Construction Maison

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - Homeless advocates say gaps in affordable housing options continue to be an issue in parts of Arizona, but a local organization is trying to help answer the call with the development of a new complex that also emphasizes energy efficiency . UMOM New Day Centers, based in Phoenix, announced plans to develop a four-story apartment complex called “19 North” that can accommodate up to 54 families in need of affordable housing . The $16 million project will be built on a vacant lot near Morten and 19th avenues in Phoenix, and is expected to be completed in 2019. Michelle Ray knows all too well the impact of having affordable housing options after she hit a rough patch in her life about 9 years ago. She and her 18-month-old daughter needed a place to turn to in the face of limited options , so Ray reached out to UMOM for help. Ray said she doesn’t like to imagine what her life would be like if she didn’t find UMOM and affordable housing . “I know if it wasn’t for ...

Cities must do more to ensure that investments in energy efficiency reach the low- and moderate-income households that bear the heaviest burden from high energy costs via Shutterstock By Laurie Mazur As the saying goes, “The poor pay more.” This is certainly true when it comes to energy costs: Low-income households (both owners and renters) pay more for energy per square foot than their affluent counterparts. And as a percentage of income, low- and moderate- income families pay up to three times more than average on utility bills. Energy efficiency is part of the solution: It can reduce energy burdens by as much as 30 percent. But even the best- intentioned efficiency programs often fail to reach low- and moderate-income households. Those households may not be able to take advantage of incentives because they lack the upfront capital to invest in efficiency upgrades, for example. And they lose out on tax incentives because they don’t live in high- efficiency housing or can’t af...

"); } if ($(imageDivId).length == 0) { $("#wrapper").after(contentText); } })(jQuery); BREMERTON, Wash. - Crystal Turner stood in the kitchen of her cramped apartment and stared at the cracks in the fake wood flooring beneath her feet. Surrounding her was the home she'd made for herself and her two sons in the past year, since they moved out of her Toyota Camry and into Admiral Manor, a low- rent apartment complex in west Bremerton . There was the single bedroom with two kids' beds on the floor. The living room she'd decorated with signs that said "Hope" and "Love." A dingy bathroom with a leaking toilet that had never been fixed. In this undated photo, Matthew Daigneault pushes his son Aden as he plays outside on the swings of his rental home in West Bremerton , Wash. (Larry Steagall/Kitsap Sun via AP) © 2017 Cox Media Group . Admiral Manor wasn 't the place Turner, a recovering addict, wanted to raise her boys. It was the place...

Roughly 220 children in lower-income families in Bloomington qualify for but do not have access to affordable pre- kindergarten education . In an effort to change this, Alex Crowley, director of the city’s Economic and Sustainable Development Department , said a state-sponsored initiative, On My Way Pre-K pilot program, which provides funding to programs serving 4-year-olds from families with household incomes at or below 127 percent of the federal poverty level , is coming to Monroe County next year, and it is estimated it can help about 50 children. That begs the question: What can the city and others do to make sure no children who are eligible for pre-kindergarten are left out? As part of that answer, the city is proposing investing $100,000 to support quality child care for lower-income families. “Every dollar initially invested in early education programs for children from low-income families is estimated to generate $4 to $11 in economic benefits over a child’s lifetime,” May...

OVERVIEW “Wherever there is conflict in the world, a few years later you start to see that population showing up here,” says Andriana Abariotes, executive director of Twin Cities LISC ( Local Initiatives Support Corporation ). Minneapolis-St. Paul has a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees from around the world and is home to many organizations serving these populations. St. Paul’s East Side, where LISC has worked for years, is home to a rich cultural mix of immigrants including Hmong , Somali, Karin, Bhutanese, Sudanese, Latinos and others, alongside Native and African Americans. “Wherever there is conflict in the world, a few years later you start to see that population showing up here.” “It is a hard to reach population,” says Amy Gillman at the LISC national office . These are “highly impoverished and culturally diverse residents , who face significant barriers to physical and social activities related to health.” To make matters worse , the city is experiencing a ...

Bronx developer Mark Stagg’s “bait-and-switch” shenanigans are making a mockery of two signature Mayor Bill de Blasio initiatives : affordable housing and his “Turning the Tide” homeless plan. In Thursday’s Post, Carl Campanile reported that back in 2015, Stagg flipped a Bronx apartment building into a transitional shelter facility . Working-class residents of the Crotona Avenue building saw their dream of winning the affordable- housing lottery turn into a nightmare once Stagg’s nonprofit partner, Bronx Parent Housing Network , moved 44 homeless families into the 55-unit building in November 2015. The rent-paying residents say they have to put up with panhandling, fighting, all-night partying and even assaults. Stagg used his signature tactic of asking the city for a property tax break in exchange for keeping 20 percent of units “affordable” — and then leasing the remaining 80 percent to a homeless-services nonprofit. Tenants came forward with their tales of misery after readin...

Looking at the County of San Bernardino ’s Point in Time Homeless Count numbers , veterans comprised 8.2 percent of those who were homeless in the county in 2016, but that percentage increased to 9.6 percent in 2017. Although the increase was slight, it was moving in the wrong direction. We knew the numbers were not trending the right direction when my nonprofit organization purchased the five-acre parcel on the southwest corner of Texas Street and Lugonia Avenue in the city of Redlands nearly two years ago. At the time, we were also cognizant of the rich tradition city and community leaders had in supporting our veterans. The VA Loma Linda Healthcare System was a few miles away, and in fact opened an Ambulatory Care Center on Redlands Boulevard even closer to our property just last October. There were active AMVets and American Legion Posts in the community, and the service clubs in the community included many veterans. As an experienced affordable housing developer with a miss...

SEATTLE--( BUSINESS WIRE )--U.S. Bank in Seattle is providing free backpacks and school supplies today to 244 children who reside at Appian Way Apartments in Kent, Washington. U.S. Bank employee volunteers , along with several community partners, will distribute the backpacks and school supplies , along with pizza and ice cream, from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 22, at Appian Way Apartments, located at 25818 26 th Place S. in Kent, Washington . Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke will also be in attendance. Sharon Hughes, U.S. Bank vice president of community affairs, will speak at the event. “U.S. Bank is proud to partner with Mercy Housing, the developer of Appian Way Apartments, to support the greater Seattle community ,” said Hughes. “This event is one of many ways that U.S. Bank gives back to the communities where it does business.” U.S. Bank supports Appian Way by serving on its board of directors and finance committee, financing development throughout the State of Was...

Every metropolitan area in the nation is racially segregated, and Los Angeles is no exception. We tolerate residential segregation because we’re convinced that it happened informally — because of personal choices and private discrimination. But what cemented our separate neighborhoods is something most of us have forgotten — government’s unconstitutional and systematic insistence on segregated housing in the mid-20th century, establishing patterns that persist to this day. The 2010 census data show that 60% of Los Angeles’s African Americans live in neighborhoods where few whites are present. The exposure of blacks to whites is as minimal as it is in Chicago or Newark; concentrated African American poverty is as common in L.A. as in New York or Pittsburgh. The New Deal created the nation’s first civilian public housing in the 1930s, segregated not only in the South, but nationwide. In his autobiography, the African American poet Langston Hughes recounted his adolescence in Worl...

In 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall in the United States, killing 112 people and causing about $37.5 billion in damages. The storm destroyed the Louisiana coastline and caused flooding along the Mississippi River.  Ike also caused trouble in the state of Texas, forcing people to evacuate and move out, never to return. Among them was Erika Negrete, 31, who managed to escape along with her family.  She came to California and has been thankful to be able to stay with her in-laws in Fontana ever since.  However, Negrete, her husband, and three children were frustrated because of a lack of privacy. But all that changed last month, when she moved to a brand new three- bedroom apartment unit located at the Toscana Apartment Community in Fontana. "Now I feel free to do whatever," said Negrete.  "It feels so good to have your own place.  It gives you a sense of dignity and pride." A total of 53 families were chosen out of 800 applicants to live in the new complex, which ...