HUD Lines

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E-Briefs from the Richmond Office of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

SAVE + SAVE + SAVE
ENERGY STAR appliances save energy. Saving energy, of course, saves money. And now – thanks to the Virginia General Assembly and Governor Tim Kaine – there’s an opportunity for even more savings. From Friday, October 5th, through Monday, October 8th, Virginia’s having its very first /ENERGY STAR Tax Holiday. Buy ENERGY STAR ceiling fans, compact fluorescent light bulbs, dehumidifiers, dishwashers, programmable thermostats, refrigerators room air conditioners or clothes washers costing $2,500 or less and you’ll pay no State Sales Tax.

RE-FI & RE-SETS
Learn more about the “A-B-C’s of FHASecure” – an initiative recently launched by President Bush to help families with ARM’s resetting from June 2005 and December 2008 avoid foreclosure - in a HUD Richmond teletutorial led by the Philadelphia Homeownership Center’s David Dwyer on Tuesday, October 16th. FHASecure, the President said at a White House ceremony, allows “American homeowners who have got good credit history but cannot afford their current payments to refinance into FHA-insured mortgages” so they can “meet their monthly payments and keep their homes.” Register for the FHASecure teletutorial by e-mailing leland.jones@hud.gov or calling (804) 822-4804.

! ! ! NEWS FLASH ! ! !
HUD Fair Market Rents for 2008 to online October 1st at www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr/fmrs/select_Geography.odb

BRIEF BRIEFS
Local departments of social services begin accepting for fuel assistance from second Tuesday in October to second Friday in November. . .Winners of 2007 Virginia Municipal Leagues’ 2007 Achievement Award include the Town of Blacksburg for its work, in collaboration with Community Housing Partners, to revitalize the housing stock in its Roanoke-Lee neighborhood and the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake for their development of the nation’s first “regional” SRO for homeless individuals. . .Register by October 24th with gail.braham@vhda.com to attend VHDA’s October 30th Universal Design Seminar and October 31st Fair Housing and Green Building Seminar at the Virginia at the Virginia Housing Center in Glen Allen. . .Blue Ridge Housing Development completes first C2C “all-green” house in Roanoke’s Gainsboro neighborhood. . .Acting Agriculture Secretary Conner awards $448,209 grant to Virginia Community Capital, Inc. to re-lend and help businesses create new jobs. . .VHDA and St. Mary’s Church in Richmond hold first homeownership class en Espanol on October 6th. . .Supported “primarily by community donations.” the Daily Bread feeding center in Lynchburg celebrates 25th anniversary. . .Submit your nominations for the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities’ 2007 Jackie Crews Award and its 2007 Outstanding Achievement Award at www.vaboard.org/awards.htm by October 19th. . .Essex Village in Richmond opens new HUD Neighborhood Networks computer center. . .Virginia Downtown Development Association meets in Lynchburg October 3rd to 5th to focus on ”tackling downtown’s biggest challenges”. Virginia Association of Mortgage Brokers meet October 17th to 19th in Virginia Beach. . .Suffolk City Council okays $280,000 to help Habitat buy land in Huntersville area to “blitz build” up to 17 homes next June. . .HUD Richmond gives Bay Aging the go-ahead to build 67-unit, $5.5 million Parker View Apartments for elderly in James City County.

ROANOKE READY?
Roanoke’s the “place to be” November 14th to November 16th as some 850 housing, community and economic development experts gather for the 2007 Governor’s Housing Conference with sessions on preventing foreclosure and preserving homeownership, on developing multifamily housing in rural areas, on green building and energy efficiency, on financing housing developments and on what works – and what doesn’t – in housing advocacy. This year’s keynoter is author Barbara Ehrenreich who’s written about the lives of the minimum wage workers and white--collar worker who are unemployed. For more, visit www.vagovernorshousingconference.com.

ONE LAST CHANCE
There are still a few seats left for HUD Richmond’s free “A-B-C’s of Grantwriting. . .and MORE” workshop October 16th through 18th at the Bethel Center, 614 North 3rd Street, in Richmond. So register today with anne.davis@hud.gov or call her at (800) 842-2610, extension 4802.

BRIEF BRIEFS TOO
HUD seeks comments by November 13th on proposed rule to “make environmental clearance” easier published in September 12th Federal Register . . . Governor Kaine names Jacqueline Black of Chester and reappoints Douglas Fahl of Leesburg and John McCann of Richmond to VHDA Board. . .USDA Rural Development’s Ellen Davis cuts ribbon for new Farmers Market Pavilion in Monterey. . .Applications for EPA Brownfields Job Training Grants of up to $200,000 due October 19th. . .New Burton Condominium in Danville’s tobacco district wins Virginia Downtown Development Association award of excellence. .Register with kerry.johnson@hud.gov for EPA/HUD Advanced Environmental Training course November 27th and 28th. . .Record crowd watches Virginia State square off against Livingston College in 7th annual Western Virginia Education Classic to support Total Action Against Poverty’s drop-out prevention program. . . Virginia Association of Building Code Officials meets in Virginia Beach October 21st to 23rd. . .Virginia Energy & Sustainability Conference meets at VMI from October 16th to 19th. . .Front page of Piedmont Housing Alliance’s RoofLine newsletter highlights that this year it’s “helped 63 people save their homes” through counseling and 14 with reverse mortgages. . .Volunteers from Radford University and local churches spend a Saturday packing 10 tons of donated potatoes for food banks and soup kitchens in southwest Virginia. . . H.O.M.E University offers “Politics, Power & Policy” advocacy course October 13th in Portsmouth, October 20th in Richmond. . .September 28th Federal Register posts Final Rule regulating HUD housing counseling agencies. . .Register at www.vaemergency.com for VDEM Public Safety Outreach Conference November 14th in Newport News.

NEW TOOL IN THE TOOLBOX?
In years past, Ave Maria, Inc. has sold “one or two” plastic statues of St. Joseph each year, the patron saint, said Carol Hazard in the Richmond Times Dispatch , of “household needs.” But in a tough real estate market, she noted, “hundreds of people in the Richmond area are counting on” the statues to “help them sell their houses.” The store’s now selling “more than 500” a month. “We can’t keep them in stock,” explained its owner: “It’s really more of a fun thing,” added real estate agent Craig Via, “but it does give people a sense of security and confidence.”

DON’T FORGET
Appalachian Regional Commission’s Back to Basics – Investing in & Improving Appalachia’s Infrastructure conference October 24th and 25th inv Charleston, West Virginia.

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