In The News

Today, Mercy Housing Lakefront announced that it has been selected to participate in the Housing Partnership Network’s (HPN) Innovations in Neighborhood Stabilization and Foreclosure Prevention Initiative, an effort to expand innovative solutions to neighborhood stabilization challenges in 10 metropolitan areas across the country. The initiative is part of a $2.75 million commitment by the Citi Foundation to bolster

Mercy Housing Northwest – Idaho received a grant from the Home Federal Foundation to support the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in the City of Nampa. Pictured: Mercy Housing Northwest – Idaho Direct of Housing, Robert Reed, receiving the check from Belinda Sargent from Home Federal Bank.

Just before the New Year, the California Supreme Court upheld legislation which eliminates all of the redevelopment agencies in the state on February 1, 2012. Until the ruling, redevelopment agencies have been required to spend 20% of their revenue on the creation and preservation of affordable homes for low and moderate income households. These agencies provided nearly $1 billion per year for affordable housing-money that has been critical to Mercy’s work in nearly every community that we serve.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times With more than one in 10 houses in Chicago vacant, and experts expecting the foreclosure crisis to continue to grow, nonprofits and the city are renting out more of those properties and offering incentives for those willing to buy. Neighborhood Housing Services, a 35-year-old Chicago non-profit, this year will lend $18 million

Source: Affordable Housing Finance Catholic Health Partners (CHP) has transferred 616 affordable homes to Mercy Housing Southeast’s property portfolio. The transaction was completed Dec. 31. Learn more…

Mercy Housing California is working hard to improve life in Sunnydale – a low income housing project that the San Francisco Chronicle described in 2008 as “…quite possibly the most dangerous, depressed and decrepit area of the city.”  A Nov. 5 Chronicle article adds details about the suffering in the neighborhood: “Sunnydale residents share stories

Source: The Denver Post Mercy Housing has started construction on Bluff Lake Apartment Homes, an affordable housing project that will house 92 families.  Designed by KTGY Group Inc., the $11.5 million project is located at the intersection of East 31st Avenue and Hanover Street in Stapleton.  Learn more…

Each November the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness co-sponsor National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. The good news is that during this week – Nov. 12-18 in 2011 – groups across the country organize events to improve what has become a major crisis in our country.

Don’t believe the folks who tell you that Congress doesn’t get anything done. Just a few days after the Senate’s first housing appropriations budget for 2012 was released, we’re hearing from staffers that both sides are ready to consign housing programs for the lowest income people to another year of historic cuts and budget gaps.

A note from Mercy Housing’s Washington DC Policy Associate – Eva Wingren Imagine, for a moment, a world without the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. 9/10ths of the affordable housing industry’s current production capacity either sacrificed on the altar of deficit reduction, or converted to a clumsy federal program run by folks who don’t understand