HUD Lines

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

RISK REDUCTION
Noting that in the second quarter of 2007, some 5,800 Virginia homes were in foreclosure – 4,000 involving subprime loans - Governor Tim Kaine has announced formation of a Foreclosure Prevention Task Force to be chaired by Secretary of Commerce & Trade Patrick Gottschalk. The Task Force, the Governor said, will “bring mortgage industry representatives, housing consumer advocates, policy experts and researchers together to make recommendations” to “minimize the impact of foreclosures will have on Virginians and our economy.” While noting that Virginia’s foreclosure rate is “nearly two thirds lower than the national average,” he also noted the rate had nearly doubled since the first quarter of 2006. Many subprime ARMs, his office noted, “have not yet reached the first adjustment period which typically triggers foreclosure.”

TWO-TORIALS
HUD Richmond is hosting two free “teletutorials” in December. FHASecure for Housing Counselors will focus on how HUD-approved housing counselors can help homeowners facing A.R.M. re-sets avoid foreclosure by refinancing into an FHASecure mortgage. It’s scheduled from 11 a.m. to Noon, E.S.T., Wednesday, December 12th. Register with leland.jones@hud.gov or call him at (804) 822-4804. The second teletutorial – How to Becomes a HUD Housing Counseling Agency – will help faith- and community organizations partner with HUD to help homebuyers and renters. It’ll run from 11 a.m. to Noon, E.S.T., Tuesday, December 18th. Contact anne.davis@hud.gov or call her at (804) 822-4802.

! ! ! NEWS FLASH ! ! !
HUD extends deadline to apply for $32.9 million in Brownfields Economic Development Initiative grants to December 28th.

BRIEF BRIEFS
Norfolk Redevelopment & Housing’s Hampton Roads Ventures LLC wins $50 million New Market Tax Credits allocation. . .With the program reaching only “65 percent of those eligible for benefits,” USDA sets February 19th as deadline to apply for “at least $1 million in grants” to faith and community organizations “to improve awareness” of Food Stamps program”. . .Virginia Office of Volunteering & Community Service holding AmeriCorps orientations December 3rd in Virginia Beach and Hampton, December 4th in Lynchburg, December 12th in Richmond and Abingdon and December 13th in Falls Church. . .Housing Virginia’s Kit Hale announces partnership with Freddie Mac to “bring resources and technical assistance to affordable housing advocacy”. . .Bay Aging breaks ground for 67-unit, $5.8 million Parker View complex that, says Daily Press, is “first affordable apartment complex for seniors” in James City County. . .Richmond Redevelopment & Housing says it’s now helped 13 families to buy their first homes using Section 8 homeownership vouchers. . .December 12th is due date for Interior Department’s Preserve America grants to “support preservation” through “heritage tourism”. . .Piedmont Housing Alliance and Charlottesville Association of REALTORS help nine families headed by firefighters, teachers and police officers buy town houses at Avon Park in Charlottesville. . .Register Bee says Danville “has collected more than $1 million in delinquent taxes” since it threatened in July “to make public the names” of those behind in their taxes. . .Federal Reserve launches “one-stop complaint and inquiry site” at www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov for those having “a problem with a bank or other financial institution”. . .Virginia Beach CDC celebrates opening of BizNet Village, 24-bed intermediate care facility for persons with profound mental retardation. . .Telamon finishes four HUD-funded duplexes to house farmworkers in Westmoreland County. . .Salvation Army’s Harvey Johnson tells Daily Press affordable housing is “number one issue” for poor this holiday season. . .ElderSpirit complex in Abingdon nominated by Federal Home Loan Bank for Affordable Housing Finance magazine Readers Choic Award. . .Accomack-Northampton PDC and NCALL finalizing plans for homeownership education program. . .Governor Kaine, Habitat for Humanity, VDOT and Scandia Development win James River Green Building Council Leadership Awards. . .Building Suffolk Inc. breaks ground for 138-unit Center 800 project. Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions holds winter conference January 28th & 29th in Richmond. . .Sign-up at www.vaemergency.com/grants/index.cfm for VDEM e-alerts on emergency preparedness funding opportunities.

BIT BY BIT
What can one person do to save a town? Visit www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/140780 for good work one woman’s doing in Clifton Forge

BEFORE YOU KNOW IT
It’s still months away, but the Virginia Community Action Partnership is gearing up for Tax Day 2008, awarding some $233,000 in General Assembly funds to 24 coalitions across the State to urge eligible families to apply for Earned Income Tax Credits. To help, visit www.vaeitc.org.

TAKE A BOW
The best of the best were honored at the 2007 Governor’s Housing Conference in Roanoke. Virginia Supportive Housing’s Gosnold Apartments in Norfolk won “best housing development” for a “replicable model” of cross-jurisdictional efforts to house “people who had no other place to live.” The Jefferson Area Board for Aging won “best housing program” for pulling together “a consortium of funding sources including local government and private resources” to prevent the closing and to rehab Mountainside Senior Living in Crozet. The City of Franklin won “best housing preservation/revitalization effort/” for its success in rebuilding hurricane-devastated areas of the city. And Northern Virginia’s Pathway Homes won “best housing organization” for housing adults with a long-term mental illness and history of substance abuse. Congrats to all..

QUOTE TO NOTE
“California has begun losing college-educated residents, on net, to other states, in large part because of the high cost of housing,” Virginia Postrel notes in Atlantic Monthly. “The South’s population growth since the 1980s has come from the lure of cheap housing created by liberal permitting policies, according to new research by the Harvard economists Edward Glaeser and Kristina Tobin. By lowering the cost of housing, these policies give residents higher real incomes compared with similarly paid workers elsewhere – a strong incentive to move, even if you don’t like bugs or hot summers. The mobile middle class gravitates to the cities where housing is affordable.”

DON’T FORGET
Appalachian Regional Commission Changing Appalachia: The People, Workforce & Economy conference February 24th to 26th in Arlington.

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