Volume 3, Issue 1
#HOMEMATTERS
MARCH 2013
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Volume 3, Issue 1
IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE
ACHANGE’S MISSION:
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Time for ACHANGE!
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Chairman’s Corner
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Save the Date– CDW 2013!
6 -7 FY13 Budget Charts
8 To collectively promote quality affordable housing and community 9 economic development in Arkansas. 10
State Consumer Relief Info February Meeting Highlights
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Introducing the 2013 Board!
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Contact Info
National News
2013 ACHANGE MEMBERS’ MEETING DATES April 9, 2013 June 11, 2013
August 13, 2013 October 8, 2013 December 10, 2013
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TIME FOR ACHANGE! Sequestration. We’ve all heard the word quite a bit in the news lately. Everyone is concerned about how budget cuts will affect them. Community Economic Development agencies are no different. What would the proposed cuts do to affordable housing agencies in Arkansas? ACHANGE member organizations, like the people they serve, would have to face decreasing budgets with no decrease in needed services. So what can you do for now? You wait. Some answers were provided in March, but I expect that those won’t be the last questions asked over the next few months and years. Through ACHANGE’s involvement with national organizations like NACEDA and NLIHC, we were able to reach out to decision-makers to make them aware of your concerns over how sequestration would affect your agencies. While we were having conversations in Arkansas, similar conversations were taking place all over the country.
State and national associations are working for their members—taking the small steps that will lead to greater gains for us all. That’s why it’s time for ACHANGE.
Debra Banks, Program Manager Many organizations. One voice.
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CHAIRMAN’S CORNER HOME MATTERS
Home does matter doesn’t it? This morning, I got to have a follow-up appointment with a young mom who lost her husband a couple of years ago. She had suffered the huge impact of going from someone who provided for the family to someone without any income. I had the privilege of telling her that she was mortgage ready. She has worked hard to provide for her family, and now she is going to buy a home for her two little boys.
Karen Phillips ACHANGE Board Chair
Two weeks ago, I met with a middle aged woman who had to move back in with her elderly mother after losing her job a couple of years ago. She was emotionally drained. She told me that home mattered. She told me that “Home is Independence”. I was able to tell her she could buy a home. She is buying a home, fittingly, on Independence Street. Last week, I got to attend the 35th anniversary of NeighborWorks. Happy Anniversary to a wonderful organization and a great partner to ACHANGE! It was lovely to be at the Newseum and look out over the balcony at the US Capitol. But, I can’t say that I enjoyed it more than telling these two ladies that they are going to get a home. Home does Matter. Because home matters, what the organizations of ACHANGE do everyday matters. It truly is what you do every day that makes this nation great.
Karen Tweet with #sharehomeis and tell everyone what home means to you.
Karen 4
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SAVE THE DATE! JUNE 10-14, 2013
June
11, 2013
June 10, 2013 Community Development
Service Awards
Public Policy Symposium— ”Keynote Speaker: TBA
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WEEK! NeighborWorks© Training!! June 11-12, 2013
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT
HO109—Foreclosure Basics
www.achange.org
June 13-14, 2013
Or call
HO248—Program Compliance & Reporting for HUD-Approved Counseling Agencies!
501-766-3941 5
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Consumer Relief Map as of December 2012 “How much has been distributed in Arkansas since March 2012?)
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NATIONAL NEWS House Targets Tight Section 8 Reform Concerned over HUD’s ability to administer the Section 8 housing voucher program have prompted the House Financial Services Committee to put the program center stage in a move to revamp several housing programs outlined in the panel’s Views & Estimates on Matters to be Set Forth in the Con current resolution on the Budget for FY 2014. According to the panel’s report, the House will push reform of the voucher assistance program, the project-based Section 8 program, and public housing with the goal of enforcing work rules and time limits on voucher availability and public housing tenancy. That approach likely will collide with the Democratic-controlled Senate and House Democrats whose Section 8 reform goals include Section 8 expansion in addition to conversion of public housing units into Section 8 units. The conversion concept has bipartisan backing -- it would attract private investment in public housing and make it a for-profit venture backed with project -based Section 8 subsidies. But that’s where the comity ends. House Republicans want to gradually reduce the voucher program to include continued assistance to disabled and elderly voucher holders who make up about 2.5 million of the 5.4 million persons receiving the subsidy. Considering the size of Section 8 and limited revenues available to finance it, the committee says it will direct HUD to be selective by providing subsidies “to the neediest individuals to the greatest extent possible before making new or expanded commitments to others.” House lawmakers are now considering the administration’s FY 2013 request for Section 8, $160 million more than the FY 2012 appropriation of $18.9 billion. The budget report says, “growth of this program is on an unsustainable trajectory, and absent substantial reform, will consume an ever-increasing percentage of HUD’s entire budget.” The report excoriates HUD for failing to create a program detailing how Section 8 monies are spent, as well as failing to track long-term performance outcomes. “The committee believes that the public is better served not by expanding Section 8 but by reforming the program so that public housing authorities can serve more people within existing funding levels,” the report says. Section 8 recipients who are neither elderly nor disabled should be encouraged to move toward self-sufficiency in order to make room for new applicants, the report concludes.
Information provided from the Housing Affairs Letter, a publication of CD Publications. 9
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February 2013, Meeting Highlights The February meeting was a time of “Aloha”. Aloha can be used a form of greeting or a way of saying farewell. It was the perfect word for this gathering. Farewell to board members Frances Newsome and Cathy Carlock. Both ladies served the board of directors well and were honored with tokens of esteem.
ACHANGE welcomed five new members to the organization, New members include:
Credit Counseling of Arkansas
City of North Little Rock/ Community Development/Fair Housing Department
Membership Chair Larry Bennett welcomes (from l-r)
Barbara Erby Third Party Consulting
Wonder Lowe Lowe’s Business Consulting
Scott Grummer City of Conway
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2013 Board of Directors Following a nomination period, review by the Executive Committee and voting, seven new board members were elected. Following are the names of the new board members.
Chairman (term expires 02/15) Karen Phillips, Crawford-Sebastian County CDC, Fort Smith, Arkansas. First Vice-Chairman (term expires 02/14) Susan Forte, HouseAboutIt, North Little Rock, Arkansas Second Vice- Chairman (term expires (02/15) Pat Atkinson, Universal Housing Development Corporation, Russellville, Arkansas Treasurer (term expires 02/15) LaVerne Paige, Pulaski County Special Services, Little Rock, Arkansas Secretary (term expires 02/15) Vickey Stratton, Northwest Arkansas Regional Housing Authority, Harrison, Arkansas At-Large Open Positions (term expires 02/14) Martie North, Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Arkansas (terms expire 02/15) Darryl Swinton, Better Community Developers, Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas Andre Bernard, City of Little Rock Tommy Sproles, Arvest Bank, Little Rock, Arkansas 11
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ACHANGE Executive Committee Board Chairman—Karen Phillips 1st Vice Chairman—Susan Forte 2nd Vice Chairman—Pat Atkinson Secretary— Vickey Stratton Treasurer—LaVerne Paige At-Large Board Member—Darryl Swinton Associate At-Large Board Members—Martie North Andre Bernard Tommy Sproles Program Manager—Debra Banks Committee Chairs Education and Training Committee Chairman—Roma Isom Finance Committee Chairman—Hillis Schild
Membership & Marketing Committee Chairman—Larry Bennett Public Policy Committee Chairman—Michael Jackson
#homematters to us all. Share why it matters with this hashtag.
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