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St. Joseph County Housing Consortium <br />Helping Renters Become and Remain Homeowners -The Consortium strongly believes <br />that homeownership helps stabilize a neighborhood. When a neighborhood changes from a <br />majority of owner-occupied homes to rental property owned by absentee landlords, social <br />problems eventually crop up and the housing stock tends to deteriorate more quickly than <br />time would require. Specific activities the Consortium supports to implement this strategy <br />include: <br />A. Home Buyer Training <br />B. Home Buyer Subsidies/Downpayment Assistance <br />C. Lease/Purchase Programs <br />D. Rehab for Resale to Home Buyers <br />E. In-Fill Single Family Home Construction (includes demolition for future <br />development) <br />Promote Quality Rental Property -The Consortium recognizes that not everyone will <br />become, or even want to become, a homeowner. There will always be a segment of the <br />population which will rent, and a large percentage of that population will consist of <br />households below 80% of median income. Therefore, activities will be put in place to <br />support and develop well-run, quality rental units to serve our renter citizens. <br />South Bend <br />Numerous sources of funding are expected to be available to support the various federal <br />funds for Supporting Homeowners and Helping Renters become Homeowners. In addition to <br />annual CDBG & HOME funds, Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), CDBG-Recovery <br />(CDBG-R), private local financial institution support, community foundation dollars, and <br />general community donations are anticipated. NSP and CDBG-R dollars are complementing <br />the targeted area investment with additional nine single family rehabs and four newly <br />constructed homes; a consortium of six local financial institutions pool resources to provide <br />mortgage assistance to new homeowners through the Community Homebuyers Corporation <br />(CHC) program expected to assist approximately 20 clients per year. Home modifications <br />addressing medical needs will offer approximately 35 elderly homeowners assistance and <br />will be supported by over $900,000 from the Weinburg Foundation. Rebuilding Together <br />completes approximately 25 homeowner rehabs per year with CDBG dollars and is <br />additionally supported by local trades, business and individual monetary, labor and material <br />donations. <br />Housing counseling is made available through CDBG, South Bend city resources and state <br />dollars via the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network. All of these funding sources allow <br />the counseling activity that supports the efforts for homeownership as noted previously. <br />Over 250 people are expected to attend a counseling session and/or class each year. <br />Promoting Quality Rental Property will be realized with the improvements to 80 low/mod <br />units at Robertsons and the installation of 25 geothermal heating units at Dunbar Homes <br />rental complex, which will see additional tax credit support to make improvements and <br />upgrades to the entire complex. Additionally, the PHA's Section 8 vouchers, HOME funds for <br />Tenant Based Rental Assistance of 6 units, and NSP funds to address the housing of 8-16 <br />special needs persons will occur. <br />Efforts to prevent homelessness and assist the homeless will be supported with <br />Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing (HPRP) funds through an entitlement <br />award, and via the State to local service agencies; McKinney Vento Homeless funds; <br />Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) funds for 4 agencies sheltering youth, women and children, <br />and other homeless. In addition to a small amount of CDBG funds for the Veterans Shelter <br />2010-2014 Housing and Community Development Plan 38 <br />