SOME and D.C. leaders break ground on The Conway Center, first building in city to combine housing, healthcare and job training in one location
So Others Might Eat (SOME) and leaders from the District’s government, business and charitable communities came together at 4430 Benning Road, N.E., Washington, DC, for a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction for a new building that will bring new hope to the city’s homeless and low income families and single adults. The mixed-use, LEED-certified building will be owned and operated by SOME and feature 202 units of affordable housing, an expanded SOME Center for Employment Training, and a Medical and Dental Health Center operated by Unity Health Care. The building, expected to open in 2017, is located directly across the street from the Benning Road Metro.
“This will be the first facility in the District of Columbia to offer homeless and low-income women, children and men safe affordable housing, job training and health care, all in one place.” said Fr. John Adams, SOME president. “It is a natural evolution of SOME’s holistic and comprehensive approach to serving homeless and low-income individuals and families.”
SOME has been working with local and national public and private partners and raising funds through its Building Hope Capital Campaign to create this first-of-its-kind project. The building is named in honor of Joanne Conway and SOME’s Building Hope campaign chair William E. Conway, Jr.
Since the Building Hope campaign officially launched 2 years ago, SOME has raised $16.7 million of the $20 million dollars needed to leverage approximately $70 million in approved public funding, tax credits, tax exempt bonds and low- interest loans. Over $3 million in capital funds are still needed.
Donations to Building Hope can be made at http://capitalcampaign.some.org/give/.
Once construction is completed, The Conway Center will:
There is a critical need for the services that will be provided at The Conway Center. Approximately half of D.C.’s affordable housing has disappeared over the past decade, nearly 30,000 D.C. residents are unemployed and almost half of primary and mental health care needs in the District are not being met.
“SOME is best suited to develop this project because they understand that both place and people matter,” said Oramenta Newsome, program vice president of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a nonprofit dedicated to helping community residents transform distressed neighborhoods into healthy and sustainable communities of choice and opportunity. “SOME has a long interest of bringing quality housing and a myriad of resources that improve the quality of life of its clientele and add to the vibrancy of the neighborhood.”
“We hope this development will bring other businesses to the area,” said Linda Jo Smith, chair of SOME’s Board of Directors. “Benning Road is central to Ward 7, and the site will go from being vacant to having a beautiful building where people will be able to get medical care, have safe housing and get job training. SOME is really looking out for people in Ward 7 and the city as a whole.”
BB&T in partnership Virginia Housing Development Authority is bringing the National Development Council (NDC) to Richmond, Virginia to offer their Housing Development Finance Professional (HDFP) Certification Program. The four-course training program explores the development process, financial analysis techniques and structuring and negotiating skills needed to successfully develop and finance affordable home ownership and rental housing development. The Virginia Housing Development Authority is offering scholarships to support individuals completing the four-course HDFP certification. Scholarships will be limited two staff members per organization. Organizations must nominate each staff member for the scholarship. Scholarship awards are designated to cover 100% of the full certification tuition expenses. Individuals must complete the downloadable application and return to Debbie.griner@vhda.com no later than 5:00pm, Friday, July 31, 2015. Recipients of the scholarship will be notified by mid-August.
The District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is requesting proposals for projects that create new units (new construction or substantial rehabilitation of vacant buildings) reserved for households earning no more than 30% of the Area Median Income (AMI) or no more than 50% of the AMI, or projects that preserve occupied affordable housing with units for households no more than 80% of AMI. For new construction and vacant rehabilitation projects, DHCD will require that at least 5% of funded units be reserved as Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) for individuals and families who were once homeless and continue to be at imminent risk of homelessness.
DHCD’s Development Finance Division (DFD) will lead the project review and selection process. Funds will be available from a variety of federal and local funding sources including the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF), the HOME Investment Partnerships program (HOME), the 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH) funds administered by DHCD, the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA), Local Rent Supplement Program (LRSP), Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP), the Annual Contributions Contract Program (ACC), and the Department of Human Services (DHS) supportive services funds for Permanent Supportive Housing.
An RFP kick-off meeting will be held in the DHCD Housing Resource Center, located at 1800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave SE, 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20020, on Thursday July 30, 2015, from 10am to 12pm. Please RSVP at dhcd.events@dc.gov.
Please visit the DHCD DFD website for additional information.
The Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) is pleased to announce the availability of up to $12 million* in local and federal funds for the development of affordable housing in Fairfax County. The available funding is provided to further the goals of the FY 2016 Housing Blueprint, consistent with the strategies outlined in Fairfax County’s Strategic Plan for Economic Success.
There are two separate applications:
Responses to Questions on draft RFP for Capital Funds
On June 19, 2015, the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released for comment a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for a total of up to $12 million in local and federal funds for affordable housing development. HCD hosted a “Developer Dialogue” on June 22, and received comments and questions through June 29. The responses to questions received during the comment period, including at the Developer Dialogue event, are available here.
PROJECT-BASED VOUCHERS
Request for Proposals (RFP) for up to 75 Project Based Voucher Applications – Deadline September 1, 2015
HCD is also pleased to announce the availability of up to 75 federal Project Based Vouchers. This is a separate competition from that being held for the capital funds described above. The vouchers will be for existing scattered site or multi-family developments or acquisitions consistent with the Housing Blueprint. Priority needs include, but are not limited to, extremely low-income and homeless families and veterans, youth aging out of foster care, victims of domestic violence and persons with disabilities.
The application materials for the Project Based Voucher competition may be found here. Applications are due no later than 4 p.m. on September 1st, 2015.
PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE
A pre-proposal conference on both application processes will be held at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, July 10, 2015 in the HCD Center Conference Room, in the Offices of the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), 3700 Pender Drive, Fairfax. SPACE IS LIMITED – Please RSVP by email to rha@fairfaxcounty.gov no later than July 8, 2015.
A total of $2.5 million will be awarded this year to 25 local non-profit organizations that make a meaningful difference in meeting the affordable housing needs in communities served by TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®.
The theme of this year’s competition is Affordable Housing for Seniors; which will seek the creation of safe, clean, physically accessible housing for older persons (aged 55 and over). Access to clean, safe affordable housing throughout the TD Bank footprint affects thousands of low- and moderate-income senior citizens who cannot afford a place to live.
With the leading edge of the baby boom reaching retirement age(65 and over population projected to climb to 73 million by 2030 – an increase of 33 million in just twenty years) and many retirees unable to recover from the economic malaise in place since the Great Recession, the need for safe, clean, physically accessible, affordable housing is expected to sharply increase. High housing costs force a third of those aged 50 and over and 70% of those aged 80 and over to spend more than 30 percent of their existing income on housing that may or may not fit their needs. In many cases the existing units of affordable housing are in need of upkeep, maintenance and energy efficient upgrades.
This year’s competition seeks to focus on initiatives that will provide Affordable Housing for Seniors through the creation of new sustainable units that provide safe affordable housing for today and tomorrow’s senior citizens.
Applications for funding must focus on:
Preservation/Rehabilitation/Expansion of viable existing affordable housing properties: This may include the redesign, reconfiguration and or re-use of existing space in affordable housing properties to create increased quality and quantity of affordable housing units for senior citizens (aged 55 and over). Upgrades to systems, structure and efficiency of properties to preserve and prolong their use will be considered.
Focus on Senior Citizens: Housing programs and services that address the unique needs of senior citizens in urban, suburban, and rural communities will be viewed favorably. This may include but is not limited to access to healthcare and medical services, public transportation, shopping, and recreational facilities as well on site services (elder care, exercise/fitness programs, community rooms, etc.) that would be attractive and supportive to senior citizens and their families.
Utilization of abandoned properties to create new units of affordable housing: In urban, suburban and rural areas, the utilization of underused or abandoned properties to provide permanent or interim housing for low- and moderate- income individuals provides a tremendous opportunity to reverse neighborhood and community decline.
Special consideration will also be given to those initiatives that focus on energy efficiencies to be realized through foundation funding.
Applications must meet the following guidelines:
· Applicant organization must be tax-exempt under IRS Code 501(c) (3) or must be a state/local government entity;
· Housing units or properties to be improved must be located in a TD Bank, N.A. metro market area;
· Applicant organization must not discriminate on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, sexual identification, marital status, family status, veteran status, disability or other characteristic protected by law.
· Applicant organization must have a history of developing, maintaining and/or providing affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families or individuals
· Applicant organization must be able to show the impact they have made to affordable housing efforts in their community;
· Applicant organization must show fiscal responsibility and ongoing viability;
· All housing units or properties to be improved or developed must be for and occupied by low- and moderate-income families or individuals;
· Applicant organizations seeking funds for the creation of new units must, if ground breaking has not already occurred, break ground for those units sometime during the period from the receipt of the funds (November 2015) through December 2016;
· Applicant organization must be current on all outstanding debt obligations, utility payments and taxes, there can be no unsatisfied judgments/liens for which the applicant is liable;
· Applicant organization must be able to quantify the impact of their proposed affordable housing project;
· Applicant organization must not have any pending legal actions against it.
Applications will only be accepted through the TD Charitable Foundation’s online application system and should be submitted by 4:00 p.m. (EST) on September 4, 2015. Paper applications will not be accepted.
Notification of awards will be made by mid November 2015.
The online application and additional information about the Housing for Everyone grant competition are available at www.tdbank.com (click on ‘Our Community’).
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