State CED Associations Increase Public and Private
Financial Support for the Activities of CDCs
State CDC associations work to educate, provide technical assistance, access public resources, and increase private services to benefit community development corporations. Their work falls in these categories.
Ø Increasing the capacity of CDCs. All of the state associations provide a plethora of training and networking opportunities for their members. Topics included Social Ventures, Empowerment Zones, microenterprise, and activities to assist and coordinate city associations.
Ø National Success Measures Project. The Maryland Center for Community Development and the Affordable Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey are active in the national Success Measures Project sponsored by the Development Leadership Network. MCCD was the host site for the national Success Measures Forum in April of 1999, and then participated in the drafting of the Success Measures Guidebook which is being field tested by community development organizations across the country for its potential use in planning and evaluating community development and community building work.
Ø Increasing Visibility. All state associations report a higher visibility of community development and housing issues. One example is the Massachusetts Governor discussing housing issues in his State of the State speech. State associations hold press conferences, host national meetings and local events.
Ø Recruiting Allies. All of the associations partner with other state and national organizations to strengthen the environment for low-moderate income communities and their residents. One example is the Massachusett’s Association of CDCs recruitment of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Ending the State’s housing crisis is the focus of the collaboration.
Ø Community Economic Development Policy Agenda. Many associations develop draft CED policy platforms that recommend ways to increase resources for economic development and housing in distressed areas and increase self-sufficiency for low-income people. The Platforms are developed with input from many stakeholders during a thoughtful and open process.
Ø Expanding Access to Federal Resources. The associations coordinate their efforts with NCCED’s policy department on priority legislative issues. For example, state associations educate their members on accessing new resources given to the state including Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Assets to Independence, Program for Reinvestment in Microenterprise, and the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
Ø Operational Support. States have emerged as the new frontier for support of the work of CDCs. The Ohio CDC Association secured Department of Development funds for five community housing development organizations. MCCD discussed the need for additional state operating support for non-profits. The operating support request was sympathetically received by the state agency, which publicly acknowledged the important partnership role non-profits play in providing housing and community development activities. The agency will channel $100,000 that had been earmarked for their own staff training to training for non-profits. MACDC protect the $1.9 million for its state’s flexible programmatic Community Economic Enterprise Development fund. Despite the late passage of the budget, MACDC was able to convince the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development to sign contracts prior to the completion of the budget so that funds were able to flow to its members sooner than would otherwise have been possible.
Ø Neighborhood Assistance Programs. Associations in New Jersey, Ohio, and Rhode Island are actively working to enact Neighborhood Assistance Programs (NAPs) in their states. NAPs are tax credits that provide a state tax credit of 50 to 70 cents on the dollar and support a range of community development and community building activities. The associations work with a broad range of local and national nonprofit partners, business leaders, bankers, and government agencies. A new $1 million program was enacted in South Carolina in 2000. Other associations work to make existing programs better, In Maryland, MCCD participated in a rating and ranking process for applicants of its relatively new Neighborhood Partnership Program. In addition to having input, staff learned more about the needs of the 32 nonprofit applicants. The Indiana association is working to increase the cap on credits.
Ø Housing Programs. A $100 million state Low Income Housing Tax Credit was passed in Massachusetts while the Network is close to enacting a $10 million LIHTC for multi-family rental housing in New Jersey. In California, the California Community Economic Development Association won an augmentation of its state’s credits that will increase the number of families served. MCCD created a $1 million self-help housing program and had $2.5 million appropriated for the state’s rental housing program. MACDC also secured a 33% increase in its state soft second housing program. This is Massachusetts’ largest home ownership program for low-income families. MACDC is working on a new trust fund to be funded by the state’s deeds excise tax.
Increasing Private Sector Resources
State Associations inform private sector partners about the opportunities in the community development field for giving, partnering, and investing.
Ø Bank Agreements. The associations participated in bank agreements that pledged $41,375,000 in grants and technical assistance, $549,650,000 in loans, and $7,320,000 in equity in the past year.
Ø Grantmaker Education. Using the Success Measures Project as a fore into the topic of results -oriented work, MCCD has held discussions with local foundation staff, and public sector funding agencies, about the concept of changing processes to support strong viable organizations in an ongoing manner rather than just project by project. This has required a shift in thinking among funders to affirm that it might be possible to provide operating support and still expect results; in early meeting we were told that operating support is not popular to fund because it is intangible and not accountable. The Network is leading similar dialogue projects.
Ø Community Building Funding Pool. The Network in New Jersey administers a $1.5 million funding pool that provides assistance to eight organizations with funding from a variety of national and local grantmakers.
Ø Federal Home Loan Bank. A number of state associations are involved in increasing community development lending and strengthening the Bank’s Affordable Housing Program.
Ø Increase Commercial Development Resources. Recognizing that there are national programs that can provide both financial resources and technical assistance expertise, MCCD brought the National Main Street Project into Baltimore. MCCD was successful in brokering a meeting between city agency staff and the National Trust staff, which then resulted in the funding of a six - month planning grant to determine through a community involvement process, the feasibility and potential structure for a Baltimore Main Street Program. The newly elected Mayor of Baltimore has accepted the recommendations out of that planning process and is now seeking funds to support this program. MACDC has made progress toward establishing a new equity fund for CDC-sponsored commercial real estate projects. The Massachusetts Housing Investment Corporation has agreed to administer the fund and hopes to use $5 million of its own capital to launch it. MHIC has also had positive conversations with the Life Initiative and the P&C Initiative about getting $5 million from each of them. This would create an initial fund of $15 million. Senator Kennedy is working to secure a $3 million federal appropriation to help launch this fund. OCDCA is collaborating with the Ohio Finance Fund to secure additional private funding for CDCs.
Ø Insurance Industry Investment. MACDC and CCEDA are active in implementing their insurance industry investment laws/mechanism. After three years, CCEDA is finally pleased with the actions of the insurance industry. They launched IMPACT Capital LLC, a $400 million fund capitalized by eleven insurance companies. This secondary fund will assist the commercial and retail industry. CCEDA is also hoping to include a training component. In Massachusetts, $27.7 million is supporting15 different projects and organizations. The Property and Casualty Initiative has gotten off to a slower start, but they have also begun to make commitments. (The P&C Initiative also decided to locate their offices in a CDC owned commercial building in Dorchester!)