Title:Ben Frost on How HOME Provides Vital Funding to New Hampshire Communities
بن فراست، مدیر امور عمومی و حقوقی مسکن نیوهمپشایر، امیلی پاسی از APA را تکمیل می کند که چرا بودجه های برنامه مشارکت سرمایه گذاری خانگی (HOME) که ایالت دریافت می کند برای مسکن کم درآمد بسیار حیاتی است. او همچنین به دیگر برنامه‌ریزان می‌گوید که چگونه به نمایندگان کنگره‌شان تأثیری را که صندوق‌های کمک مالی بلوک توسعه خانه و جامعه (CDBG) در ایالت‌هایشان می‌گذارد نشان دهند. برای کسب اطلاعات بیشتر در مورد خط مشی و تلاش های حمایتی APA، به این سایت مراجعه کنید https://www.planning.org/policy/. (برچسب‌ها ترجمه) انجمن برنامه‌ریزی آمریکایی
قسمتی از متن فیلم: Hi I’m Emily posi with the American Planning Association and I’m joined today by Ben frost Ben is a member of EPA’s legislative and policy committee and he’s also the director of legal and public affairs for New Hampshire Housing then it’s great to have you here today
Thank you so want to start off with a question about President Trump’s recent skinny budget for the FY 2018 fiscal year and he’s proposed the wholesale elimination of CDBG Community Development Block Grants and the home investment partnership program or home I know in in your community you do a lot
Of work with home tell me a little bit about that and what that would mean for the families of your community well New Hampshire Housing is State Housing Finance Agency and we’re the recipient of the statewide allocation so we receive a state minimum of three million dollars of home funding every year which
We use exclusively to finance low-income housing rental construction so we don’t we don’t own the buildings that we finance but we use it use home primarily as a as gap-filler so when we’re presented with a deal that is using say low-income housing tax credit program
Which is the bulk of the financing for a project and it doesn’t quite have enough capital in it we use home to fill those gaps and so home is is really a vital resource in helping deals come to fruition that would not otherwise get built and so those deals are are built
So that people living in our state who are low-income whether they’re disabled or elderly or simply working in low income jobs have a place to live so home really makes this stuff happen can you think of any specific stories in New Hampshire that come to mind when you
Think of home and how it’s helped to fill that stopgap gap funding sure well in in New Hampshire we have a lot of existing old structures old mill buildings you know recognize that New Hampshire the textile capital of the world in the 19th century a lot of those buildings
Have been waiting for for future uses so we have specialized in working with the developers to rehabilitate the structures and turn them into rental housing and whom has been a really critical resource for that so for example in our North Country city of Berlin there was an old high school that
Was a Notre Dame high school it was one of these derelict buildings that had plywood on the sides of the buildings and it was a big structure in the center of town so whom and what along with other resources was used to rehabilitate that and create elderly housing which
Was a really a much-needed resource in Berlin which is a fairly low income community and the south end of the state in the city of Nashua there was this beautiful old mill building called the cotton mill that a private developer had his eyes on he tried to make it work
Several different ways but then found that he could do a mixed market rate in low-income housing development using the tax credit using CDBG and using the home investment partnership program and without that those things wouldn’t have happened it would not have happened well so you’re you’re very lucky and in New
Hampshire you enjoy having two senators senators Shaheen and Hasson who are supportive of very supportive of these programs and have actually criticised in in recent weeks president Trump’s proposal to cut these programs completely I guess what sort of advice do you have for planners who are from congressional districts or states who
Don’t enjoy that kind of support of these vital community development block block programs that’s true we we’re really lucky to have such strong support in our entire congressional delegation for the programs that we administer in New Hampshire are dealing with with housing for low-income people and senators Shaheen and Hasson have been
Really powerful advocates for us both in their roles as state legislators because they were both governors before they became senators and now in the US Senate what we have found though is that it’s really important to get the members of Congress out when there back in state when they’re back in the
District get them out to sites to both see what the federal money is being used to do but also to meet with their constituents who are the direct beneficiaries of this funding and so this is what the taxpayer dollars are going to do to help these people who
Really need a decent place to live beyond that I think it’s really important to develop a good and positive relationship with the congressional staff so each member of Congress has staff that’s both in in DC and in state and you really need to work with them develop a personal relationship with
Them and so that when when you have a ask of your member of Congress you’re talking with a staff member who will then communicate that that ask in a positive time to the member sounds like fantastic advice for our many planning advocates out there Ben thank you so
Much for today it’s been my pleasure thank you you’re welcome for more information about getting involved in advocacy with the American Planning Association visit planning org backslash policy I’m Emily Posey with EPA thank you
ID: 04voDkUFyos
Time: 1505763196
Date: 2017-09-19 00:03:16
Duration: 00:05:42
