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Happy New Year and Thank You for Your Continued Support!
With 2015 coming to a close, we are taking the time to reflect upon this past year.
The end of 2015 marks our sixth straight year of membership growth and a record of 240 member organizations being a part of the OCDCA network. With such a strong and active membership, OCDCA has been able to expand our capacity building and advocacy efforts.
Highlights include:
- Improving the Annual Conference experience, which led to record attendance and a 96% overall satisfaction rate from conference participants;
- Increasing member communication to the OCDCA membership by creating the member only funding opportunities newsletter and OCDCA blog;
- Increasing the amount of trainings and technical assistance opportunities offered, which led to over 500 people being trained on a variety of community development topics;
- Helping to preserve the Ohio Housing Trust Fund in the state's budget bill.
All of this, however, means nothing if it weren't for the membership as a whole. We exist to help you serve your communities better. The stories we've heard this year are simply amazing. Your work is making headlines and having a powerful ripple effect throughout your neighborhoods, cities, and Ohio as a whole. So, thank you for your hard work. As always, feel free to let us know how we can better serve you.
We truly value your membership and look forward to growing in 2016!
From our office to yours, have a wonderful and happy new year!
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Apply to Become a 2016 AmeriCorps VISTA Sub-Site
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Upcoming Trainings
OCDCA is eager to announce the first of our 2016 trainings in partnership with Hatha Communications. More information about these are available on our training page.
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Developing your Core Message & Brand & Setting a Strategy for your Communications
January 20, 2016
10:00 - 11:30 AM
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Webinar
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Event and Date
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Location
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Registration
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Developing Relationships with the Media - The Art of the Story
February 17, 2016
10:00 - 11:30 AM
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Webinar |
Register Here! |
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Welcome New Member!
Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. joins OCDCA as our newest 2015 member. Welcome! |
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Share Your Stories
We love hearing about the awesome work you do throughout Ohio. If your organization is mentioned in the news, please share it with us. We love photos too! If you send it to Lisa Much at
[email protected]
, we can put it on our blog and in this newsletter.
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AmeriCorps VISTA Spotlight
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Last month, our AmeriCorps VISTA Members again raised the bar for national service in our communities, recruiting nearly 100 volunteers who completed a total of 636 volunteer hours.
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Ohio Nonprofit Conference and Excellence Awards on May 3
This conference through OANO is the place to network, engage around the latest issues facing the nonprofit sector, find resources to benefit your organization, and learn from first-rate speakers about hot topics. More details about the conference are here.
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Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program
This provides loans and grants to rural microenterprise development organizations to provide microloans for microenterprise start-ups and growth through a rural microloan revolving fund and provides training and TA to microloan borrowers and micro entrepreneurs. Deadline is the last day of a federal fiscal quarter, the next one being
December 31.
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Creative Food Initiative Grants from the Kresge Foundation
Grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded for the planning of place-based efforts aimed at increasing access to healthy food in cities and regional supply chains serving urban markets.
Deadline is January 15, 2016.
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Wells Fargo Housing Foundation
The Wells Fargo grants can be used for a variety of homeownership opportunities. They include: construction and rehab, buyer and education counseling, foreclosure prevention and counseling, subsidies, and home repairs. Deadline is January 31, 2016.
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Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant
Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA), in partnership with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations (BUSTR), announced a resource to help clean up abandoned gas and service stations throughout Ohio. The Abandoned Gas Station Cleanup Grant will provide funding to assess and clean up BUSTR Class C sites (underground storage tanks with documented petroleum releases). Local government entities who own the eligible property or who have an agreement with the landowner such as non-profits may apply. Eligible activities include up to $100,000 for assessment and up to $500,000 for cleanup. Priority will be given to vacant gas or service station projects where cleanup provides the greatest environmental, community and economic impact. Applications open in January 2016. If you have questions about the grant, please contact Erin Hazelton at (614) 728-1258 or [email protected].
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Efficiency Crafted Homes Incentives
Efficiency Crafted Homes provides financial incentives for new home construction or gut rehabs in Columbia Gas of Ohio or AEP Ohio territory. For more information about becoming an Efficiency Crafted builder, contact 1-877-771-5506 or [email protected].
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Member Benefits: "Funding Opps" & GrantStation Discount
Members of OCDCA receive the Funding Opps newsletter, which disseminates numerous funding opportunities applicable to CDCs in Ohio. Funding Opps is sent, at minimum, once per month. If you are an OCDCA member and are not currently receiving Funding Opps, please contact Lisa Much at
[email protected]
.
Also, members receive a highly discounted membership to GrantStation, an online system of funding-related resources. With OCDCA membership, the yearly fee is $75 rather than $699. Register an account at this rate.
If you are not a member and are interested in these benefits, please contact Melissa Miller at
[email protected]
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Organizations with employment opportunities in community development may send their notices for free posting to Lisa Much at
[email protected]
.
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Akron Beacon Journal Call for Housing Trust Fund Expansion
Recently an
Akron Beacon Journal editorial
called firmly for the expansion of the Ohio Housing Trust Fund (OHTF). In June of this year the OHTF was under threat in the Ohio Senate's version of the state's budget bill. Organizations and members across the state rallied in opposition eventually defeating the amendment in conference committee.
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Dollar Deed
Ohio House Bill 303 passed in the House 92 - 0 that would create the
D.O.L.L.A.R. Deed
(Deed Over, Lender Leaseback, Agreed, Refinance). This deed being completely permissive, would allow a lender the opportunity to lease a property in default to the homeowner. The lease must include an option to repurchase or refinance the real property at the end of the lease period, which cannot exceed two years or the time it takes for the homeowner to qualify for financing, whichever is shorter. This bill was introduced in August of this year by Ohio Representatives Jonathan Dever (R-Madeira) and Robert McColley (R-Napoleon).
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Nonprofit Developer Fee Bonus
Due to the dismantling of the CHDO operating grant program caused by the HUD HOME rules, OCDCA has advocated for changes to developer fees in OHFA's Multifamily
Underwriting Guidelines
in an attempt to make up for lost resources. On page 7 of the Multifamily Underwriting Guidelines is language approved for an additional $75,000 in the maximum overall developer fee to go to the "community based non-profit developer". This is intended to be above and beyond the negotiated developer fee split in the event of a joint venture and when a community based non-profit is the 100% owner. It is incumbent upon the non-profit developer to utilize this intended bonus when negotiating development agreements. OHFA recently provided additional guidance in their
Frequently Asked Questions
document on pages 13 and 14. If you have any questions please contact Nate Coffman at
[email protected]
or (614) 461-6392 x 207.
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Federal Budget and Tax Extenders Legislation Mostly Positive
On December 18, Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed into law the FY 2016 federal budget of $1.1 Trillion and a broad tax extenders bill deemed the "Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015". Although additional resources are needed to address the diverse needs of communities in Ohio and across the country, the budget and tax extenders legislation are positive when compared to the obsession with austerity that has held Congress over the past many years. We would like to thank the numerous members that contacted their representatives to help save the HOME, CED and other programs. For a chart on the budget click
here
.
Some highlights of the budget deal include:
- HOME Investments Partnership Program - $950M (an increase of $50M)
- Office of Community Services (OCS) Community Economic Development grants - $29.8M (was at risk of elimination)
- Congress allocated an additional $2B to the US Treasury administered Hardest Hit Fund. The funds can be used for demolition and/or counseling, although details must be worked out, according to U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown's office.
- National Housing Trust Fund was left alone after facing attempts at a raid and now can be implemented starting in 2016
- The legislation provides $1.1 billion for Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and their programs including AmeriCorps VISTA ($39.9 million increase over last year)
- Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) - $3.06B (same as FY 2015)
- National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling ($40M) and HUD Housing Counseling ($47M)
- Choice neighborhoods Initiative - $125M ($45M more than FY 2015)
- Total HUD funding increased $3B over FY 2015
Some highlights of the tax extenders include:
- Low-Income Housing Tax Credit 9% rate made permanent
- New Market Tax Credits extended for 5 years at $3.5B
- Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit made permanent
- The tax bill also extends for another year a law shielding homeowners from taxes on the value of debt relief if a lender forgives that debt.
Thank you for your advocacy on these issues!
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Harvard JCHS Report Finds Record Number of Cost-Burdened Renters
The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) recently released its
2015 snapshot of America's Rental Housing, which found marked growth in the number of renter households, especially among households earning less than $25,000 per year. Faced with limited rental supply, the number of renters with severe rent burdens (those paying more than 50 percent of their income towards rent) rose to a record level of 11.4 million. According to the report, low-income renters are nearly universally cost-burdened.
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Mortgage Interest Deduction Cap
The Washington Post ran an editorial on the mortgage interest deduction, citing the rarity of mortgages over $500,000 (just 5% of all mortgages nationwide) supporting both lowering the portion of a mortgage eligible for tax relief down to $500K from $1 million and changing the deduction to a 15% tax credit.
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