For our upcoming 25th Anniversary Video, we are asking for your help in showing the world the many faces of HAND. We invite you and your team to show your HAND spirit by submitting a “We Are HAND!” clip for our 25th Anniversary!
Send us a short video of you (or you and your team), smile into the camera and say: “We are (name of your organization) of (state) and we are HAND!”
Just that simple…and you could be featured in the HAND 25th Anniversary video premiering at our 2016 Annual Meeting & Housing Expo on June 21st!
For more information and a short ‘how-to’, click here!
HAND’s Housing Achievement Awards recognize the most outstanding and innovative housing practitioners, developments and solutions across the metropolitan region. All members are encouraged to nominate a partner – or apply themselves!
Top four reasons why you should nominate a HAND member TODAY:
1. A Chance to Celebrate with a 25-Year Old
HAND is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year. What better way to honor a partner or be recognized for your contribution to the region than during our big birthday celebration?! Since its inception, HAND has been a thriving force in supporting various practitioners and developers in the industry. Being honored the year HAND celebrates its legacy will be a landmark event not to be missed!
2. It’s a Great Time to Shine
Did we mention winners receive a beautiful glass award and a chance to see their name in lights? While the work we do is self-rewarding, winning a HAND Housing Award is a great feeling. During the 2016 Annual Meeting & Housing Expo, awardees are honored in front of 1200+ colleagues and partners. It’s also an excellent opportunity for a nominator to highlight organizations, partners and colleagues who have exhibited noteworthy accomplishments…. but wait, there’s more! Awardees receive a complimentary table for 10, an exhibit booth, promotion in our Annual Meeting marketing materials and press coordinated for the event! Some categories are even open for self-nomination – click here to find out which ones.
3. There’s Something for Everyone
This year we’ve added the new “Emerging Leader” category to align with HAND’s focus on supporting the next generation of community development leaders. The individual that receives this award will go down in HAND history as the first-ever awardee! Who’s eligible? Agents of change under the age of 40 and who have proven an exemplary dedication to the mission of preserving and/or developing affordable housing in their respective field. Find out more about this exciting new award category and the other award opportunities.
4. It’s FREE
Who doesn’t love free? As a HAND member, there are no additional costs associated in nominating yourself – or a colleague or partner – for these sought after awards. Nominate someone today!
Read more about all of the HAND Housing Award categories and download the 2016 application. Applications must be submitted electronically by Friday, April 1, 2016, 5:00 PM to be considered.
December 1st10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
5424 Addison Road
Fairmont Heights, Md.
Housing Initiative Partnership invites you to join them as they celebrate the completion of Prince George’s County’s first “passive house”, designed for energy efficiency. This prototype home is designed to be affordable to lower income home owners. The home was designed by David Peabody of Peabody Architects in partnership with Brendan O’Neill of O’Neill Development. Modular construction was completed by Beracah Homes.
A passive house incorporates design standards that emphasize energy efficiency through an airtight building envelope, superior insulation, high performance windows, and an orientation that takes advantage of solar gain in the winter. Given this construction, minimal heating and cooling systems are necessary.
They hope their “lessons learned” can serve to drive down costs on future passive homes, eventually making this a model of sustainability.
Thanks to Maryland DHCD and Prince George’s DHCD for funding the development of this project. Now we’re ready to market to a qualified low-income home buyer who will appreciate low energy bills for years to come!
You can follow progress on this passive house by checking David Peabody’s blog at Peabody Architects.
APAH’s Holiday Gift Drive kicks off this month! Last year they gave gifts to more than 350 children thanks to their generous donors. This year they are again providing special gifts to children, which parents can come to select from donated items.
Donors have the flexibility to:
1) Donate gifts amounting to $25 each (see below.)
2) Contribute Gift cards
3) Or make a monetary contribution to APAH of any amount (Designated to the: Holiday Gift Drive)
Individuals, groups and/or organizations who are interested in participating should contact Emily Button at ebutton@apah.org or 703-276-7444 ext 115 no later than December 1st, 2015
Donations may be brought to Arlington Mill Residences at 901 S. Dinwiddie St. on their designated collection day, Saturday, December 5th, from 8am-2pm. If it is not possible to bring collections on this day please contact organizers above to make alternative arrangements for drop off.
Each gift should amount to $25*
Suggested Items for Ages 0-10:
Toys
Board Games
Puzzles
Books
Arts and Crafts
Building Sets
Learning/Educational
Sports Equipment
Suggested Items for Ages 11-18:
Arts & Crafts
Books
Board Games
Learning/Educational
Sports Equipment
Hygiene Accessories:
Girls: makeup, hair accessories, nail polish, lotion, fragrances
Boys: shaving stuff, lotion, fragrances
Retail gift cards: Recommend gift cards for department / variety stores accessible to residents i.e. Target
*Please avoid donating clothing, electronics or used items. Multicultural gifts are appreciated
By Lisa A. Sturtevant, PhD
This summer, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the final Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule that lays out a new process (replacing the analysis of impediments) and provides a new assessment tool so that localities and states can better identify potential fair housing issues and develop solutions. Under the new rule, cities, counties and other entities that receive HUD funding will be required to use local data—including both data provided by HUD and locally-generated data—to assess areas of concentrated poverty, identify disparities in access to opportunity and evaluate unmet housing needs among certain defined subpopulations, including racial and ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities. As a result of this analysis, jurisdictions are required to identify the local (and potentially regional) factors that have contributed to the patterns of housing disparities and develop approaches for breaking down these disparities.
Local jurisdictions that receive more than $500,000 in CDBG funding are among the first that will be required to follow the new AFFH rules. These jurisdictions must submit a new five-year consolidated plan under the new rule on or after January 1, 2017. Many local jurisdictions in the Washington D.C. region will be among the first wave.
The release of the final AFFH rule comes on the heels of the Supreme Court decision earlier this year affirming a lower courts’ decision that local data on race and income can be used to show that housing and land use policies have had discriminatory effects – even if the policies were not intentionally discriminatory. The so-called “disparate impact” decision brings increased attention to local zoning regulations that may have led to segregation by race and income. Thus, the new AFFH rule will likely have implications for local land use and zoning decisions. While HUD continues to believe that land use and zoning regulations are local issues, the new AFFH rule emphasizes that local land use and zoning practices that violate fair housing or other civil rights laws are a Federal concern. The new rule may also affect the ways in which tax credits are allocated. While the distribution of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) are generally managed through a state qualified action plan (QAP) process, the AFFH rule brings increased Federal attention to the ways in which the QAP process promotes fair housing.
The AFFH rulemaking process has been on-going for several years. Many organizations—including the National Housing Conference and Enterprise Community Partners—have submitted comments about the rule and the associated fair housing assessment tool. As a result of numerous comments, HUD made several changes to the rule issued this summer.
Despite the improvements, there are still significant concerns about the implementation of the AFFH rule. Of particular concern is the amount of time, resources and expertise that will be required by local officials to complete the process. HUD has estimated that it will take a local jurisdiction 240 hours to complete its assessment of fair housing, but that is likely an underestimate of the time needed to develop meaningful strategies for meeting fair housing goals.
In addition, the new process requires more specialized knowledge and research expertise to prepare the submission. Many jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C. region have highly skilled planning and housing staff; however, smaller jurisdictions and agencies that have faced cuts recently may be especially burdened. Local jurisdictions that are already short staffed will either have to divert time and resources to the new process or will have to hire outside consultants to help with the submission.
Key to the new fair housing assessment tool are the local data and maps that HUD is making available to all local jurisdictions. The tool includes maps and data tables of race/ethnicity, national origin and limited English proficiency, disability type, age, sex, and families with children. HUD has also stated that local jurisdictions will be encouraged to make use of locally-generated data to supplement or even replace the HUD-provided data. There are concerns about the data piece of the assessment tool. Some of the most relevant data are very limited, including data on the LIHTC program and housing for persons with disabilities. The data are based on estimates from the most recent five-year American Community Survey file, which could provide an outdated look at the demographics of a fast-growing jurisdiction. Furthermore, the final rule has been unclear about the types of local data that will be required. While the data provided by HUD are helpful, there is a lot more information needed to understand how to use the HUD-provided data and what locally-generated data will be required for the new fair housing assessment process.
Finally, the new rule allows local jurisdictions to prepare a joint or regional fair housing assessment, which could lead to greater cooperation and a better approach to meeting housing needs. However, the new rule offers no specific incentives to take a regional approach to the assessment. If individual jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C. region produce individual fair housing assessments under the new AFFH rule, the region misses out on an important opportunity to strengthen regional cooperation on housing issues.
More information will be coming out on the AFFH and fair housing assessment tool from HUD, as well as from Enterprise, NHC and other housing organizations. In the near term, however, local jurisdictions in the Washington, D.C. region can start discussing the new rule and sharing information now so that they will be prepared when it comes time to develop the new fair housing assessments:
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Payments: Orders placed on the event registration page are not confirmed until payment is received. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you paid by credit card, a receipt will be sent to the email address listed in your registration. If you mail a check, all payments must be received within seven days of completing your registration form. Checks should be remitted to: HAND, PO Box 48386, Washington, DC 20002
Guest List & Dietary Preference: If your registration includes a luncheon table or multiple guests, please submit guest names and menu choices by May 1, 2020. Submit guest names here.
Housing Expo: Plan to exhibit? Download the Housing Expo FAQs here.
Omni Shoreham Hotel Room Block: For attendees looking to secure overnight accommodations on May 25th, HAND has secured a rate starting at $189 for conference attendees. There are a limited amount of rooms available, so visit this link today to reserve your room. May 10th is the last day to secure a room at the discounted rate.
Ad Submission: The artwork for advertisements should be submitted to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. You can download the ad spec sheet here. Deadline for ad submission is April 13, 2020.
Cancellations & Changes: If you wish to cancel or change your registration for the Annual Meeting & Housing Expo, please send a request in writing to annualmeeting@handhousing.org. All cancellation requests made prior to April 27th will receive a 50% refund. For cancellation requests made after April 27th, no refund will be provided.
Door Prizes: Are you interested in donating a door prize to this year’s Annual Meeting? Email annualmeeting@handhousing.org to coordinate with our team.
Mailing Address:
HAND
1330 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Suite 124
Washington, DC 20036
info@handhousing.org
202.384.3764
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