Homes built with grant sold

Staff photo by Susan Thurman

A home on East Ninth Street is one of four built with a grant through the Tennessee Housing Development Agency.

Fuston

From Staff Reports

Four homes built in East Columbia through a $500,000 grant have sparked regrowth in the declining area.

Construction on the homes, built with money from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, was completed in May, and all four homes have since been sold, Columbia Housing and Redevelopment Corporation Executive Assistant Kathie Fuston said.

While they were built, at least two homes not included in the grant also started construction, Fuston said, and the redevelopment corporation is hoping for more growth as organizations continue to improve the area.

“The goal was to help spur some more building in that area, and there have been some new homes built since ours,” she said.

Columbia received the grant from the Tennessee Housing Development Agency in 2009 and used the money to demolish seven vacant homes in the East Columbia area. The city then built four homes with the remaining money in their place.

Three of the new homes were built between Ninth and 11th streets, and a fourth home was built on Hill Street, outside of the East Columbia area, Fuston said. Each of the homes are about 1,140 square feet with three bedrooms and cost more than $70,000, she added.

Fuston said the redevelopment corporation considers the neighborhood stabilization project successful and plans to use money from the sale of the homes to build additional ones in East Columbia. Construction on the next set of homes should begin later this year, she added.

The redevelopment corporation hopes the new homes will cause other residents and businesses to build in the area, which currently consists of numerous vacant and abandoned homes, Fuston said.

“A lot of families were raised in that area,” Fuston said about East Columbia. “But as the children have grown up and moved away, there are a lot of elderly people in the neighborhood. There are a lot of vacant houses there. It needs some growth and redevelopment. We’re trying to get new people to move into the neighborhoods and make them strong again.”

CHRC Awarded $240,000 ROSS Grant for Resident Coordinator Position & Activities

HUD AWARDS NEARLY $100 MILLION TO PROMOTE JOBS, SELF-SUFFICIENCY, INDEPENDENT LIVING FOR HUD-ASSISTED HOUSING RESIDENTS
Funding allows local entities to hire new employees or retain approximately 650 jobs across the U.S.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded nearly $100 million in grants to help public and assisted housing residents find employment; connect with needed services; and help the elderly and people with disabilities maintain independent living. The funding also allows the grantees to retain or hire “service coordinators” or case workers to work directly with these HUD-assisted families to connect them to the supportive services that meet their individual needs. Read more about local impact of HUD’s grant funding.

The funding announced today includes: Approximately $35 million through the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency – Service Coordinators Program (ROSS-SC) Program; approximately $15 million through the Public Housing – Family Self-Sufficiency Program (PH-FSS); and $45 million through the Multifamily Housing Service Coordinator Program (MHSC).

“Providing housing assistance alone is often not enough to help individuals increase their independence,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “The service coordinators funded through these programs open doors that help HUD-assisted families find jobs, access services and assist the elderly and disabled to continue living as independently as possible in their homes.”

The ROSS-SC and PH-FSS programs allow grantees across the U.S. hire or retain service coordinators to work directly with residents to assess their needs to connect them with education, job training and placement programs and/or computer and financial literacy services available in their community to promote self-sufficiency. Only public housing authorities are eligible for PH-FSS grants. ROSS-SC grants can be awarded to public housing authorities, resident associations and non-profit organizations. Grantees that receive ROSS-SC grants can also use the funding for this purpose, which allows the elderly or persons with disabilities who live in public housing to maintain their independent lifestyle.

In a similar fashion, the MHSC program provides funding to owners of private housing developments under contract from HUD to house low-income individuals. These owners, or their management companies, hire or contract service coordinators with backgrounds in providing social services, especially to the elderly and people with disabilities, to assist their residents with special needs.

Combined, HUD estimates this funding will allow the grantees to hire new employees or retain approximately 650 service coordinators that are currently working with HUD-assisted individuals. The purpose of the ROSS-SC and PH-FSS programs is to encourage local, innovative strategies that link public housing assistance with public and private resources to enable participating families to increase earned income; reduce or eliminate the need for welfare assistance; and make progress toward achieving economic independence and housing self-sufficiency.

Public housing residents who participate in the PH-FSS program sign a contract with the housing authority, which outlines their responsibilities towards completion of training and employment objectives over a five-year period. For those families receiving welfare assistance, the housing authority must establish an interim goal that the participating family be independent from welfare assistance prior to the expiration of the contract. During their participation, residents may create an escrow account funded with their increasing income, which they may use in a variety of ways, including continuing their education or making major purchase.

HUD’s Family Self Sufficiency (FSS) Program is a long-standing resource for increasing economic security and self-sufficiency among participants. HUD issued a new report earlier this year that evaluated the effectiveness of the FSS Program. Conducted from 2005 to 2009, the study shows the financial benefits are substantial for participants who remain and complete the program. This study is the second of a three-part series by HUD that evaluate the effects of the FSS program. The first study found individuals who participated in the FSS program fared better financially than those who did not enroll in the program. HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) will launch the third and final installment to complete the series this year.

The MFSC program allows multifamily housing owners to assist elderly individuals and nonelderly people with disabilities living in HUD-assisted housing and in the surrounding area to obtain needed supportive services from the community, to enable them to continue living independently. The grants are awarded for an initial three-year period to eligible owners of multifamily housing for the elderly or disabled, to enable them to hire and support a service coordinator. The funds cover such costs as salary, fringe benefits, quality assurance, training, office space, equipment, and other related administrative expenses. A report HUD released in 2009 noted that aging in place reduces rates of premature institutionalization for low-income elderly residents, thus reducing the costs borne by taxpayers.