News

TC LISC Newsletter Fall 2009

TC LISC Newsletter Spring, 2009

• » Web version of Summer 2009 Newsletter
  

Calendar

LISC's National News

• » LISC’s Sponsorship of AmeriCorps Program: A Strategy to Build Capacity, Address Local Needs
  LISC has been engaged with AmeriCorps since 1994; this fall with an award from the Corporation for National and Community Service, LISC will be sponsoring AmeriCorps members in conjunction with 16 local LISC offices across the country, including the Twin Cities. LISC AmeriCorps members will serve at some of our our local non-profit partners to build sustainable communities and implement plans that respond to grassroots, community needs. AmeriCorps members will be part of developing programs and community service projects related to developing affordable housing, homeownership/ foreclosure prevention counseling, community organizing, after-school activities for under-achieving students, and aiding low-income individuals gain access to resources. Members help promote volunteerism and civic engagement by encouraging neighbors to take active roles in helping to transform their communities. Service positions will run for one year; members are eligible to attend a national orientation as well as be provided with skill development and leadership training throughout the service year. Members are paid a stipend for a minimum of 1,700 hours of service. Upon successful completion of the service year, members will also be eligible for an education award to apply to existing student loans or cover the cost of attendance for additional education.
  
  For over 30 years National LISC has provided grants and loans, as well as equity, for affordable housing development and commercial development in neighborhoods across America. Our access in the Twin Cities to national resources such as the AmeriCorps Program, is one great way we are bringing and offering broader resources to help people and places prosper in our own neighborhoods. Being a part of this larger whole equips us to better provide financing and technical know-how to non-profit community development organizations and neighborhood based groups to develop affordable housing, spur commercial investment, create jobs, and expand and leverage other services that improve the quality of life in our own area - transforming our neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity - good places to work, do business, and raise children.

Policy Activities, Resources and Information

• » Foreclosure Recovery Progress Report (pdf) February, 2010
  On behalf of the MN Foreclosure Partners Council (MFPC) and with support from Living Cities, Twin Cities LISC has provided support to HousingLink to track the foreclosure recovery efforts of the MFPC, a collaborative effort by local government agencies and nonprofits to address the foreclosure crisis in Minnesota. HousingLink will measure progress toward three quantitative goals related to the Coordinated Plan to Address Foreclosures over a five year period, through a series of semi-annual reports.
  
• » Housing Policy Training Program Graduates Leaders September, 2009
  The Housing Policy Training Program explores how communities of color have been negatively impacted by housing policies, the concepts and language of public policy and how to organize successful advocacy campaigns. In the words of Sylvia Gilbert, a graduating participant: “This is a great class. The learning for community empowerment is intense and powerful; a must take class.”
  
  The Housing Policy Training program combines evening training sessions with a six-week applied practice campaign to help people understand first-hand how policy is made and implemented. It also includes a field trip to directly observe the housing policy-making process, an examination of the roles of housing coalitions and lobbyists (resident, organizational or professional), a study of the areas of responsibility and autonomy within government bodies and culminates with the opportunity to meet with housing policy decision makers.
  
  The 2009 program began September 14. Course information is available at the Public Policy Project’s website, www.thepublicpolicyproject.com.
• » Rethinking Housing Summary Report (pdf) June, 2009
  Forty local leaders gathered in February to participate in a workshop, Rethinking Housing: Designing and Building Affordable, Sustainable Housing Throughout the Twin Cities Region. Participants were a cross-section of housing practitioners and leaders, including private and nonprofit developers, funders, local officials and staff, architects, urban designers, university, foundation and community representatives.
  
  The workshop was facilitated by William R Morrish, architect, designer and educator. Morrish is the Elwood R. Quesada Professor of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia. He was invited to lead the workshop because of his strong experience and skills crossing these disciplines. Morrish was the founding director of the Design Center for American Urban Landscape (now the Metropolitan Design Center) at the University of Minnesota from 1988 to 2001.
  
  This summary of the day’s discussion, ideas and action steps for rethinking housing is being shared with workshop attendees and with the public at large.
• » LISC Green Retrofits Summary (pdf) May, 2009
  HUD announced the availability of $250 million in grants and loans to do green retrofits of up to $15,000 per unit for federally-assisted housing projects (including all project-based Section 8, as well as Section 202, Section 811, and USDA Section 515 projects with Section 8 assistance).

News: Articles, Reports, Press Releases

• » PRESS RELEASE: Announcing 15 grantees for COACTION Fund (pdf)
  Twin Cities LISC just awarded $820,000 in grants, the first year of competitive, multi-year, $3.3 million capacity-building COACTION Fund designed to support 15 high-impact, local community development initiatives.
  COACTION grants are long-term investments in models and partnerships that connect physical improvements such as housing and commercial real estate development to greater economic opportunities for families such as getting a better job, owning a home, or starting a small business. December, 2009
  
• » SAVE THE DATE: for the Changing the Face of Housing 8th ANNUAL EVENT! (pdf) December, 2009
  Wednesday, December 9, 2009
  The O’Shaughnessy at the College of St. Catherine
  more information as it becomes available will be posted at:
  www.changingthefaceofhousing.org
  
  Changing the Face of Housing in Minnesota is a joint initiative of the Corporation for
  Supportive Housing, the Family Housing Fund, and Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support
  Corporation. The initiative seeks to increase the participation of communities of color
  at all levels of housing production, planning, management, policy, and decision making
  in Minnesota.
• » PRESS RELEASE: South High Finally Gets A Fieldhouse; Moves From “Worst” to World Class! (pdf)
  In 2007 the Minneapolis Star Tribune Newspaper deemed the South High field “the worst in the city.” With funding through the LISC~NFL Grassroots Program, LISC has contributed $50,000 - half of the $100K cost associated with the construction of a new fieldhouse for the athletic field at South High School in Minneapolis. Youth athletes, community leaders, the Minnesota Vikings and LISC will recognize the completion of the new building with a "Big Check" celebration on September 29. The school’s sports teams have been sorely in need of amenities for decades; South High’s athletic field is heavily used to support practices and games for a large number of school and inter-mural teams, as well as physical education classes. This improvement project has been long in coming, and will benefit the entire community.
• » PRESS RELEASE: UNBUNDLING THE HOUSING CRISIS - Art Exhibition (pdf). September, 2009
  Funded by Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and the Family Housing Fund, this thematic exhibition brings together an interdisciplinary group of artists, architects, designers, scientists, and writers in response to the housing foreclosure crisis and its effects on communities and families. The gallery has had many new visitors already, and the exhibit received a very favorable review from the Star Tribune. To close the exhibit, the collaborators will come together to present their projects, discuss their process, and share their creative approaches on September 10th in a discussion and panel on understanding and creatively unbundling the housing crisis. July-September, 2009
• » Help for Tenants in Foreclosure brochure (PDF)
  Minnesota is experiencing mortgage foreclosure like all states in the US. In some communities, nearly half of those being affected by the mortgage crisis are renters. Nonprofit agencies have set up help lines throughout the state to assist renters who are losing their homes to the foreclosure crisis. The Family Housing Fund has produced this helpful brochure with timely information for tenants. July, 2009

LISC's Partners in the News

• » GFCDC Names New Executive Director
  Jill Henricksen was recently named GFCDC's new Executive Director by our Board of Directors. Jill joined GFCDC in 1995, during its first year of operation. She was hired on as the organization's Housing Resource Manager in which she worked at creating and managing GFCDC's loan and grant programs. Since then she has worked in every aspect of the organization, from fundraising to redevelopment, including single family, multifamily, and commercial projects. August, 2009
• » ESNDC In The Spotlight
  ESNDC’s housing program is a recipient of a three year “Growing Up Healthy” grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of MN. The funding has enabled them to research and develop their Healthy Homes project which includes Healthy Homes community workshops, the lead paint window replacement program, and the application of green and sustainable development principles to their housing revitalization activities. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of MN was sufficiently impressed by ESNDC’s project and leadership to feature the project as a case study in a newly produced documentary. The premier showing of the documentary was aired in August on Minnesota Channel. August, 2009
• » Early Success for the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative
  Several of TC LISC's partners - Aurora St. Anthony NDC, Model Cities, and the Wellness Center - are key partners in operating JDAI and were instrumental in its start-up and design. Nicole Campbell, Careership 2009 participant, is spending part of her Careership workplan at Model Cities managing their aspects of the program. Nicole has a background and experience working with juvenile offenders and systems. Michael Steward, who is quoted in the article, is the most recent chair of Greater Frogtown CDC. July, 2009
• » ADC Receives CDFI Funding from Treasury; Hussein Samatar Honored
  ADC became one of a few organizations nationally to receive funding from the Community Development Financial Institutions at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as part of the Recovery Act funding awards, an initiative promoting economic development in communities. Organizations were awarded grants to support projects dedicated to working with distressed communities amidst the economic crisis. ADC, The Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation, and Northland Foundation are the only organizations from Minnesota to receive support. July, 2009
• » LEDC’s President and CEO Ramón León and Special Projects Director John Flory recognized as “Innovative Idea Champions” by Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED)
• » Latino Economic Development Center is pleased to announce the selection of Ramón León (president and CEO) and John Flory (Special Projects Director) as “innovative Idea Champions” by CFED (Corporation for Enterprise Development). Selected Innovative Idea Champions Ramón León and John Flory, will be traveling to Washington DC to receive the award on October 29 at the 2009 Innovation Summit, to be held October 29 in Washington, DC. The Summit will be a chance to meet and interact in person with the Innovators-in-Residence and Innovative Idea Champions. Ramón León and John Flory’s proposed idea was the creation of cooperative markets owned by small business people from the local community that energize communities and create economic vitality and jobs. June, 2009
• » Harlem's Lessons for North Minneapolis -- and all of Minnesota May, 2009
• » Catalyst's work on West Broadway in North Minneapolis May, 2009
• » Seward Coop: Best in Real Estate (retail) April, 2009
• » Van Cleve Apartments West: Best in Real Estate (multi family) April, 2009
• » North Minneapolis clinic receives funding April, 2009
• » ADC is the 2009 recipient of the Community Capital Alliance grant for its work promoting economic development and financial literacy.
• » For the second year in a row, ADC was named the #1 small business lender in the City of Minneapolis.
• » At Project Homeless Connect, there is more demand for more help.
• » For nearly a decade, Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation has developed a wide spectrum of housing choices to meet the needs of our community.
• » Jeremiah Program's national expansion.