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On Saturday morning a group of 24 people will be getting on a plane and heading to northwestern Costa Rica. We are each motivated to be a part of this journey for varying reasons…some are motivated by their faith, or celebrating a monumental birthday, or dedicating the trip in honor of someone special or because they just want to serve and heading to Costa Rica seemed to be the best place to do it. Even though we’re all inspired to be a part of Habitat’s work for a different reason, we are all heading there with a common goal – to serve others by building homes for and with families who need a stable, healthy and safe place to call home!

We will be working in a small village called Santa Elena in the Guanacaste region where Habitat Costa Rica has big plans! This project is something Habitat Costa Rica has been working on for quite some time and the home building just recently began. It is exciting that our group has the chance to be part of a new project and when this project is completely finished, 38 Habitat families will own homes in this area! Families like the sisters Sujeidy and Ana Yancy Esquivel who partnered with Habitat Costa Rica last year! You can read their story here: http://www.tchabitat.org/page.aspx?pid=1715

In addition to meeting the families in Costa Rica and hearing their stories, some of the things that I am most looking forward to are the adventures and journeys that lay before us in the coming week that will encourage all of us to grow, be motivated, share and learn together. It will be wonderful to see the impact this trip and these experiences will have on of us individually and the Habitat partner families in Costa Rica.

We will be traveling to Bolanos Bay on Sunday, Feb. 29, building on site through the week and then heading back to Minnesota on Feb. 6. Throughout the week we hope that we’ll have access to internet to share stories on the blog about what we’re doing, learning and the family stories we’re learning so keep checking back for updates!

When I moved to Minnesota, I encountered the Structured Potluck complete with sign-up sheet.  Often this takes the form of last names starting with A-G bring salad ... . While I appreciate the impulse to try to control the chaos, my name starts with B and I am terrible at making salad (you really want me to bring lemon pie).
 
The community development equivalent to the structured potluck is a model in which agencies and residents work together to identify development goals and then align existing organization programs and community resources to support them. 

Locally, the Northside Achievement Zone and the St. Paul Promise Neighborhood follow this model.  These two efforts, modeled after the successful Harlem Children’s Zone, set out the goal of making sure that all children within their geographic zones are ready for college.  Working with their communities, they have identified and aligned programs, services, and support to help families achieve the collective goal.

While this model of potluck development ensures that diners have a full meal, unless it is paired with a rigorous process of identifying and cultivating community assets it can result in the equivalent of a meal that includes my crummy salad but is missing a great lemon pie.

By Andy Barnett, Director of Community Development, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

This is the third in a series of blogs explaining community development through potluck metaphors.

The following reviews the work of the 3M C.A.R.E.S. Habitat for Humanity Project, a group of 3M retirees that has volunteered with Twin Cities Habitat for 16 years.

In early 2011, we completed the houses from the Carter build of October 2010. In April, we built walls for the upcoming work camp, starting our camp in mid-May on a five- unit townhome building in Woodbury’s Garden Gate development. In October, we reverted back to the Tuesday and Thursday schedule and continued working there through the year’s end.

 Here’s a quick recap of what we accomplished last year:
125 - Volunteers
23,584 - Volunteer hours
2,080 - Hours 3M employees volunteered during work camp
$21,250 - 3M Volunteer Matches for Twin Cities Habitat
$218,000 – Contribution by philanthropic 3M retired executives


These are all very factual statements about our results from 2011.  The more important aspects of what happened can't be measured with numbers.  We developed many good friendships among 3M retirees, 3M employees and the new homeowners. We had many laughs and jokes (some good and many bad), and no one can even estimate their impact.  We learned new things every day on the job site - such as how to cut sheetrock a half-inch short so it fits on the first try. We helped provide quality affordable housing for society and improve neighborhoods. We helped families become first-time homeowners as they moved out of the cycle of poverty. What a great deal!

During the last 16 years, we have built a total of 51 homes and done substantial work on 90 others. In 2012, we will work on finishing the Garden Gate building and refurbishing the Baily’s Arbor townhomes we build in 2006 and 2007.

See you on the job site,
John Winters, 3M C.A.R.E.S.

NeighborWorks America recently issued a report, prepared by the Urban Institute. This report finds that Foreclosure Counseling, through a NeighborWorks Certified Housing Counselor, can double the chances of a borrower receiving a mortgage modification AND can reduce the likelihood of re-default by 67%. Yes, this is a pretty massive claim. Being a Housing Counselor myself, it all makes sense to me and I will tell you why.

We have all heard the saying “knowledge is power." The first thing any good counselor does is educate the borrower on the foreclosure process and the options available to them.

Counselors will provide borrowers with tips on everything from filling out paperwork to how to talk to their lenders. They will walk through financial tips and put together a realistic budget. This makes it much easier for the borrower to determine what an affordable payment is, in order to avoid falling behind again in the future. And it doesn’t end there; Foreclosure Prevention Housing Counselors have access to a multitude of referrals, in order to provide borrowers with solutions/assistance with all of the struggles that may have caused them to fall behind on their mortgage and end up in our office, i.e. employment, legal and home repair resources.

This foundation of knowledge can empower a borrower who otherwise may have avoided calls from the lender or entered into an unaffordable repayment plan, just to fall behind again six months later. They now have the tools to discuss possible solutions with their lender and find a long-term/sustainable resolution, all the while knowing they have a strong organization (in our case, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity) standing behind them. 

If you're going through foreclosure, you have options; know that there are Foreclosure Prevention Housing Counselors out there ready to help!

If you are interested in learning more about Twin Cities Habitat's Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Program, please click here or call us at 612-331-4090 ext. 3.

Read the full NeighborWorks America press release here.

By Haley Wotzka, NeighborWorks Certified Foreclosure Prevention Counselor, Twin Cities Habitat

Today, Twin Cities Habitat and other housing/homeless partners hosted a training session with the purpose of tackling some of the hardest topics regarding affordable housing. With the legislative session starting in just a week, it is important that advocates are able to talk to their legislators about bonding, tax increment financing and other issues with as much ease as possible.

Twin Cities Habitat and its partners are making bonding for housing a priority this legislative session. There are two different types of bonding: general obligation (GO) bonds and appropriations (revenue) bonds. General obligation bonds are how we do most of the bonding in our state and must be paid by general fund dollars through the debt service, while appropriations bonds do not.

Why is this important for affordable housing? Money in appropriations bonds can help preserve existing federally subsidized rental housing and help with rehabilitation of permanent supportive housing. Ultimately, these bonds would provide affordable housing to 31,000 low- and moderate-income Minnesota households. Currently, most public housing is between 25 and 35 years old. Money in GO bonds would help to preserve this housing and provide an affordable to home to 36,000 Minnesotans.

Ultimately, it was a fitting day to discuss bonding due to the fact that Gov. Dayton held a press conference outlining his bonding requests, including $25 million in appropriation bonds and $7 million in General Obligation (GO) bonds. Please take the time to call Gov. Dayton’s office and thank them for the money they requested for affordable housing. This is great news, but we must continue to speak with our state lawmakers and make sure they put adequate money for affordable housing in their bonding bill!

By Brittany Richardson, Government Relations Intern, Twin Cities Habitat

In one type of potluck, the host provides the main dish and asks the other diners to supply sides, dessert, and the like. We see this arrangement often in development work as well. A typical example would be when a city works to attract a new business to a community. That new business—the economic impact and the jobs created—is the main course and becomes a centerpiece around which residents and organizations can arrange workforce development, housing, education, and other development priorities and community assets. A local example of the partially-catered community development potluck is the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line. This massive public infrastructure investment has set a huge table around which many communities can gather.

There are drawbacks to this model of potluck development. First, unless the host knows her guests well, there is the chance that they could serve a main course that the guests aren’t interested in eating. Second, if my best dish is a main course, I may not know what to bring if someone else is supplying that. Third, a single main course means less diversity in the total meal. Finally, the host needs confidence that guests will still bring their dish to the table to round out the meal.

This is the second in a series of blogs comparing community development to potlucks.
By Andy Barnett, Director of Community Development, Twin Cities Habitat