the four Neighborhood Advisory Committees. Shown: Southwest CDC Neighborhood Advisory Committee members use yarn to map relationships important to achieving their vision for neighborhood change. 

Massachusetts Association Advances Creative Placemaking Knowledge

As part of NACEDA's Creative Placemaking Immersion Program, the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) and MassCreative hosted three creative placemaking workshops around the state in June. The workshops gathered together 75 community developers, arts organizations, and planners to dive into how creative placemaking can preserve and promote heritage, build social capital, and spur neighborhood revitalization. MACDC also focused on creative placemaking at their Mel King Institute for Community Building annual breakfast with keynote speaker Jeremy Liu, Senior Fellow for Arts, Culture and Equity for PolicyLink. He recently co-authored the Creating Change through Arts, Culture, and Equitable Development Policy & Practice Primer. Liu spoke about promoting equity and self-determination through the arts at People & Places 2017.

Job Postings

Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania
Housing Specialist — Harrisburg, PA
Director of Finance and Administration (part time) — Jenkintown, PA

National Association of Latino Community Asset Builders
Senior Manager, Federal Policy — Washington, DC
Senior Manager Communications, Communications Coordinator, and
Special Assistant to the Executive Director — San Antonio, TX

Fox Cities Regional Partnership
Vice President of Economic Development — Fox Cities, WI

To post a job opportunity, contact Suzanne Gunther. A $25 donation is suggested.

Funding Opportunities

Go to our website for current grant opportunities. They're updated throughout the month.