April 28th, 2011
The City of Jacksonville Human Rights Commission hosts its ninth Fair Housing Awareness Symposium from 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, at the Crowne Plaza Riverfront Hotel, 1201 Riverplace Blvd. Admission is free, but advance registration is required.
The event offers an opportunity for Jacksonville residents to learn about buying and keeping a home, foreclosure, bankruptcy, credit, fair housing and disability rights — topics which, along with others, will be covered in symposium workshops.
Exhibitors include Ability Housing, Habijax, Jacksonville Housing Authority, Wells Fargo, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Lowe’s, Jacksonville Urban League, Three Rivers Legal Services and others. Registration is at 8 a.m.
For more information or to register, call (904) 630-1212 x3020, TTY (904) 630-4125 or email JHRCRSVP@coj.net.
Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/business/daily-briefs/2011-04-20/story/jacksonville-fair-housing-symposium-april-30#ixzz1Kq8roZ00
Tags: April 30, Crown Plaza, Fair Housing, free, Habijax, Human Rights Commission, Jacksonville, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Jacksonville Housing Authority, Lowe's, Three Rivers Legal Services, Well Fargo
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April 18th, 2011
Last Friday, President Obama signed into law H.R. 1473 that provides funding to the federal government through September 30, 2011. As President Obama said upon reaching the bi-partisan agreement, “some of the cuts we agreed to will be painful. Programs people rely on will be cut back … And I would not have made these cuts in better circumstances.”
Despite the $38.5 billion in cuts, vital programs to the success of the goals of Opening Doors in general received flat funding. These related programs include:
- $40 million increase for HUD’s McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program (a total of $1.905 billion);
- Over 7,500 new housing vouchers for Veterans experiencing homelessness through HUD – VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program;
- $116 million for Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) programs, equal to the FY 2010 level; and
- $18.4 billion for Section 8 Tenant-Based Rental Assistance, enough to fund all existing vouchers.
Upon passage of the Budget, Washington Senator Patty Murray noted, “instead of being shut out, thousands of homeless veterans will receive new vouchers to find safe and secure housing under this agreement. Instead of being drastically cut, Head Start will continue to provide low income children with the same early learning advantages available to other kids. And instead of being turned away, women will still have access to local care for cervical and breast cancer screenings, prenatal care, and family planning services.”
Funding geared towards implementation of the HEARTH Act in the President’s Fiscal Year 2011 Budget was not allocated in the final bill. In addition, there was a $650 million cut to Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) which provide essential funding to communities across the country. Loss of critical funding for Community Health Centers, Rural Health Care Programs, SAMSHA, and a variety of housing programs at HUD provides the federal government additional challenges in its efforts to prevent and end homelessness. In the coming weeks, USICH will provide a full breakdown of the funding for homeless related programs in Fiscal Year 2011.
- News from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness 4.18.2011 (http://www.ich.gov/)
Tags: budget, CDBG, H.R. 1473, HEARTH, Homeless, HUD, McKinney Vento, RHYA, SAMSHA, Section 8, voucher
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March 17th, 2011
Construction and development are important job and economic generators on the state and local level. However, there has been much debate as to whether new construction creates more jobs than rehabilitating and preserving existing housing stock.
Florida Housing Finance Corporation has issued a white paper demonstrating that investing the state’s resources into the preservation of assisted properties is a better job creator than new construction. Dollar for dollar, preservation projects create 14% more jobs than investments in new construction.
In addition to the jobs creation, investing in the rehabilitation of properties with rental assistance contracts is a wise use of limited resources. If this housing stock is lost, the cost to replicate the subsidy will be far greater than the cost of physical rehabilitation. Additionally, through rehabilitation, deteriorating properties are transformed from potential blights in the neighborhoods to community assets.
In carrying out our mission to provide affordable housing that is not otherwise be available to our community’s most at risk citizens, Ability Housing has several construction projects creating jobs in our city. Mayfair Village alone will create or preserve over 250 jobs in our community, not including indirect or induces job creation as the economic impact of the project is felt throughout the community. To view Florida Housing’s white paper visit http://bit.ly/hMHKl5 .
Tags: Ability Housing, Affordable Housing, Construction, Development, Economic Impact, Florida Housing, Job Creation
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February 11th, 2011
Many persons with disabilities can feel like a prisoner in their own home if it lacks the necessary amenities that make it accessible for them to come and go freely. Sadly when they try to make modifications to their home, apartment or condominium, to make it more accessible, can receive a lot of push back and discrimination.
Local authorities in Jacksonville say “the number of people being denied housing or the right to make reasonable modifications is on the rise.”
– Jacksonville.com (Housing Discrimination Against the Disabled May Be on the Rise)
However, people with disabilities are covered under the federal Fair Housing Act, which also prohibits housing discrimination based on race, sex, or family status. Under federal guidelines anyone willing to pay for reasonable modifications due to disability is entitled to do so, and denying them permission to build a ramp, for example, is clearly illegal. So too is denying a blind person with a guide dog a spot in a rental apartment because of a no-pets policy or refusing a woman who just recently acquired a disability an assigned parking spot closer to her apartment. These might seem to be obvious exceptions to the rule, but unfortunately they are all real cases being handled by agencies such as Legal Aid and the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission all too often.
Tags: Disabilities, Disabled, Fair Housing, Housing Discrimination, Jacksonville
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December 29th, 2010
NPR has a very interesting series of articles on their website discussing today’s crisis regarding the disabled and housing. There seems to be one age group that is going into nursing homes at an increasingly higher rate. Yearly federal nursing home data shows that there are more than 6,000 young people up to the age of 21 living in American nursing homes.
“Young people ages 31 to 64 now make up 14 percent of the nursing home population, an analysis of federal data from the Department of Health and Human Services by NPR’s Investigative Unit found. That’s up from 10 percent just 10 years ago.”
-NPR
Cost is one of the main issues and there is much disagreement over whether moving people out of institutions and nursing homes and into home-based care will save or cost more money. Advocates for what’s called “home- and community-based care” say it almost always costs less to care for someone in his/her own home instead of in an institution.
Many groups are fighting so that Congress will make it mandatory that states pay for people with disabilities, young and old, to live in their own homes. Ability Housing certainly supports the fact that the disabled have the right to live independently in their own home which is why we strive each day to provide quality, affordable housing to persons with disabilities.
We would definitely like to hear your thoughts on this issue and if you would like to check out the articles you can go to http://www.npr.org/series/131105200/home-or-nursing-home
Tags: Disabled, Elderly, Homes, Nursing homes, Rights, Young
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November 29th, 2010
Ability Housing’s executive director, Shannon Nazworth, continues to actively participate in statewide advocacy efforts to improve the quality of life for persons with a disability and others experiencing or at risk of homelessness. As chair of the Florida Supportive Housing Coalition, she co-hosted a regional conference on homelessness and supportive housing. The event was held October 25th & 26th at the Hilton Resort, Clearwater Beach, Florida. Speakers included the executive director of the US Interagency Council on Homelessness and the regional directors of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration as well as Department of Children & Families Secretary, George Sheldon.
Ms. Nazworth also provided input into the housing component of the state’s “Money Follows the Person” grant application to the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. This grant will help transition persons inappropriately placed in nursing homes and other overly-restrictive institutional settings to community based housing. A success grant implementation will increase the independence of adults with a disability while reducing the state’s expenditures on costly facility-based care.
Tags: Ability Housing, Advocacy, Disabilities, Florida Supportive Housing Coalition, Homelessness, Supportive Housing
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December 16th, 2009
The 2009 Ability Housing Raffle is over. Congratulations to Alison, Karen and Yonner for winning gift cards to area stores.
We hope everyone enjoyed visiting our new website. We have designed it to be easily navigated as well as informative. Please contact us with any comments.
If you have not already done so, please sign up for our eNewsletter and become a Fan on Facebook.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
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November 10th, 2009
Ability Housing is pleased to be launching a new website November 15. The new site will have many new features, including new search functions, additional downloads and refined layout of key information. Check us out!!
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