New Year's Resolutions for Better Neighborhoods

We all either make New Year's Resolutions for ourselves or reject them because we know how often we fail at losing weight, eating better, paying off debt, choose your favorite...but what if we made resolutions that help make our neighborhoods better places to live? On our blog, we have compiled 13 resolutions for 2013 that can make your neighborhood a better place. We have a couple previewed below, but you can find the full list by clicking here.

1. Plant something!  Plants brighten the neighborhood and make it more friendly in addition to environmental benefits.
2. Remove barriers!  Are there barriers to mobility for strollers, wheelchairs, canes, or walkers in your neighborhood?  Are there barriers to aging in place?  Learn how to make a difference and do it.

This month, we also have a full list of our favorite links to great tools or statewide/national resources and information.  We love local members and they are doing great work, but these statewide or national resources are available to everyone. We have a few listed below, but you can find more by reading our blog post here.

• Active Living by Design - www.activelivingbydesign.org 
• American Planning Association - www.planning.org 
• Asset-Based Community Development Institute - www.abcdinstitute.org 

This month, IACED staff focused some of our blog content on community planning and organizational strategic planning. First, we focused on community planning and what it includes: comprehensive plans, master plans, land use plans, sub-area plans, neighborhood plans, corridor plans, transportation plans, walkability plans, housing plans, economic development plans...the list goes on.  But what are the threads that weave through all of them?  What are the characteristics of a good community plan, regardless of type?

One example is public engagement - not just "key" stakeholders, but all stakeholders.  Who is a stakeholder?  Anyone who may be impacted by the plan including residents, property owners, business owners or local managers, commuters, potential residents, non-profit organizations, government departments and agencies, people who shop, go to school, or play in the community - so many different people with different reasons to care.  It is important for all of them to be engaged in the process and be heard.  This can take many forms, but it is critical to successful planning efforts. We explain several more critical components on our blog post that can be found here.

The other main focus of our December blog content was strategic planning. Non-profit organizations and businesses need strategic plans, regardless of size.  A strategic plan sets the direction of the organization over the next three to five years and communicates to staff, board members, donors, community, and/or shareholders where the organization will be focusing its efforts.  It can communicate efforts that have been successful (or lessons learned from less successful efforts), a new or renewed mission, priorities, and the goals for the coming years to all stakeholders.  It serves as the basis for annual work plans and sets performance measures for annual evaluation.  

Departments (or individual staff members), the board, and committees can build their individual annual work plans and performance measures from a well crafted strategic plan. You can find our complete post on the importance of strategic planning by clicking here. Also, we want our members to know that IACED is available to assist you with your strategic planning processes on a fee-for-service basis.  Members enjoy a reduced rate for technical assistance from IACED staff.

Across the Nation  

UPDATE: Sequestration Impasse Has Severe Implications for Community Development Programs

As of this evening, in the final hours before the fiscal cliff deadline, Congressional leaders have announced that they will not
they will not pass legislation, despite a preliminary deal resulting from last-ditch negotiations between Senate Majority Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden tonight. The Senate may still hold a vote this evening, but House leadership has formally announced that the votes are close and the earliest they will hold the vote is tomorrow.

Those provisions mark significant progress in negotiations, but there has not been a deal on how to deal with the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts that will automatically take effect when sequestration is triggered.  The House could vote on the package tomorrow on the tax provisions, but we will keep this blog updated on the progress of ongoing negotiations on spending and tax deals. As we have discussed in our earlier blog posts here and here, sequestration cuts have severe implications for Hoosier community development programs.

On December 10, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development released the 2012 Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness.  The report is comprised of data from more than 3,000 cities and counties and is aimed at measuring the scope of homelessness in the country on a single night in January. The formal HUD release noted that the figure is mostly static (.04 percent decrease) compared to the 2011 report.  Despite that minor decrease, the report did indicate a seven percent drop in homelessness among veterans and those experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan noted that given the "historic housing and economic downturn, local communities are reporting significant declines in the number of homeless veterans and those experiencing long-term chronic homelessness."

According to the report, there were 6,259 homeless persons in Indiana on the night in 2012 when the data was collected.  For a full breakdown of Indiana-specific data in the report, follow this link. Nationwide, there were 633,782 people on the same night. The report indicates that most homeless persons (62 percent) are individuals while 38 percent of homeless persons are in family households. For more key findings, click here for our blog post.

On November 28, 2012, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a Housing Notice (2012-25) regarding Policy for Amended and Restated Use Agreements for Multifamily Projects Subject to the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act of 1990 (LIHPRHA). For some background, HUD worked with for-profit and non-profit owners during the 1960s and 1970s to finance thousands of properties under an array of mortgage insurance programs.   Many of these projects obtained rental assistance contracts under Section 8 of the United States Housing Act, or through the Rent Supplement or Rental Assistance Payment (RAP) programs.  The FHA mortgage insurance was for 40 years and gave property owners the option to prepay the FHA-insured mortgage after 20 years.  As a result, the owner could convert the project to market rate housing, a powerful incentive for owners to prepay and gain financially on appreciating property.

In order to preserve this subsidized stock and keep units affordable for residents, Congress enacted the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act (LIHPRHA) in 1990.  LIHPRHA offered incentives to owners to keep them from prepaying their mortgages. HUD currently oversees hundreds of properties that participated in the LIHPRHA program in the early 1990s.  Today, many LIHPRHA properties are in need of additional repair and modernization to ensure they remain viable for current and future residents. This Notice provides guidance on circumstances under which HUD will consider amending and restating a property's LIHPRHA Use Agreement to facilitate preservation transactions. For the official Notice and more information,  click here to read our blog post.

On December 21, the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, an IACED member, hosted an Annual Homeless Memorial Service at the Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in Indianapolis to honor homeless individuals who passed away in the city in 2012.  This year, the Church rang their bell 32 times- one for each of the deceased.  The bells served as a sobering reminder of the ongoing plight of our homeless neighbors.

The service, however, also focused on hopeful stories of two formerly homeless people who now live in transitional housing and highlighted the work of CHIP and local homeless serving organizations dedicated to providing support to those who experience housing instability.

According CHIP's Executive Director, Christy Shepard, "This special service causes us to pause and remember men and women who may otherwise be forgotten.  Their lives remind us that ending homelessness impacts lives, and that services are critical to transitioning individuals and families from homelessness to stable housing."

CHIP serves as the lead entity in Indianapolis for mobilizing the community to work together on the Blueprint Plan to End Homelessness.  According to their 2012 report, "Faces of Homelessness," 1,647 individuals experience homelessness in Indianapolis.  Of those, 21 percent identified themselves as veterans - an increase of nearly 90 individuals from the 2011 survey.  CHIP also reported that over the course of the year, between 5,000 and 8,500 people experience homelessness in Indianapolis.

For full Indy Star coverage of the event, click here.