Frolic Community’s Post

So my city, the city of Chicago have a community development grant program going on. To renovate destressed houses in underserved communities. They are in a dire need for community redevelopment. I believe it’s a win win situation for lenders of any sort. Through the program, not only are investors gaining properties in the city of Chicago at a discounted price but the program giving back 75% of total price of rehab project, long as you can show you have access to 50% of total project cost. Wowwwwww !!! So not only are an investor securing property, benefiting from the equity increase, they also only spending 25% and recouping 75% in reimbursement of said total cost.

Despite Houston’s reputation for affordability, its Black residents are among the hardest pressed by gentrification. In a new report, Manann Donoghoe and I explore how community land trusts (CLT), non-profit organizations that purchase homes to expand and preserve affordable housing, and shared-equity organizations can help marginalized communities in places like Houston. There are tradeoffs with the CLT model. For example, it limits the total equity that an owner-occupier can accrue and the land itself always remains in trust, rather than transferring to the occupier. Nevertheless, CLTs provide an avenue for giving local community members, who are otherwise priced out of property ownership, a stake in neighborhood development. Read more: https://lnkd.in/etsUUZ6T #CommunityUplift #Housing #Innovation

Excellent look at how real estate price appreciation disproportionately impacts lower income residents and how Community Land Trusts challenge the notion of real estate/housing as a speculatory tool for privileged groups vs. a basic human right.

Conversations about the “dark side” of development often center around displacement caused by rising rents, but there’s a problem far more pervasive plaguing Pittsburgh neighborhoods, one that often gets overlooked even though it’s right under our noses. Kendall Pelling, executive director of the community development nonprofit Rising Tide Partners, calls it “rotrification”—what happens when decay and blight causes neighborhoods to rot away and become uninhabitable. As he told PublicSource, “Displacement doesn’t just happen because there’s a hot market, and the evil developers come in and buy things up and raise the rents.” Instead, he estimates that more neighborhoods are suffering from neglect than gentrification. Data from Pittsburgh’s Housing Needs Assessment backs this up. The report found that neighborhoods with worsening neighborhood conditions and high vacancy—like Homewood, Larimer, Lincoln-Lemington, and many others—are seeing large losses in low-income populations. In our latest blog post, we explore this phenomenon and what's driving it: https://lnkd.in/eWCtyct9 #displacement #pittsburgh #pittsburghrealestate #cdc #development

"In Chatham County, North Carolina — where the median sale price for a home is around $690,000 — it has taken eight years to open a community of tiny homes. The Tiny Homes Village at the Farm at Penny Lane was the brainchild of local health and wellness nonprofit Cross Disability Services, or XDS, which is affiliated with the University of North Carolina and owns the 40-acre farm." We need all kinds of housing, so I'm not going to say that building tiny homes is a waste, but what I am going to say is that when you're dealing with an affordable housing shortage of the scale that we are, then you need to optimize every dollar and every project to build as many units as possible. If you take into account the amount of time and expense it takes to get any real estate project done - rezoning, land acquisition, design, permitting, etc. - it really is critical to find the best use for every acre of land. In many, many cases, that means multifamily even though they bring out the NIMBY crowd in droves. To put it simply, you can put more apartments/condos, with more square footage per unit than a tiny home, on any given acre than you can tiny homes. And given the choice between no affordable housing or an affordable apartment, I think the vast majority of us would take the apartment. Tiny homes are cute, and they have a place, but I worry that they have stolen attention, and opportunities, away from better solutions. https://lnkd.in/ehUcF3r5

Attention Southeast-siders! Big changes to our Quality of Life (QoL) plan are coming, and we need your input! On Dec. 6, we’re hosting our Quality of Life (QoL) Community Conversation, where you’ll learn about proposed changes to our QoL plan, which will combine the Southeast QoL, SoIndy QoL, and TANC Great Places plans. We will use your feedback to create a consolidated plan that will help drive community development across Southeast Indy for years to come. Representatives from The City of Indianapolis will also share details about The Housing Hub, Indy’s first publicly constructed, low-barrier shelter, which will centralize city resources for neighbors experiencing homelessness. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to help shape the future of Indy’s Southeast side! 📌 What: Quality of Life (QoL) Community Conversation 📌 Where: Southeast Community Services 📌 When: Dec. 6, 6-7 PM Started in 2007 by LISC, Quality of Life (QoL) plans are initiatives that engage people of all backgrounds in a central space to discuss neighborhood concerns and identify solutions in several quality-of-life areas, including public safety, housing, economic and workforce development, education, and health. Notable projects shaped by QoL plans include the Cultural and Pleasant Run trails, Indiana Pacers Bikeshare, Fountain Square Plaza, the Garfield Park Farmers Market, Bethany Park, and more.

The Indianapolis Economic Enhancement District, and others like it throughout the U.S., provides a unique and straightforward economic and community development tool for municipalities, developers, and property owners because it allows targeted control, financing, and development of projects without creating an additional financing burden on the City. Read our recent commentary on this financing tool: https://lnkd.in/eFsRJPzH

Want to offer your opinion on housing? 🏘️ Now's the time. 🕐 The #PWC Office of Housing and Community Development will host an open house and public comment period to discuss and receive feedback on the draft Annual Action Plan Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2025). The Annual Action Plan is a one-year planning document that carries out goals and objectives identified in the 5-Year Consolidated Plan. The plan outlines housing and non-housing needs and available resources and presents a one-year plan for using Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FY25) funds. Learn more, and lend your voice. https://lnkd.in/eThcjHa5

Want to offer your opinion on housing? 🏘️ Now's the time. 🕐 The #PWC Office of Housing and Community Development will host an open house and public comment period to discuss and receive feedback on the draft Annual Action Plan Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2025). The Annual Action Plan is a one-year planning document that carries out goals and objectives identified in the 5-Year Consolidated Plan. The plan outlines housing and non-housing needs and available resources and presents a one-year plan for using Federal Fiscal Year 2024 (FY25) funds. Learn more, and lend your voice. https://lnkd.in/eThcjHa5

There are some good lessons in here on how layering different models of shared equity ownership provides huge returns on a community's stability and opportunity. "A partnership with a CLT provides an extra layer to protect the long-term affordability of an LEC, while also providing ongoing support and technical assistance to the co-op. And by creating an umbrella entity under which multiple LECs exist, there are opportunities to take advantage of economies of scale that may not be possible with individual co-ops."