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   Part G. Implementing Promising Community Interventions
      Chapter 26. Changing the Physical and Social Environment >
         Section 3. Providing Affordable Housing for All >
             Examples - Real world situational examples. >

Providing Affordable Housing for All

  

Examples

 Contributed by Bill Berkowitz and Tim Brownlee Edited by Jerry Schultz

Example 1: Interview with Community Development Corporation Director


Alan Bowes, Director of Tenants to Homeowners, Lawrence, Kansas, was interviewed in January, 2000.

Community Tool Box: How does an organization like Tenants to Homeowners start?

AB: It usually starts from a community group, some kind of community organization, that then applies for a CHDO status. CHDO is Community Housing Development Organization. And with CHDO status you can spend HOME funds. HOME is a federal housing program. And to do that you have to become a 501C3 non-profit organization, which requires a board of directors and a third of the board of directors must be from low-income neighborhoods or low-income residents. So, to maintain your CHDO status, a third of the board must be from low-income neighborhoods or be low-income housing residents.

CTB: Is all of your funding from federal sources?

AB: We run about half federal funding through different sources. It's ultimately federal funding, but some comes through the state, some comes through the city.

CTB: Are there private funds also?

AB: Well, for the other half we survive with project income.

CTB: And what is project income?

AB: OK, we own rental properties and we rehab houses, buy houses, rehab them, and then sell them.

CTB: Do people donate the houses to the organization?

AB: Occasionally. More often we buy them.

CTB: How do people find out about Tenants to Homeowners? How do you publicize the organization?

AB: We do first-time homeowner workshops every month, which is just a workshop on how to buy a house in Lawrence. And we publicize that. Mostly right now it's word -of -mouth and referrals from lenders, realtors, and the city. And other people who have worked with us.

CTB: So does the housing authority at city hall refer some people to you?

AB: No, the city has a department called HAND, Housing and Neighborhood Development. It's not the housing authority, which is actually a different organization. HAND deals with the HOME funds and CDBG funds. So, people will approach them and talk about housing and they will refer people to us. Realtors often refer people to us and lenders often refer people to us. Someone will walk into a bank and say they want to get a mortgage but they don't know if they can qualify or not, and the lender will say we know someone you can talk to and they'll send them our way.

CTB: So, as far as the organizational structure, you're the director and then you report to the board of directors?

AB: Yes.

CTB: OK. Are there several committees that have different responsibilities within the organization?

AB: Yes. We have a housing committee, which is directly involved in these housing projects we do. And we have a financial committee, an executive committee, and a media committee.

CTB: How old is Tenants and Homeowners?

AB: It became a CHDO in February of 1995.

CTB: How did Tenants to Homeowners come about?

AB: It was a neighborhood organization that I believe originated in East Lawrence to help people deal with bankers with lenders. Local people felt that people would go and talk to lenders and be refused loans, and they wouldn't actually understand why. So it was kind of a community advocacy group to help people get a better shake from the local lenders. And it turned out that the local lenders were all for it -- they encouraged it. They had no problem at all with people being more prepared before they came to the lender.

CTB: And would Tenants and Homeowners be considered a community development corporation ?

AB: Yes.

CTB: And are there different types of CDCs?

AB: Yes, there are. And what we are is a CHDO, Community Health and Development Organization. We don't encourage factories to come in -- our mission is housing. And CHDO status is a very useful status. So we can partner with other non-profits, we can partner with for-profits, we can partner with the city, we can apply for federal money directly, and we can apply for it through the state and through the city.

CTB: And that's because you're a 501C3?

AB: No, we had to become a 501C3 to be a CHDO. So, it's the CHDO status that allows us to do all this stuff. Which requires that low-income component on the board. See, originally when they started the HOME program on the federal level, they did not think there would be enough non-profit developers to spend these HOME funds. So they created this status called a CHDO. It's kind of like the government version of Habitat. Not completely, but something like that. And what we're really supposed to do is facilitate public and private resources to serve the needs of the neighborhoods.

CTB: Thanks for the info.