TAMPA, Fla. ---WUSF-TV Channel 9 aired its video report on the CRED 2007 program and posted the video on YouTube. Click the picture to view the program:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ---Florida Housing Finance Corp. will sponsor a green building training workshop on Friday, November 2 in Orlando.
This workshop will be helpful to developers of homeowner and rental housing who are requesting financing through any of Florida Housing's programs. The training will provide an overview of the various certification processes and requirements, with the objective of orienting potential Florida Housing applicants to help them make predevelopment decisions about their green building approaches.
The training will focus on Energy Star and Florida Green Building Coalition certification, along with an overview about LEED to contrast and compare the green requirements between these certifications.
The workshop will be conducted by the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida and a leader in green building and the certification process.
The training is free and open to the affordable housing development community. If you are interested in attending, please sign up by clicking here.
Meeting Details
Who: Florida Housing Finance Corporation
What: Green Building Training Workshop
When: Friday, November 2, 2007 from 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (with a one-hour lunch on your own)
MIAMI, Fla. ---Carrfour Supportive Housing, a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide permanent housing and supportive services to the formerly homeless in Miami-Dade County, secured $30 million in financing recently for the development of the Dr. Barbara Carey-Shuler Manor, a mixed-use, mixed-income development in Liberty City that will include ground floor retail space, a parking garage, supportive housing for 'formerly homeless' individuals and families, and affordable housing for low income families.
The funding includes $22 million in Tax Credit financing and a $3.7 million SAIL loan from the Fla. Housing Finance Corporation.
"This project will be a significant economic catalyst for the Liberty City community, stimulating new growth and development," said Stephanie Berman, President of Carrfour Supportive Housing.
Located at 1400 NW 54th Street, the Dr. Barbara Carey-Shuler Manor is named after the former Miami-Dade County Commissioner, community leader and visionary who retired in 2005.
Construction of Dr. Barbara Carey-Shuler Manor is expected to begin in the fall of 2008 and be completed by the fall of 2009.
Dr. Barbara Carey-Shuler Manor includes 90 apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms, 16,000 square feet of retail/commercial space and an inter-connected 176-car parking garage.
Of the 90 rental units, 45 will be set aside for 'formerly homeless' individuals and families.
The remaining 45 units will be set aside for low-income individuals (including some elderly) and families of up to four from the Liberty City community who make less than $35,580 annually.
Amenities for building residents will include private balconies on all units, an exercise room, a multi-purpose community room with a full kitchen and pantry; on-site parking, recreational space and a private patio.
Carrfour Supportive Housing will have a social services staff on site to provide residents with financial counseling, job development and placement, and case management services.
Sources of Funds
Permanent financing for this project includes:
Bank First Mortgage $1.2 million committed
Federal Tax Credits $22,278,472 Awarded
Fla. Housing Finance Corp Sail & Supplemental Loan $3,739,923 Awarded
Miami-Dade County CDBGrant $1.5 million Applied For
Miami-Dade County - Surtax loan $1 million Awarded
Carrfour Deferred Developer Fee $51,589 Committed
Total $29,769,984
About Carrfour
Carrfour Supportive Housing is a non-profit 501.c.3 organization founded in 1993 by the Homeless Committee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. It is the only non-profit organization in Miami-Dade County dedicated primarily to providing supportive housing and maximizing the self-sufficiency of formerly homeless men, women and children, as well as those at risk of becoming homeless. Carrfour currently operates 518 units housing 905 people, of which 330 are children. With the addition of new projects currently in development, by the end of 2007, Carrfour will be serving approximately 1,375 residents living in approximately 718 units. For more information, visit www.carrfour.org.
Florida Housing Finance Corp. recently posted their annual Florida housing 'affordability index,' which compares the most recently available data on housing costs and affordability by county. The chart is a principal tool in evaluating the merits of CWHIP applications for the 2007 funding cycle.
Fla. Housing Finance Corp. calls its chart the 2006 Gap Between Buying Power and Median Sales Price, by County for Homesteaded Single-Family Homes for CWHIP Program - 9/25/07.
Over the next 12 months, this data chart will likely rank as our most frequently cited data source.
The NAHTF also promises a big boost to the U.S. housing industry: H.R. 2895 dedicates funding sources for the production, preservation and rehabilitation of 1.5 million affordable homes over the next 10 years. That's a big bite of the market: this year, American home builders will start construction of an estimated 1.3 million new housing units nationwide---a figure that's been ratcheted down each quarter this year and could finish in the 1.1-million range.
Three-fourths of NAHTF funding will target extremely low income (ELI) families earning less than 30% of area median income.
Common Vision: Housing Solutions for All October 25 - 26, 2007 St. Petersburg, Florida
(Optional pre-conference Wednesday, October 24)
The 1st Annual Joint Statewide Homeless and Supportive Housing Conference will highlight housing and service resources and best practices that can benefit people needing supportive housing or experiencing homelessness.
The focus is on learning new and better ways to assist individuals or families reentering the community, whether moving from shelters, the streets, or other places unsuited for regular habitation to permanent housing; young people exiting the foster care system; veterans returning from service abroad; individuals released from incarceration; persons with disabilities transitioning from facilities or institutions; or senior citizens leaving hospitals. Registration is available online at www.flshc.net.
This joint conference follows the tradition of our very successful past individual conferences, in providing the latest information concerning affordable housing and services of those with special needs and/or experiencing homelessness. We hope to offer a wonderful training and networking experience that will bring together people with a shared vision of housing solutions for all!
Anyone interested in housing for the homeless or people with disabilities
19.5 CEUs/Contact Hours Available Over the Three Days:
Addiction Treatment/Prevention Professionals
Mental Health Counselors
Marriage and Family Therapists
Licensed Clinical Social Workers
Registration Fees:
$250 - members
$350 - renewing member and new membership (includes membership in both organizations for 2008)
$400 - non-members
$100 - optional pre-conference October 24
Contact:
Freyja Sutherland Harris Program Director Florida Coalition for the Homeless 606 W. 4th Ave, Ste12 Tallahassee, FL 32303 850-412-0021 850-412-0052 (fax) freyja[at]fchonline.org
American Realty Group vice president Jim Dyal, left, told Vash he plans to recruit local CDC's and the nonprofit Northwood Renaissance in West Palm Beach to help.
"These groups provide us the ability to outreach to the community," Dyal said. "They bring in a tremendous amount of experience."
Vash reports that American Realty proposed:
56 for-sale townhouses on the west side of Seacrest Boulevard and 84 rental units on the eastern lot. The buildings will be no taller than two stories.
American Realty is proposing to pay the CRA $4.2 million for the 8-acre property and then build a mix of 56 for-sale town houses and 84 rental apartments [140 total]. Carlisle Development Group is offering to pay $4.5 million for the lots and plans to build 148 units.
Carlisle... offered an all-rental community of 148 apartments that board members immediately nixed. The proposal didn't provide potential renters an opportunity to move up and buy an affordable home in the same community, board members said.
"We might as well go back to Boynton Terrace. We might as well go back to the same predicament," board member Mack McCray, [left,] said, referring to the federally subsidized project that once stood as an eyesore and crime spot and was demolished in 2005.
Some of Fla.'s biggest large-scale low-income developers are after a slice of the Heart of Boynton pie, including American Realty Dev't., Auburn Dev't., Carlisle, Pinnacle Dev't. and Intown Partners.
(Ed. note: James E. Dyal served the CRED Class of 2007 as an adjunct faculty member and project mentor. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Housng Coalition. This article was cross-posted with permission and with some modification from Florida Workforce Housing Network.)
MIAMI, Fla. ---Niala Boodhoo at the Miami Herald reports that employer-assisted housing programs in South Florida have developed a whole new approach that could dramatically alter the affordable housing picture: consider housing as an employee benefit---and change the IRS code to define employer-assisted housing as legitimate, deductible business expense for employers.
A few years ago, "we were worried only about low-income people," said Broward Workforce Development Board member Ben Chen, who owns Fort Lauderdale civil engineering company Ben Chen and Associates. But that's changed.
Now, Chen even has a hard time finding civil or environmental engineers who can afford to live here. He is lobbying the federal government to change its tax code to allow companies to include housing assistance for employees as a business expense.
Already, South Fla. employers are devising ways to lower housing costs. According to Niala Boodhoo/Miami Herald:
Developer mFm Construction Corp. is partnering with the city of Miami to give Bank of America and Discovery Channel workers first crack at $220,000 condos at River Grand, left, near Jackson Memorial Hospital. mFm is throwing in up to three years of free maintenance, value $10,800.
More than 1,200 people attended Broward County Public Schools' affordable-housing expo in Sunrise earlier this year where builders and developers pitched condos and town homes priced from under $350,000 (the median sale price in Broward in 2006 was $339,000).
Holy Cross Hospital is renovating a block of apartments near the hospital to be used as temporary housing for new hires;
Baptist Health South Florida allows eligible nonexecutive employees from $2,000 to $10,000 in forgivable loans for a first-time home buy. Among the first recipients: Mariners Hospital workers in Monroe County, where the median sale price in 2006 was $525,000.
The University of Miami plans to build faculty housing for rent and sale at several sites around the county and launch a program to share equity---as much as half---when faculty and administrators buy a new home.
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- On any given night, as many as 200,000 U.S. military veterans go to bed homeless. As many as 400,000 U.S. military veterans experience homelessness at some point throughout the year---that's according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington.
"It is my belief that the goal of VA homeless programs should be to not only provide veterans with a bed for the night and a meal, but to provide them with the resources that they need to obtain permanent housing, a steady job and a renewed sense of self-worth" said Chairman Michaud.
The Quiet Revolution (1956) - the beginning of car culture communities
Florida! (1936) - Chevrolet celebrates construction of U.S. 1 
The City Part I (1939) - American Institute of Planners film
The City, Part II - Aaron Copland score
Road to Freedom I (1955) - Henry Ford II: America needs more roads...
Road to Freedom II - ...and traffic jams. And shopping centers...
Visit Miami (1950) - Theatrical travelogue
Car Culture Communities - 1950's NAHB industrial film
Birth of Mortgage Lending (1962)
Dynamic American City I (1956) - U.S. Chamber film...
Dynamic American City II - ...shopping centers, real estate speculation
Homes for Vets I (1946) - 15 million WWII GI's come home to a housing crisis
Homes for Vets II
New Homes (1927) - Before Silicon Valley it was Redwood Estates, Cal. (silent)
Report to Builders - 'New' affordable housing construction ideas (1957)
"Greening" Your Home (1949) - Energy efficiency mid-century...
MIAMI, Fla. --- 
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- On Wednesday this web site joined the 
The bill---H.R. 2895, introduced by 
Carlisle... offered an all-rental community of 148 apartments that board members immediately nixed. The proposal didn't provide potential renters an opportunity to move up and buy an affordable home in the same community, board members said.
A few years ago, "we were worried only about low-income people," said Broward Workforce Development Board member Ben Chen, who owns Fort Lauderdale civil engineering company 
WASHINGTON, D.C. --- On any given night, as many as 200,000 U.S. military veterans go to bed homeless. As many as 400,000 U.S. military veterans experience homelessness at some point throughout the year---that's according to estimates by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Washington.
Misael Alamo
Lorna Alston
Sylvia A. Alvarez
Towanda L. Anthony
Michelle Boone
Josh Bowersox
Ernest Coney, Jr.
Tammy Criollo
Samantha Fenger
Lanette Glass,
Testimonial: What I learned in CRED
PDC Affordable Housing - Modular housing consultants, works with cities, counties, CDC's, CHODO's, community developers to finance and develop affordable homes for sale or rental.
Neighborhood Lending Partners - Consortium of more than 80 banks that loaned more than $60 million last year for affordable housing development, works closely with community developers to construct viable pro formas and applications. Rated AAA+ by Fla. Workforce Housing Network.
Credit Union Housing Partners (CUHP) - joint venture of four Tampa Bay-area credit unions to provide affordable and attainable housing opportunities to credit union members and potential members in partnership with community groups, developers, builders, local, state and federal government agencies. CUHP services include homeownership and financial counseling, referrals for progressive mortgage products and construction, commercial, and single-family development loans.
Wikipedia: "workforce housing" - definition-in- progress. Contribute.
Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse - Fla.'s most comprehensive housing data base with up-to-date local, area, & statewide figures, maintained by the geniuses at the Shimberg Center for Affordable Housing at the University of Florida.
Fla. Housing Finance Corp. - Quasi- governmental org that distributes more than $2 billion in housing funds annually in Fla., including CWHIP Community Workforce Housing Innovation Program, and offers many substantive educational programs, seminars, workshops.
Fla. Housing Coalition - non-profit, statewide, 3,000+ members, "foremost authority" on affordable housing, community development and related issues in Fla. Offers many educational programs as well as consulting services for counties, private developers.
1000 Friends of Fla. - 501(c)(3) non-profit membership group founded 1986 to serve as Fla's growth mgmt. "watchdog," more recently a powerful advocate of workforce housing initiatives.
South Fla. Community Development Coalition - a highly effective network of nonprofit developers and their partners working to reverse the downward spiral of social and economic conditions in South Florida's lowest income neighborhoods. floridacdc.org includes many of the region's most influential housing activists and public policy officials.
Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance - GSA's database of all Federal programs available to State and local governments; federally -recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals.
Homes for Working Families - a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing policy changes that enable more of America's working families to find safe, good-quality homes they can afford.
Housing Assistance Council (HAC) - nonprofit corp. hq'd in Washington, D.C., helping local orgs build affordable homes in rural America since 1971.
Orange Co. Workforce Housing - Orange Co. Workforce Housing Task Force's new site. Loaded with goodies.
House of Lies - The Miami Herald's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative series on corruption at the Miami-Dade Housing Authority and the City of Miami's housing division. Text, graphics and multimedia video.
Paradise: At What Cost? - Naples News (naplesnews.com) produced one of the most thorough, innovative studies of affordable housing A-to-Z in Collier Co. and Fla. Excellent 'big picture' backgrounder for southwest Fla. housing issues.
Affordable Housing Finance Magazine - the bible for multi-family LIHTC developers, monthly, by subscription, many articles available online, and they even have a blog
Cohousing Assn. of the U.S. - promising ideas to create sustainable, enriching workforce housing communities
Professor Piggington's Econo-Almanac for the Landed Poor - Rich Toscano publishes a highly intelligent, usually witty and often brilliant analysis of San Diego's meteoric housing market.