Welcome to the April issue of the ACD newsletter. This is a full issue and we would like to thank the many members who sent their work to be shared. We hope you enjoy this collection, which includes:
ACD, ADPSR and Planners Network Conference News
Updates from ACD Members
A Federal Budget Update by Casius Pealer
Introductions to two articles published by SPUR
Highlights from two new books by New Village Press
Announcements of Jobs and other Opportunities
ONE WEEK IN LOUISIANA — TWO GREAT COMMUNITY BUILDING CONFERENCES
Join this unprecedented convention of planners, designers, policymakers, community organizers and community development professionals, academics, and community builders as we address the challenges of our time.
The Great Gumbo: Stirring the Pot of Community Design
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
June 3-5, 2007
Host: ACD/ADPSR
In this place where conversation itself is an art, we are creating a conference environment that will give us time and space to explore multiple issues in community design, appreciate what is working, and share ways of building community. We plan to celebrate the rich regional cultures of Southern Louisiana—the art, music, food and conviviality. Keynote speakers and presenters include Lolis Eric Elie, columnist for Times Picayune; Carol Bebelle, director of Ashé Cultural Arts Center of New Orleans; Bill Stallworth, Biloxi city councilman and director of East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center, Clifton James, president of the Urban Design Research Center; Marsha Cuddeback, director of the Office of Community Design and Development at LSU, and others.
The focus of the conference is on conversations, or "café sessions," where we can reflect with our colleagues on our evolving practice and its response to needs for social, environmental and economic justice. Each café will be limited to approximately 15 people and run for approximately an hour and a half. Here’s a brief glance at the menu of topics – think of these sessions as places to meet people who share your interests and your passions and develop relationships that can continue throughout the year:
The Evolving Pedagogy of Community Design
Fostering Community Partnership Networks
Building a Progressive Architecture and Planning Coalition
Community Design Outside of the Community Design Center
Citizen Planning and the United New Orleans Plan
Walkable/Bikeable Street Design and Surface Materials
Values of Ecological Services to Global and Local Communities
Louisiana Speaks Planning Toolkit
Architecture for Humanity’s Open Architecture Network
Design-Build Programs: Who Are They Serving?
Learning from Disaster: The Katrina Furniture Project
Reframing the American Dream
From Great Plan to Built Project
Dancing in the Desert: Culture, Climate and Community in Desert Border Regions
It Ain’t Easy: Community Design in the Big Easy
Notes from the Field: The Rose Fellowship Program
Housing Construction Techniques
Physical and Social Infrastructure
For more about the schedule of the conference, go here. Register for the conference here. Information regarding transportation and travel accommodations are available here, where you can also access a forum to help people looking to share transportation and/or accommodations.
Please note that in order to get the room discount at the Cook Hotel, reservations must be made by May 13, 2007.
Bring your unique experiences and a big appetite for connecting as you never have before!
Race, Class and Community Recovery: From the Neighborhood to the Nation and Beyond
University of New Orleans, New Orleans
May 30-June 2, 2007
Host: Planners Network
Hurricane Katrina exposed tremendous rifts over class, race and community, not just in New Orleans, but throughout the United States and around the world. It also shook the very foundation of planning and governance, whose failures were broadcast in high definition to the global community. Yet the effort to dig out and rebuild has been marked by innovation and extraordinary will on the part of local communities in New Orleans, despite continued abandonment at the federal level. The 2007 Planners Network Conference will confront issues of race, class, injustice and the failures of planning, while seeking to learn from the work of community-based organizations, local planners, and individuals impacted by Katrina.
For more information, visit the PN Conference website.
Joint ACD/ADPSR/PN conference activities:
• Gala Saturday evening June 2 in New Orleans, to honor ADPSR's Lewis Mumford Awardees and celebrate Planners Network's 32nd, ACD's 30th and ADPSR's 25th anniversaries.
• Community Design Tour of New Orleans
• Receive a 10% discount on conference fees when you register for both conferences.
Invitation from NHS of New Orleans
The NHS of New Orleans cordially invites you to be part of the excitement and challenge of launching a new community design center. We are conducting a charrette from May 31st to June 7th to put some of the resources in place that will be necessary for providing design assistance to homeowners and housing providers. We hope that you will be able to take some time in conjunction with your attendance at the ACD and/or Planners Network conference to assist us with one or all of the following tasks:
- Register as an founding advisor - Perhaps during the 10th Annual Freret Street Festival and Homeownership Resource fair on Saturday June 2.
- Bring a book - We need to build a library for homeowners and designers. We'd love to have examples of the resources you've developed for your community as well as general resources and materials.
- Star in our training film - Share your experience in community participation, working with homeowners, affordable construction, rehabilitation, green building and other aspects of community design.
- Provide assistance to an area homeowner. - Assist a homeowner to assess their structure, develop a rehab plan, or design a new house.
- Provide assistance to a local CDC - Help a community developer plan thier housing project.
- Help us plan - Add your expertise to helping us develop information materials, forms to track clients, a plan for our office and the other myriad of tasks necessary to shape a functioning center.
If you can help please contact Kathy Dorgan.
News, Updates and Ideas from the Field
Several weeks ago, ACD issued a call for ideas, projects and resources to our subscribers. We would like to thank those who sent in ideas and updates, and encourage others to do the same for future issues.
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Bill Huang, Director of Housing Development and Preservation at the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission (Monterey Park, CA), writes:
In my experience, the best community design programs are comprehensive. They not only focus on physical design improvements, but also deal with a wide range of issues that affect the complex communities in which we work. Two Los Angeles examples may be of interest to others:
Lohart Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, Montebello (a suburb of LA), CA, 1996-2002. This initiative included funds committed up-front to ensure that part of the Plan would be implemented. By the time the program was completed, additional funding was brought into the neighborhood, leveraging the initial dollars several fold. The Plan involved about a year’s worth of participatory design/strategic planning sessions (food served and free baby sitting provided). The consulting project manager, Los Angeles Community Design Center, facilitated the implementation of the Plan, including coordinating the City of Montebello’s resources committed to the Lohart neighborhood.
The achievements of the Plan include: the formation of a neighborhood community organization, which went on to complete a community center after the consulting project manager’s contract expired; physical improvements, including traffic calming, new landscaping, etc.; the rehabilitation of several small privately-owned apartments; property management training for management and owners of the privately-owned apartments; the development of a community resource guide to help residents tap into existing programs; the redesign of a local park; and the development of six affordable single family homes.
This initiative has won several awards, including recognition from the APA and HUD (best practices).
Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiatives (LANI), Los Angeles, CA. LANI provides neighborhood revitalization services for a number of mostly low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles. They require some implementation funding in place before agreeing to
take on a neighborhood. This ensures some part of the plan will be implemented. They focus on the formation of a local community group and hold several participatory planning workshops. They empower the community by having the local group select the planner and contractor. This way, the plan and builder are “theirs,” and the community cannot blame anyone but themselves for shortcomings. The community group continues to receive organization capacity building services from LANI after LANI’s contract expires.
Both programs share the following keys to their success: They require implementation funding up-front; their real focus is on building/empowering a local community group (because they are the ones that will live and work in the neighborhood in the long term; the planning process is participatory and inclusive); and they empower local community stakeholders to determine budget priorities (as there is never enough money to do everything in the community plan).
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Joe Fama, with TAP Inc. (Troy, New York) writes:
TAP’s work to help the Village of Waterford revitalize its downtown saw considerable progress during 2006. In December 2005, TAP received a $200,000 New York Main Street grant to help Waterford revitalize its historic downtown on the Erie Canal waterfront. By July 2006, TAP and its key village partner, Mayor J. Bert Mahoney, doubled the award, receiving another $200,000 to plan economic development strategies and start a façade and apartment renovation program for all of Broad Street, the downtown business corridor. TAP completed its first façade renovation this fall, transforming a historic federal mansion at 19 Broad Street with historically appropriate masonry and paint restoration. TAP is developing a holistic approach to Waterford’s renewal. For instance, last summer TAP successfully wrote an Erie Canalway grant, sponsored by the New York State Canal Corp. The village will use the $45,000 matching grant to restore a stretch of the historic towpath along the surviving old Champlain Canal that runs through the town and village.
An ongoing project for the Albany Center for Economic Success, a minority owned business incubator, is currently being considered and they are looking forward to progress on that project in the coming year.
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T Abraham Lentner, Coordinator of Technical Assistance Programs at the City Design Center, University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, Il) writes:
Recently, the City Design Center at the University of Illinois at
Chicago has been involved in a very interesting community design project in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago:
Over the last few years, the faculty and staff at the City Design Center have been working to develop a public engagement approach that educates a lay audience about the complex sets of relationships, regulations and constraints that govern urban environments, while also recording and organizing participant input and reactions in a meaningful way. We are presently working in Edgewater to create a community-based plan for the revitalization of four light rail stations and their surrounding commercial districts.
This has been a good opportunity to further develop our community engagement approach. For this project, the Center designed and organized a series of charrettes that utilized a set of planning "games,"(complete with game boards, game pieces and rules) to communicate how planning decisions are made and allow neighborhood residents to generate their own planning and design solutions within the game "rules." With two charrettes completed, and two yet to go, we have had a combined attendance to date of over 100 local stakeholders. The results from the first charrettes indicate that we were successful in our efforts to educate area residents while encouraging participants to share their vision and priorities for neighborhood improvements.
For more information about the conference agenda and the game go here. For an article about the Edgewater project, go here.
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Carryn Maslowski, Program Associate with the Community Design Collaborative (Philadelphia, PA) writes about their Excellence in Design Initiative:
The Affordable Infill Housing Design Challenge, a partnership between the Collaborative and Philadelphia Neighborhood Development Collaborative (PNDC), inspired three prototypes that truly “pushed the envelope” in affordable housing design. It also inspired a new Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency (PHFA) pilot program—the Excellence in Design Initiative.
In November 2006, PHFA released a Request for Proposals for the Excellence in Design Initiative, a demonstration program developed to promote design excellence and innovation in affordable housing. PHFA has committed $1 million through this program for the development of up to three affordable housing sites statewide with a focus on increasing homeownership opportunities and choice in urban areas and core communities. The William Penn Foundation is supporting the initiative through a $200,000 grant to PHFA.
PHFA Executive Director Brian A. Hudson, Sr., believes the innovative effort will help elevate good design in an often neglected area—places to live for families of modest means. “PHFA wants to help make sure that design excellence is incorporated in the developments it funds from their inception, not just as an afterthought,” Hudson said. “PHFA has been encouraged by the positive response of those involved in affordable housing.” According to Shawn McCaney of the William Penn Foundation, “This is a perfect example of the kind of work we like to support—a model project that could have a huge impact by demonstrating the value of a new policy direction for a key funding agency.”
PHFA is the number one provider in the Commonwealth of capital to build affordable housing for low-and moderate-income families, seniors, and persons with disabilities. The Excellence in Design initiative falls under the umbrella of PHFA’s Homeownership Choice Programs (HCP)—a funding program, that has received national recognition for changing the housing market by financing new housing development in urban neighborhoods, new and rehabbed scattered-site housing, and mixed-use development on commercial corridors. Since 2000, when the HCP began, PHFA has dedicated almost $64 million of its own funds, leveraging nearly $400 million in additional funding in fifty-five communities throughout Pennsylvania.
The Excellence in Design Initiative incorporates concepts outlined in HUD’s Affordable Housing Design Advisor, which specifies design and planning standards for construction and rehabilitation of homes in urban areas. The Advisor encourages designs that: 1) meets user needs, 2) understands and responds to its context, 3) enhances its neighborhood, and 4) is built to last.
PHFA worked with a consortium of community design centers to develop a pilot program. The team includes: Heidi Segall Levy, AIA of the Community Design Collaborative, Jason Vrabel of the Pittsburgh Community Design Center, Peter Aeschbacher of Penn State’s Hamer Center for Community Design and Deane Evans, FAIA, developer of The Affordable Housing Design Advisor. Eight applicants responded to the Excellence in Design Initiative RFP, including four from Philadelphia.
Mark Schwartz, Executive Director of Regional Housing Legal Services and PHFA Board Member, values the lessons learned from the Design Challenge. He sees design becoming an increasingly important factor in how PHFA funds are earmarked. “This is a good initiative and a good model to follow—people are collaborating across professional boundaries: lawyers, planners, architects, are all working together to maximize the impact affordable housing development has on both stabilizing and revitalizing neighborhoods and improving the lives of the residents in those neighborhoods.”
Infill Philadelphia, a five-year initiative created by the Community Design Collaborative to promote workable, innovative design solutions that respond to the challenges of older, urban neighborhoods, has a new web site.
Articles and Book Reviews
FY2008 Federal Budget Process and Proposed Funding for Housing and Community Development
by Casius Pealer
Many projects that involve community design centers or other community-based design practices are funded either directly or indirectly by the Federal government. As such, the Federal budget is an important if not mind-boggling source of information, because advocacy by local groups is often crucial to maintain support and funding for specific programs. In recent years, important programs such as CDBG, HOPE VI and Section 515 Rural Housing Subsidies have been saved from elimination largely by the concerted efforts of activists otherwise focused on improving their local communities.
Budget Process
Each year, on April 15, there is a statutory requirement that Congress pass called the Congressional Budget Resolution. This resolution is not a law and is not submitted to the President for signature, but it does set limits on spending that guide subsequent appropriations discussions. The deadline to pass this resolution is routinely missed, however, and indeed Congress failed to adopt a budget resolution in three of the past five years.
The Federal fiscal year begins on October 1, meaning that each year's budget must be concluded by October 1 of the previous year. If budget debates are not complete by October 1, Congress typically passes what are called "continuing resolutions," which continue funding the Federal government at the same levels as the previous year. These are usually short term fixes until a full budget is agreed to, passed and signed by the President.
Current Situation
The current budget (FY07) was delayed until after the new Congress took over, such that Congress simply made all FY07 appropriations subject to the FY06 funding levels (with some notable exceptions, including an increase in housing vouchers and for critical needs at public housing authorities), and then proceeded to work on the FY08 budget. As a result, each house has passed a Budget Resolution for FY08 ahead of the April 15 deadline.
However, the Budget Resolutions set only very broad limits on spending. For instance, "Community and Regional Development" is scheduled to receive budget authority of $15,032,000,000. The specifics of how this amount is to be allocated will be determined in appropriation committees over the course of the summer. As a result, the program-specific FY08 numbers below remain the numbers requested in the President's budget, although many will surely be increased or changed before the final FY08 budget is complete (each is noted with an asterisk).
Incidentally, according to the House Budget Office, the national debt as of April 10, 2007, was $8,883,853,549,648, or roughly $29,500 per U.S. citizen.
HUD Budget
Public Housing (capital and operating funds)
FY05 – 5,017,000,000
FY06 – 6,003,000,000
FY07 – 5,742,000,000
*FY08 – 6,024,000,000
These funds include both capital funds (for new construction and substantial rehabilitation) and operating funds (for operating and routine maintenance) for the nation's public housing. The operating subsidy that HUD calculates each PHA needs to maintain its housing stock is calculated based on an extensive cost study completed by Harvard University. Each year since that study, HUD has provided housing authorities with less than is required to maintain decent and safe housing. The difference between HUD’s calculation for what housing authorities need and what HUD actually provides is called the "proration." Last year, the proration was 83%, and it was threatened to be closer to 73% this year. HUD recently announced that based on funding projections, the proration for FY08 would be 82%.
The nation's public housing is funded almost exclusively by the Federal government through approximately 3,000 local agencies. According to the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA), more than half of all public housing residents are elderly or disabled, and 40% of public housing residents remain in their units for less than three years.
HOPE VI
FY05 – 143,000,000
FY06 – 99,000,000
FY07 – 99,000,000
*FY08 – (99,000,000)
In FY '06, '07 and '08, the President's budget request eliminated all funds from the HOPE VI program and even sought to rescind the funds provided in each of the previous years. In '06 and '07, Congress added $99 million each year to keep the program alive, and Congress is likely to go even further this year. Legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would reauthorize HOPE VI and fund the program at approximately $600 million.
CDBG funds
FY05 – 4,671,000,000
FY06 – 4,178,000,000
FY07 – 3,032,000,000
*FY08 – 3,037,000,000
The CDBG program is the largest source of Federal grant assistance in support of state and local government housing and community development initiatives.
Both the House and Senate budgets rejected the President's request to cut CDBG funds by 21%.
Nearly 1,200 state and local governments receive Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) to support job creation, economic development and affordable housing. CDBG funds are useful because they are extremely flexible, with the main requirement that beneficiaries be low-income individuals or communities.
Treasury
LIHTC
The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is responsible for the majority of newly constructed or rehabilitated affordable housing across the country. However, as a tax credit program, rather than a budgetary expense, these funds are not subject to annual appropriations (one reason why LIHTCs are so successful). Instead, LIHTCs are allocated to each state on the basis of population. The amount allocated for 2007 is $1.95 per state resident, based on estimates from the Census Bureau.
USDA
USDA Rural Housing (Sections 515 and 521)
FY05 – 691,000,000
FY06 – 746,000,000
FY07 – 715,000,000
*FY08 – 567,000,000
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is the primary provider of housing assistance to farmers and rural communities nationwide. Section 515 assistance provides direct mortgage subsidies to support the development of projects, while Section 521 assistance is a rental subsidy that supports operation. In FY '07, the President's budget request eliminated all funds from the Section 515 program, but Congress added $99 million to keep the program alive. Congress is likely to do the same this year.
According to the USDA’s data, the average adjusted annual income for tenants receiving USDA rental assistance is $7,300. Almost 25% of recipients are minorities, 75% are single female or female-headed households, and 12% are either handicapped or disabled. Elderly households receive over 40% of all USDA housing assistance.
Additional Resources:
U.S. House Committee on the Budget
Side-by-Side Comparison of President's Budget Requests Versus Congressional Budget Resolutions
Congressional Budget Office: Analysis of President's Budgetary Proposals for FY 2008
From Bad to Worse: Rural Housing in the Administration's FY2008 Budget
National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC): Budget Chart for Selected Programs
Paying the Price: The Costs of Cutting Public Housing Funding
A National Survey on the Impact of Recent Reductions in CDBG Funding
Casius Pealer is a real estate attorney at Reno & Cavanaugh, PLLC, focusing on affordable housing and community development. He holds a B.Arch from Tulane University in New Orleans and was co-editor of ArchVoices from 1999-2006.
Introductions to Two Provocative Articles from SPUR
The January 2007 newsletter from the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association included two provocative articles on design and planning. We’ve included the introductory paragraphs from each of them, and you can read the full articles on the SPUR website.
Thank God, I don’t live in a community:
What role should community play in urban design?
by Daniel Solomon
As an architect and urban designer, I am often expected to have something intelligent to say about the design of communities. The fact is, I don’t. It seems to me that architects, urban designers and most of the other kinds of people who constitute the membership of SPUR actually have very little to do with “community design.” The term itself
might even be an oxymoron. When I think of the word “community,” I think of all the communities I don’t belong to: the Jesuits, the transgender community, the Marine Corps, the Social Register. There is a sense in which all communities are gated communities — communities of exclusion — whether the gates are physical or virtual.
…
What we as urban designers, architects and public officials are engaged in is something
different from the design of communities. Our subjects are the urban, the civilized and the cosmopolitan. Richard Sennett had some interesting things to tell us about our subjects in a 1990 essay titled Exposure, In the Presence of Difference. He describes his regular walk from Lower Manhattan up the East Side to Midtown. The characteristic of this walk is the intimacy into which he is thrust with people whose life experience he could not know and could hardly imagine. The modern city, he argues, turns people outward to the necessary and salutary experience of otherness. For Richard Sennett, as for Jane Jacobs, the very definition of a city is that it is infinitely inclusive
and cosmopolitan. The modern city has a didactic role in our consciousness as the only place where people can experience the full range of human possibility, and any city is less of a city to the degree that it is exclusive. Without a cosmopolitan experience, there is no way we can know very much.
Form Foils Function: How our process prevents real planning – and what we can do about it
by David Prowler
Here’s how it’s done in San Francisco. The Planning
Department staff or the Planning Commission, or even the Board of Supervisors, decides to draw up a new plan for an area. Maybe it’s because there have been too many controversies there, or because it seems like a good idea to either change or preserve the character of that neighborhood how the buildings and streets look and are used. There is some squabbling about the boundaries, and then the process
of creating a plan begins. The public is invited to give input at community meetings, given handouts, shown slides, and given a chance to ask questions
or make criticisms. Six months later, the planners come back
with a modified version of the original idea, pass out handouts, show the slides and ask for comments. This gets repeated for a decade.
Or perhaps somebody wants to develop a piece of property. Maybe they hold a community meeting and present the idea (which is probably pretty far along). Some people like it and drop out of the process, while opponents rally for a showdown.
In the meantime, the Planning Department staff cranks up a study of all the environmental damage the project could do. Years later there’s a hearing, then appeals. Average San Franciscans are cut out of the process, nobody seems to have a clear idea of what urban planning can and cannot do, and sometimes it seems that the process itself is the product.
It’s not a great system.
We can do better.
Discover New Village Press
If you haven't already discovered New Village Press, you are in for a treat. This new publisher, a project of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility, specializes in books about grassroots community building.
The press has published six books since Fall 2005 covering the good news about creative, collaborative solutions to social, environmental and economic problems. New Village is also carving out fresh territory in the emerging field of community cultural development, showing how citizens revitalize their communities through the arts. Their upcoming releases include:
Building Commons and Community
by the late Karl Linn
This illustrated color hardcover presents 44 years of work of the late Karl Linn, who championed citizen-powered development of public and semi-public spaces. In this book, Linn presents his philosophies and practical wisdom to help people reclaim the "sacred commons." Linn worked in some of the poorest urban neighborhoods in eleven U.S. cities. He promoted the concept of building "social capital" by directly involving citizenry in creating community gardens, playgrounds, parks and other gathering places.
The book features photo-essay case studies of projects that cross boundaries between professional design and neighborhood activism. Linn's work was only partially about building physical spaces—the planning and creation process itself built community, bridging neighborhood schisms and seeding lifelong friendships.
Karl Linn taught landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was a tenured professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology. Degrees in gestalt psychology, psychoanalysis and landscape architecture. The book features a forward by Joanna Macy and an epilogue by Carl Anthony.
New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development
by Arlene Goldbard
Community-initiated arts have the power to rebuild societies. New Creative Community documents and defines this burgeoning field of community cultural development. Starting in the United States and bursting with stories of exemplary projects from all over the globe, this seminal book profiles arts work ranging from an Appalachian radio project, that brings prisoners, prison workers and families into healing dialogue, to a Liverpool theater group that helps neighborhoods respond to urban redevelopment, to Seattle, where a diverse Asian community constructs oral histories about experiences in garment factories and harrowing escapes from war-torn Saigon, and to rural California, where digital storytelling and live theater engage native Pomo Indians, newly arrived Latinos and back-to-the-land settlers in understanding place and home.
Arlene Goldbard explores in depth the social conditions that give rise to this work, the language that describes it, its principles, practices and historical antecedents, and its current conditions and aspirations in relation to the funding and policy climate. New Creative Community offers intimate tastes and unparalleled understanding of how diverse communities express and develop themselves through the creative arts. It also shows the growing influence of this grassroots movement, proving the author's assertion that "culture is an effective crucible for social transformation." Author Arlene Goldbard is a social activist and consultant whose writing braids the personal and political, individual and societal, making entertaining reading of serious subjects. A main focus of her work for nearly three decades has been community and cultural development. Her books include Crossroads: Reflections on the Politics of Culture; Community, Culture and Globalization; the novel Clarity; and this book's antecedent, Creative Community.
Other titles include Undoing the Silence, Art and Upheaval, Works of Heart, Doing Time in the Garden, Beginners Guide to Community Based Arts, Crossroads Comics Series, Performing Communities and Ecological Design and Building Schools.
You can learn more about New Village Press and order books on their website.
Job Announcements and Other Opportunities
2007 Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing entries due May 4th:
Enterprise and MetLife Foundation are pleased to invite your organization to apply for the 2007 Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing. These awards provide unrestricted funds totaling $120,000 to six winners in two categories—supportive housing, and property and asset management. First place winners receive $35,000 (up from $25,000 last year); second place, $15,000; and third place, $10,000. Applicants must be members of the Enterprise Network. (More information on membership can be found on our website.) Keep in mind, past winners in the property and asset management category can reapply two years after their award, if they apply for a different property.
The application is a Word-formatted document this year, easy to download and fill out. It must be submitted by email no later than midnight, Friday, May 4. We encourage you to participate in this awards program. Follow this link. Applications must be submitted online by midnight Friday, May 4, 2006.
Los Angeles Community Development Commission
Job Announcement
Development Specialist III-IV
Project Manager – Development Finance Officer
Housing Development & Preservation Division
$4,071 - $7262 Per Month DOQ
Regular Position
The Community Development Commission is a dynamic, innovative agency created in 1982 by the Board of Supervisors to generate affordable housing and economic redevelopment throughout Los Angeles County and participating cities. Funded primarily with federal grants, the Commission is an industry leader in sponsoring new solutions to housing and forming partnerships with private and public agencies. To apply and find out more about the Community Development Commission, please visit our web site.
Essential Job Functions
Under general supervision, performs reviews and analysis of affordable housing loan applications, negotiates with developers and underwrites acquisition, predevelopment, construction and permanent public loans. A variety of administrative duties are required including: establishing project objectives, budgets, and priorities; preparing and disseminating Requests for Proposals and Requests for Qualifications to solicit development proposals for affordable housing; evaluating proposals, and preparing contracts and development agreements. Performs other related work as assigned. Regular attendance is an essential job function.
Desirable Qualifications
Education equivalent to a Bachelors or Masters Degree with a major in real estate development, urban planning, business administration, architecture, economics or a related field. One year experience in affordable housing development or affordable housing finance. General knowledge of real estate and development functions including acquisition, finance, appraisal, market analysis and negotiations; public and private development financing; planning and zoning regulations; environmental review requirements; and state and federal housing development/preservation programs and regulations, especially Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME regulations.
Must be able to plan, organize, and complete project activities; communicate effectively both orally and in writing; and establish and maintain effective working relationships with staff, other agencies, and the public. Knowledge of computer software for proforma analysis and project scheduling is required.
Possession of a valid California Driver’s License and an acceptable driving record is required. A reliable insured vehicle may be required. This is a grant-funded position. Continuation of employment is dependent upon continued funding.
Division management will establish and implement screening criteria to comparatively and fairly evaluate the qualifications of all applicants, based on the application materials submitted and the needs of the Division. Only those applicants, whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Division, will be invited for an interview appraisal and written exercise. Those applicants who do not complete the application form and supplemental questionnaire may be disqualified.
Neighborhood Housing Services Of New Orleans
Director Community Design Center of New Orleans (CDCNOLA)
Neighborhood Housing Services New Orleans (NHS) and the Tulane City Center (TCC) are seeking qualified applicants for the position of Director for the Community Design Center of New Orleans. The position is for the founding director of a new design center that unites the experience and services of NHS with the design expertise of Tulane’s School of Architecture.
When launched, the New Orleans Community Design Center will be a planning and design studio serving low-and moderate-income communities in metropolitan New Orleans. We will provide architecture and design services, as well as public education and advocacy on behalf of communities to impact the outcome of projects that affect neighborhoods and the built environment. Our goal is to help increase the supply of quality, affordable housing and to help rebuild neighborhoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The CDCNOLA will be located along the Freret Street Corridor in the offices of NHS. It will have a dedicated walk-in ‘storefront’ space for its main office and display space. The initial projects will be residential, primarily single family construction or renovation. The Director will work on specific projects from design through construction. There will be ongoing opportunities to collaborate with the NHS construction management team as well as its Homeownership Center staff.
The Director will be responsible for managing all operations of the design center and will be required to engage in fundraising for ongoing operational costs with the support of the NHS Resource Development Director and additional support from TCC staff. The Director will also be responsible for managing support staff at the center and supervising students of architecture. They will also work collaboratively with NHS Construction Managers. There is also the possibility of teaching a design studio at Tulane School of Architecture.
The successful applicant will have the following credentials:
• Be Licensed to practice Architecture;
• Experienced in residential design and construction, with an emphasis on affordable housing;
• Be qualified to teach a design studio at college level (i.e. a terminal degree in architecture and/or relevant experience).
• Experience in the non-profit sector, preferably with a community design center or similar organization.
• Knowledge of the foundation/grant community that is likely to provide ongoing operational funding for the design center.
• A demonstrated ability to write and submit grant applications.
• A demonstrated ability to manage budgets and contracts.
• Have a vision for the future of this initiative.
Salary will be commensurate with experience.
Position will remain open until filled.
NHS New Orleans
4700 Freret Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
laurenanderson@nhsnola.org
DesignCorps Fellowship Program
Each year, Design Corps seeks motivated, creative, self-starters who are independent problem solvers to serve communities as Design Corps Fellows. These positions are an opportunity to apply what you have learned in school for a good cause and to explore the larger role that designers can play in identifying and solving community needs. Design Corps Fellowships deploy design talent, energy, and education in communities who would otherwise not have access to a designer. They each address a critical social need with a design solution that would not be addressed otherwise. All positions are a one-year commitment. To apply, visit the Design Corps website. If you have questions, contact Bryan Bell.
Program Manager, Mayors' Institute on City Design
The Mayors' Institute on City Design (MICD) is seeking a Program Manager. The MICD is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the American Architectural Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Its mission is to transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities.
Qualifications include 3-5 years experience and/or advanced education in architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, or related fields. The job requires flexibility, excellent communication skills, familiarity with urban design graphics, and the ability to manage several projects at once. The position requires domestic travel to Institute Sessions and advance meetings.
The Program Manager will report to the Director of the Mayors' Institute on City Design, and be an employee of the American Architectural Foundation. The position includes a comprehensive salary and benefits package.
This hiring process closes at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, May 31, 2007, but interviews may begin before this date, so candidates are encouraged to apply early.
Visit the jobs section of the MICD website for additional information and application instructions.
Director of Design, National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is now accepting applications for a new Design Director to replace Jeff Speck, who is stepping down in May. The Design Director oversees the NEA's 3 Leadership Initiatives in Design (The Governors' Institute on Community Design, the Mayors' Institute on City Design, and Your Town), as well as grant-making in the design arts. The vacancy announcement can be found here on the agency's website.
Summer Student Internships
SEDA – Council of Governments (SEDA-COG)
Community Resource Center
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
The Community Resource Center (CRC) at SEDA-COG is seeking a student intern for community and regional planning assistance in support of a Regional Strategic Action Plan for an 11 county area in Central Pennsylvania and a regional plan for the revitalization of several river communities.
The Summer Internship will involve assisting with the execution of a regional plan for Land Use, Transportation and Economic Development. The intern will assist with the coordination, planning, and facilitation of 5 sub-regional public workshops and work to develop future goals and visions for the region. The intern will also assist with data collection, analysis and field work associated with the revitalization of eight River Towns through asset marketing and development.
Skills required for the internship include: excellent communication and research skills, understanding of regional planning issues, trends, and policies.
If you’re looking to join a diverse and talented team of planning professionals for the summer, send your resume: Kim Wheeler, SEDA-COG, 201 Furnace Road, Lewisburg, PA 17837; or email your information to kwheeler@seda-cog.org by May 1, 2007.
If you have thoughts on what you would like to include in the next newsletter, or something to share, please e-mail them to newsletter@communitydesign.org.
