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Member Update
CEDAM News & Views: January 24, 2008

State Politics & Policy...

Great Lakes Urban Exchange - www.gluespace.org

The Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) is a website that provides details on Great Lakes cities, engaging discussions, as well as events and news items taking place. It links to over 30 blogs, has organizational partners including Detroit Renaissance and Detroit's College for Creative Studies, and is growing more every day - check it out!

Announcement from MSHDA's Office of Community Development

Loans, grants, and technical assistance are available using federal HOME and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, as well as MSHDA funds.

Housing Resource Funds (HRF) are available for community development projects designed to do:
- Homebuyer Assistance
  - Acquisition, Development, and Resale (ADR): a grantee acquires a house (or a lot to build a new house on), rehabilitates it, and sells it to an income-qualified homebuyer. Funds may also be used to assist a buyer in the purchase of a unit
  - Homebuyer, Purchase, and Rehab (HPR): a grantee assists an income qualified homebuyer to purchase a house and provides moderate rehabilitation after the home purchases
- Homeowner Assistance
- Significant local investments - such as infrastructure, code enforcement, parks, schools, etc - deliberately coordinated with the proposed project.
- Rental Rehabilitation
Who can apply?
- Local units of government not within Participating Jurisdictions (PJ).
- Local HOME participating jurisdictions in several specific circumstances.
- Nonprofit organizations with a 501(c) designation, including Community Housing Development Organizations (CHDOs).

For more information please see the Housing Resource Fund Summary.

Also available from MSHDA are programs for Technical Assistance, Pre-Development Loans, the Contractor's Assistance program, and the Property Improvement Program.

National Politics & Policy...

Final Tax Credit Report Issued (from Preservation Action)

After over a year of outreach to Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credit users, the National Park Service has adopted a plan to improve the administration of the tax credit program. The implementation report is available online.

Members & Partners Spotlight...

Enterprise Green Communities - highlighting project in Walker, Michigan

Enterprise Green Communities Enterprise Green Communities highlighted in Energy Department's High Performance Buildings Database. One example is Kingsbury Place in Walker, Michigan. The 44-unit, 10-building development houses extremely low-income and chronically homeless individuals in the Kent County area.

Other features

Maggie DeSantis, of the Warren Connor Development Coalition in Detroit, was featured in a Community Wealth newsletter interview.
Article on abandoned homes, and who has responsibility for them - the city or the banks?
City fixes up blighted homes: article about the City of Taylor's program that buys houses for $1, repairs, and resells them.
Flint's Third Avenue corridor getting $1 million beautification project
MUST READ: The Michigan Municipal League has two fantastic publications that are full of excellent information for Michigan's CDCs: Empty Houses and Restoring Michigan Communities.

Resources, Trainings, and Events...

Events Happening SOON:

January 28 at the Community Hall in Jackson at 6:30 PM
- Panel discussion on "The Future of Economic Development in Michigan" with James C. Epolito, President of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)
- RSVP to growjackson@hotmail.com or call Dovie at 517-782-3681
January 31 - Lead Safe Work Practices training, Kalamazoo MTEC center
February 22 - 7pm to 10:30pm
- Armory Arts Village of Jackson
- GRAND OPENING GALA: Celebration of Adaptive Reuse: The transformation of Jackson's first state prison into 62-units of live/work residences for "creatives", the project also includes on-site gallery space to showcase the residents talents in fashion design, music, painting, theatre, dance, pottery, culinary arts, and digital media - and that is just the beginning!
Please RSVP by February 15th to this party that will include live music, great food and much more.

Funding Opportunities:

Federal Individual Development Accounts: Standing notice issued by the Department of Health and Human Services for the Assets for Independence Demonstration Program. Eligible are nonprofits, government entities, credit unions, and others. Deadlines: January 15 and March 25 in 2008, 2009, and 2010. Contact AFI staff at (202) 401-4626, afiprogram@acf.hhs.gov or online.

Historic Preservation Grant Doubled: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Evans Memorial Grant, $10,000 will be awarded to a non-profit group for community historic preservation efforts that can demonstrate a creative solution to a preservation problem.
- An application form and further information is available on line at aiami.com or michiganarchitecturalfoundation.org. A hard copy may be obtained by calling headquarters at 313-965-4100.
- A February 21 deadline has been set.

Mark Your Calendars!

2008 Michigan Organic Conference - Feb. 29th - March 1st
The Michigan Historic Preservation Network is having their 28th Annual Statewide Preservation Conference on May 8-10 at The Dearborn Inn
- This year's theme: PRESERVING HISTORY, CONSERVING ENERGY
- Use this form to nominate someone for an award

Other Resources

For information on other upcoming training opportunities, don't forget to visit

MITTAC - the Michigan Training and Technical Assistance Collaborative.

CEDAM's Career Corner is also frequently updated with job openings in the Community Economic Development industry. New positions are added often.

Compliments of CEDAM

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