Affordable Housing

By Alan Mallach

Publications & Services

The Community Development Institute at Rutgers University and the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey released Residents at the Center: A Handbook on Community-Based Planning for Distressed Neighborhoods. Using three case studies from Camden, Jersey City and Newark, the Handbook provides an opportunity to understand the theory of community-based planning, and to learn how it works in practice. CDIRU@rci.rutgers.edu, 732-932-3133 X534

Sage Publications published Consensus Organizing: Building Communities of Mutual Self Interest, by Mike Eichler. Taking a distinctly different approach to traditional confrontational organizing strategies, Eichler bases his work on his experience as an organizer in a variety of urban settings. www.sagepub.com

Smart Growth America, with the International City/County Management Association and the Smart Growth Network published This Is Smart Growth, which illustrates how using smart growth techniques can improve the quality of development. www.smartgrowth.org

In The Cost of Living and the Geographic Distribution of Poverty, Dean Jolliffe analyzed how the calculation of poverty’s prevalence, depth and severity in metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas would be affected by incorporating Fair Market Rents published by HUD between 1991 and 2002. The study demonstrated that when prevailing rents were considered, the prevalence of poverty increased from 11.6 to 12.5 percent in metropolitan areas in 2002, while it dropped from 14.2 to 10.5 percent in non-metropolitan areas. www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR26/

A Brookings Institution report, Finding Exurbia: America’s Fast-Growing Communities at the Metropolitan Fringe, focuses on fast-growing exurbs – rural places that are becoming suburban. In 2004, exurban residents of large metropolitan areas included 83 percent non-Hispanic whites, 7.4 percent African Americans and 6.5 percent Hispanics, and their diversity was increasing. Exurban income levels varied, but were generally lower than suburban averages. Of exurban homeowners with mortgages, 24 percent were cost burdened. brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20061017_exurbia.htm

The Greenlining Institute released Investing in a Diverse Democracy: Foundation Giving to Minority-Led Nonprofits, which found that only 3.6 percent of grant dollars from the nation’s top 24 private foundations went to minority-led organizations. www.greenlining.org

The Consumer Federation of America has launched a Web site that helps consumers and policymakers combat costly check-based lending services. The site explains how payday loans and the loan industry work, covers key state laws and regulations and offers advice and links to research. www.paydayloaninfo.org

The NeighborWorks Center for Homeownership Education and Counseling launched a new Web site in partnership with E*Trade Financial that provides learning tools for housing counselors and clients. KeystoMyHome.org

LouisianaRebuilds.info, a comprehensive internet portal that connects displaced Louisiana residents to rebuilding resources, is a redesigned, user-friendly, Web site with information on Louisiana communities, housing, education and childcare, health and safety, and jobs and local business.

AWARDS

New Jersey Future is now accepting nominations for the 2007 Smart Growth Awards, which honor the town officials, developers, contractors, architects and corporations who have adopted smart growth values and design principles. Deadline: January 12. 609-393-0008 X113 or www.njfuture.org. (Select Events.)

The James Irvine Foundation is accepting applications for the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards, which recognize individual leaders who are making a demonstrable difference to California’s future. The leaders may work within any sector and within any field, such as education, health, the arts, housing, economic development or the environment. Recipients will receive $125,000 of flexible support for their work. Deadline: January 19. E-mail leadershipawards@irvine.org. www.irvine.org/leadershipAwards

Scholarship Opportunity: Southern New Hampshire University’s School of Community Economic Development is offering tuition reduction to employees of NeighborWorks network member organizations and NeighborWorks Training Institute faculty. Deadline June 30, 2007. Contact Anthony Poore, a.poore@snhu.edu, or 603-668-2211.

Alan Mallach, senior fellow of the National Housing Institute, is the author of many works on housing and planning, including Bringing Buildings Back and Building a Better Urban Future: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities. He served as director of housing and economic development for Trenton, N.J. from 1990 to 1999. He is also a fellow at the Center for Community Progress and the Brookings Institution.

Published by the National Housing Institute