RE: community development corporations
From: Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (RobsanExchange.MICROSOFT.com)
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 11:52:33 -0500
Yeah CDC's are around in lots of places. However they are typically
funded by grants or block grants that are specific to low income
housing, which limits them somewhat. Also, much of the volunteer energy
of these places identifies with the low income housing aspect of it.
These organizations have some good resources and are worth contacting if
there are any in your area.  They could be a source for developer
contacts, banking contacts, lawyers and other professionals who would be
less profit motive driven.  I beleive the Vashon COhousing Group
partnered with a CDC and it was a good move, they got a couple of large
grants to subsidize a portion of their development.  The CDC manuerverd
the grants and did a lot of leg work around funding issues and
mortgages, and even took on some development stuff as well.  It also
helped them with some aspects of their development plan approvals
because they could argue for exemptions because they were "low income
housing".  I think 6? of their 18 units are subsidized by the grants.

Rob Sandelin
NICA

Original Message-----
Sent:           Thursday, July 18, 1996 9:05 AM
Subject:        community development corporations
on target reply to Rob's post, Buzz.  While I have been on sabattical 
from school and community land trust to have a baby, househusband his
mom 
through her recovery and enjoy a week of the Oregon Country Fair, my 
brain has been ruminating over just this issue. 

Seems a developer is the way to go. This way the wheel of civic
protocol, 
state land use ordinances, and funding contacts need not be reinvented. 
Yet doing it ourselves is so darn appealing and empowering.

There is a model that could be adapted--community development 
corportations (CDC). 

Here in eugene we have one, Neighborhood economic deveolpment 
corporation (NEDCO), which has a paid staff and director and a passle of
vollunteers and interns as well as a board with key community people and
residents of various housing projects.  while the focus of this group
now 
is low-income housing purchase programs, the direction could just as 
easily be broadened to middle income or more upscale developments such
as 
the majority of the COHO represent.

As a non for profit organization funds recouped from the upscale
projects 
could be diverted into more modest ones within the grasp of the piss 
poor. The projects could even be transition low-income rental, limited 
equity COHOs like East Blair where I live, orthe profits could subsidize
low-income families in each COHO develoment.

This organization could be national or international quite like habitat 
for humanity.

Interested?

Michael Omogrosso
East Blair Housing Cooperative
864 W. 4th Ave. #3, Eugene, Oregon 97402, USA
omo [at] darkwing.uoregon.edu    541-344-8444
photographer, community land trust advocate



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