To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: CPPH_Info-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 4 messages in this issue. Topics in this digest: 1. Housing Organizer email version no download From: Grant 2. Mixed income housing in Chicago From: Grant 3. HOPE VI in Sarasota -- a cry for help From: Grant 4. HOPE VI protest in Washington DC From: Grant ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 05:51:26 -0800 (PST) From: Grant Subject: Housing Organizer email version no download I recieved this yesterday and I don't know if this position has been filled -- but I'm sending it out to the list FYI. The McArthur foundation has, to put it politely, played a contradictory role in the struggle for public housing in Chicago. Still, I'm sending this out as a public service from the Chicago Coalition to Protect Public Housing. ____________________________________ Hi everyone, I know the last download version did not work. Please use this or forward to whoever would be interested. Thanks, Silvia. Date: October 30, 2002 > Job Title: Housing Outreach Coordinator Reports to: Director of Housing and Welfare Policy Employment Status: 32 hours per week, minimum of four days per week. Some weekend and evening work will be required. Salary and benefits depending upon experience starting from upper 20's to mid 30's FTE (full-time equivalent). Funding source: This position is funded in part by a two-year grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Funding for this position beyond 2004 is not assured. Job Responsibilities: B. General Job Responsibilities: 1.. Work with Interfaith Open Communities (IOC) to organize people of faith and congregations around the issue of affordable housing. IOC is an interfaith partnership under the leadership of PCG to educate the faith community about affordable housing in order to build a movement for change. IOC primary organizing efforts are in the northwest suburbs, but may be expanded to other suburban or Chicago communities. 2.. Assist with research on housing and poverty issues. A. Grant requirements. 1.. Implementation of "Linking Congregations to Relocatees" program. Housing Coordinator will network with Protestant Congregations in low-poverty communities being targeted by the Leadership Council in their relocation counseling program with the Chicago Housing Authority. He/she will establish contact with Relocatees choosing a referral to a church and facilitate contact with local congregation. Orientation and training of congregation members in ways that they can welcome Relocatees to their community. 2.. Implementation of "Outreach to Real Estate Professionals." Assist the Director of Housing and Welfare Policy to develop presentations to real estate professionals, including local realtor associations, chambers of commerce and residential building owners and managers about the Housing Choice Voucher program. Part of the work will involve creating power point presentations and preparatory research targeted to specific audiences. 3.. Assist with outreach to congregations. Create presentations and/or assist with the creation of presentations to primarily Protestant congregations in the northwest and west suburbs about affordable housing issues and diversity. It is expected that these presentations will both recruit individuals for participation in PCG activities (such as the CommonGood Network) and some level of commitment by the congregation to actively welcome the poor and minorities in their community. There is some flexibility to craft the job to fit the particular skill of the person hired; however, we have a primary obligation to assure the work of the grant is implemented. Skills need in this job. 1.. Familiarity with church and denominational work. 2.. Some familiarity with housing policy and affordable housing development. 3.. The ability to plan, organize and implement events. 4.. The ability to develop materials using PowerPoint and other media, to use research material to create coherent resentations, and to gage the materials for the audience. 5.. Out-going, self-starter. At ease with talking to strangers. Good telephone skills. 6.. Ability to work with and create coalitions of people of diverse theological backgrounds. Please send inquires to: Protestants for the Common Good 200 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 502 Chicago, Illinois 60601 Or by email to: oliver@thecommongood.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 05:57:29 -0800 (PST) From: Grant Subject: Mixed income housing in Chicago This article sets the culture of the defines the culture of the wealthy as the standard to aspire to in a neighborhood. Still, it is, from it's own point of view, a glimpse of issues in the gentrification of public housing in Chicago. --- Wayne Sherwood wrote: At CHA's mixed housing, a lot depends on wealthy November 19, 2002 Chicago Sun-Times BY KATE N. GROSSMAN STAFF REPORTER By 6 p.m., the party room at North Town Village buzzed with raw Halloween energy. Princesses and bumblebees munched on chocolates and Cheetos while moms chatted with new neighbors over red punch. It's just what the Chicago Housing Authority ordered for its newest mixed-income neighborhood. Poor moms, doctors and working-class clerks in a community that is everything that nearby Cabrini-Green is not: upscale, well-maintained, orderly. But scratch the surface of this picture-perfect scene and the harsh realities of pulling off this social experiment are all too clear. "We're looking to move out because it's not safe," said David Tribuzio, a 32-year-old massage therapist who pays market value, $1,200 a month, for a two-bedroom in the 260-unit, beautifully manicured development off Halsted and Division. "We just had a child, and I don't want to raise her here." Tribuzio is fed up with neighbors blasting music, kids throwing rocks and an area outside North Town they think turns menacing at night. Cabrini--a string of dilapidated mid-rises--still stands a block away. Much of it is due to come down, but it could take years. "I want something safer for my family," said Henna Sandhu, who rents with her husband, a doctor, and son. Most renters moved in within the last year, and homeowners are still arriving in the neighborhood, which has had 12 narcotics busts and one prostitution arrest this month. So far, nine upper-income renters have left, but only one told the landlord it was because he disliked the area. The units were re-rented. Still, some of the 40 market-rate leases haven't come up for renewal, and some market-rate owners haven't moved in yet, leaving open the question of how well CHA's highest-profile development will fare long term. "I'm worried the market rate people won't put up with this," said Jason Sanford, a manager who oversees the 156 rental units. If he's right, that poses a serious threat to CHA plans to transform public housing citywide. Nine more major mixed communities that must attract wealthier families are in the works. Mixed housing is sort of like a stool with three legs--it's equal parts poor, working-class and wealthier families. But no leg is more important than the last. Without Tribuzio and others willing to pay up to $427,000 to buy and $1,400 to rent--which is lower than apartments nearby--there is no "mix" in mixed income. ***** Developer Peter Holsten set out to do this project right, deciding early on to invest in the human side of North Town Village. He hired a "human capital" staff of five, including a case manager for the 85 public housing families, and a staffer who has placed 80 people in jobs. Each month, they spend up to $4,000 on job training, overdue resident utility bills and social gatherings. Five Holsten employees live in each of the rental buildings and are on call 24 hours a day. "It was clear there needed to be activities to bring people together because, left to their own devices, they would polarize," Holsten said. "We wanted to put together a program that would help people move in and also keep them there." Holsten staffers say the community is just starting to gel. Initially, the income mix was off because the 105 homeowners moved in more slowly than the subsidized renters, but that is finally changing, and condo and resident associations are starting this week. Still, Sanford says, it's a struggle to keep the place afloat. He describes trashed units, roach infestations and boyfriends living off the lease with at least a third of the public housing tenants. "It has the potential to work, but we're worried it'll turn into a ghetto," Sanford said as he walked through one building's sleek lobby into a spacious, well-kept one bedroom. "Just because you give people something nice doesn't mean they'll change." ***** On a walk through North Town's quiet, cloistered streets, Nina Page, the case manager, stopped in on a couple who recently moved from Cabrini. Their freshly painted walls were lined with family photos, their kitchen table carefully set for lunch. "We used to live with lots of rats and people hanging out; there is none of that here," Paul Motely said. "Here, you have your own space, and that's a great change." As she walked out, Page offered this perspective: "I see changes others don't, or they're so small others chose to ignore them," she said, listing the calls she gets daily from people seeking help finding jobs or day care. "Putting people in a new apartment won't make their problems disappear, but it's a start." The key question remains: Will the market rate families stick around to see if she's right? "You don't know what a fire feels like until you're involved with it--and we're in it now," Tribuzio said. "Lots of kinks need to be worked out, and they will. But I'm not going to wait for it." __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 06:06:29 -0800 (PST) From: Grant Subject: HOPE VI in Sarasota -- a cry for help --- Wayne Sherwood wrote: I think the following article shows the sad condition of many public housing developments in communities across the country. Year after year, HUD refuses to request adequate funding for public housing operating funds and capital funds. As a result, Housing Authorities are often forced to triage their public housing communities, starting with the oldest, most run-down family developments. The existence of these deplorable conditions is then blamed on the very concept of public housing, or upon 'liberals' who want to provide affordable housing for the poor, or even upon the poor themselves. Yet the biggest source of the problem is the refusal of the federal government to provide adequate funding to operate and maintain these properties. Then a program is passed - - HOPE VI -- that doles out enough money to demolish 20 or so public housing developments each year and convert the sites to nifty new townhouse complexes mostly for people with "moderate" or market-rate incomes; and of course everybody wants this money, if it is the "only game in town" to address the serious problems of blight and decay that affect public housing across the country. Any real "fix" to HOPE VI has to involve increasing the public housing capital fund to a much higher level so that the public housing stock can be modernized and upgraded on an on-going basis without resorting to the current procedure of allowing it to fall so far into neglect and decay that the only available option left is demolition. The following cry of frustration is not unique to Sarasota FL. Wayne Sherwood ======== Living without HOPE VI Congress, communities must find other ways to fix public housing Sarasota Herald-Tribune , Edition: All , Page: A10 , Friday , October 11, 2002 , Section: A SECTION 'Hope," according to Emily Dickinson, is "the thing with feathers." But HOPE VI is a different bird entirely: a public housing initiative that, in Sarasota's case, just can't seem to fly. Time after time, the city of Sarasota's Housing Authority competed for a federal HOPE VI grant, and year after year it lost out -- dashing big plans to revitalize distressed public housing projects on the city's north side. This year is different: The authority won't even try. It plans to wait until 2003, when it may have a better chance of meeting toughened grant rules that require "project readiness" -- a standard the authority cannot now meet. Required tax credits, a rezoning, and land as well as funding commitments aren't yet nailed down. The grant application process is expensive (reportedly $100,000) and with success unlikely in 2002, the authority chose to regroup rather than waste money. Waiting, however, has its risks: HOPE VI's congressional authorization is running out and, though it is expected to be extended for two more years, prospects are unclear in this time of war and recession. Amid so many uncertainties, there's one sure thing: Hundreds of public-housing units in north Sarasota are in deep need, waiting year after year for revitalization funds that never come. This situation hurts not only the residents of the projects but the neighborhoods that surround them. What's to be done? Basic repairs have been made where possible, but these public housing developments require fundamental renovations that are too costly for the Housing Authority's budget. This is why communities look to the federal government when it's time to rebuild obsolete housing projects. The crying shame, however, is that the feds offer virtually nothing but HOPE VI -- a program so limited that it can help only a fraction of the cities that need it. Increasingly, rather than build new projects, Congress has preferred to fund vouchers that families use to rent homes in the private sector. This program helps prevent a concentration of poverty, but it does nothing for the aging stock of large public- housing projects. As they decay, they bring down the neighborhoods around them, thwarting revitalization efforts. This is the situation that HOPE VI was designed to address, but it's underfunded. At a minimum, Congress needs to act -- soon -- on the pending Housing Affordability bill, which contains the extension of HOPE VI. It should allocate more money, so that more communities can participate. The country also needs to build more low- income housing, the supply of which has been shrinking even as need grows. But beyond these steps at the national level, local communities must do more, mobilizing new ways to finance the renovation of decrepit public housing. In Sarasota's case, city and county governments also should consider funding additional personnel for the Housing Authority, because the staff seems too burdened with other duties to take on another exhaustive HOPE VI grant process. The housing agency has disappointed Sarasotans, but its job is a difficult one and it needs help. To be sure, these are heavy costs for municipalities to bear. But what is the alternative -- poor people living in the streets? Public housing is home to hundreds of very-low-income Sarasotans. It's time to offer them, and their surrounding neighborhoods, some real hope -- not the kind that comes and goes without feathers. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 06:03:38 -0800 (PST) From: Grant Subject: HOPE VI protest in Washington DC --- Wayne Sherwood DC - A House Divided - HOPE VI runs into consumer resistance The City Paper - Washington DC - October 4, 2002 -- by David Morton On Sept 25, roughly 200 people -- housing activists and residents of Southeast's Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg Dwellings -- gathered in a school auditorium to see the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA) make its pitch for the redevelopment of the decrepit public-housing complex under the federal HOPE VI program (see article "'Hood Winked," City Paper, 9/27). A city official spoke of floor plans and handicapped accessibility, perking up the audience only when the impressive before-and-after slides -- showing a suburban-style paradise replacing ugly brick slabs -- came on screen. Unmentioned for nearly an hour was the gantlet of re-entry restrictions that may keep many of the 410 families that now live in Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg from living there after it gets rebuilt. DCHA Executive Director Michael Kelly told the group he would discuss displacement on another night, prompting resident Debra Frazier, who followed Kelly to the podium, to finally raise the issue. With that, housing activists and residents pushed to the front of the hall, shouting, "Four hundred out! Four hundred in!" Other residents yelled at them to keep quiet, and a half-dozen housing police stepped up to make sure no one got hurt. A housing official barked into the microphone that Frazier was out of order, at which resident Stephen Davis raised his cane and yelled, "There is no 'out of order' at a community meeting!" Then the fluorescent lamps overhead flicked off as the protestors, most other residents, and the meeting's energy flowed outside. Still inside were a skeleton crew of officials and dazed senior citizens, most of whom will be assured a place in the new development. These lucky few watched a seven-minute video about what life is like in the projects, put together by teens from Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg and East Capitol Dwellings, another complex getting the HOPE VI treatment. The young producers expressed bitterness that their audience had vanished. Meanwhile, outside, the opponents proclaimed victory. Having failed to get the issue of relocation on the agenda, they had at least broken up what they called a sham public meeting. "There was no need for that," said Leo Alexander, the DCHA's director of communications, of the protest. "That was just for show. All the people outside need to be inside." "Why? So they can be manipulated?" responded Will Ward, an organizer with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Back inside, the video presentation ended with children skipping rope in front of new, neatly groomed town homes and a child's voice-over intoning: "I have the love of my family and the support of my friends and hopefully a new home to go to when the HOPE VI project is done." What was left of an audience applauded politely. (END) __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus – Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Your use of Yahoo! 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