CITI AWARDS $50,000 TO URBAN EDGE FOR FORECLOSURE COUNSELING
Urban Edge’s Foreclosure Prevention program now has the capacity to serve 30% more at-risk Boston-area homeowners thanks to funding from Citi. Urban Edge is one of 25 organizations nationwide receiving $50,000 each in funding from the Citi Office of Homeownership Preservation to support innovative foreclosure prevention programs. The funding will cover the cost of two Suffolk University law student interns to work at Urban Edge as foreclosure prevention counselors through 2009. The program’s legal internship model was developed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Public and Community Affairs Division and Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH), a community development corporation (CDC) serving Boston’s East Boston neighborhood.
Patrick Burke is a graduate of Lafayette College who was a paralegal at Pfizer and interned at the King’s County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, New York. Kira Gagarin earned her BA at Brandeis, clerked at two local law firms and was an intern at the Irish Immigration Center. They bring additional language fluency to Urban Edge, where counseling is available in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean Creole and Russian as well as in English. Both interns attended training at the Federal Reserve and are now seeing clients and working 15 hours per week at Urban Edge’s Jackson Square, Roxbury office.
Susanne Cameron, Massachusetts State Director of Citi Community Relations, was pleased with Urban Edge’s selection to represent Boston in this national initiative and commented that “Urban Edge is the ideal choice for this initiative given its successful track record in a variety of homebuyer programs and its effectiveness in foreclosure prevention efforts in Boston.”
Urban Edge CEO Chrystal Kornegay described the work of the Urban Edge staff as very demanding with homeowners coming in seven days a week, often late into the evening. “While we can’t help everyone who comes to us,” Kornegay said, “this award will allow us to help many more people facing the loss of the biggest asset in their life.”
Bob Credle, Urban Edge’s Director of Community Programs who oversees the foreclosure prevention program, welcomed the award and the additional counseling capacity. “During 2008, Urban Edge assisted 78 households to avoid foreclosure and keep their homes,” according to Credle. “With the additional capacity made possible with the Citi grant Urban Edge will be able to help more than 100 households keep their homes in 2009,” he said.
URBAN EDGE RECEIVES $50,000 GRANT FROM THE HOME DEPOT FOUNDATION
Grant to Fund Innovative Solar/Thermal Hot Water System for Affordable Housing Development
Urban Edge, a Roxbury-based community development corporation, today announced that it has received a $50,000 grant from The Home Depot Foundation to help support the “green” renovation of Jamaica Plain Apartments, a 103-unit affordable multi-family housing development in Jamaica Plain and Dorchester.
The money received will be used to purchase and install a state-of the-art solar-thermal hot water system at 78-84 Stoughton/96 Sumner Street in the Uphams Corner section of Dorchester. The new system will supply up to 80% of the residents’ hot water needs, will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and the property’s operating expenses, and will lessen the impact of the building on the environment. Urban Edge will be able to test the feasibility of installing solar/thermal systems on the rest of its 1100-unit affordable housing portfolio, and others in the affordable housing community will benefit from its experience.
“We’re so happy to have the Home Depot Foundation support our Green Affordable Housing Renovation agenda through this generous grant, and we know the residents are, too” said Zoe Weinrobe, Urban Edge’s Project Manager for the Jamaica Plain Apartments renovation.
“The Home Depot Foundation is proud to be a funding partner of Urban Edge,” said Kelly Caffarelli, president of The Home Depot Foundation. “Our Foundation supports organizations that build affordable, healthy homes for working families. By forming a partnership with Urban Edge, we are furthering our shared mission of improving the health of local communities.
Academy Homes I Sends Big Contingent to Inauguration
January 28, 2009 — One early indication that the crowd in Washington would be huge for the inauguration of President Barack Obama was the number who signed up for the bus trip organized by the Tenants’ Council of Academy Homes I in Roxbury: 168 people boarded three motor coaches near midnight on January 19 for the overnight journey to be witness to history in the nation’s capital. Thanks to help with publicity from Charles Clemons of Touch 106.1 FM, residents of other Boston neighborhoods and other towns heard about the trip and were welcomed by the Academy I leaders. The affordable $25 cost was made possible with funding support from the Tenants’ Council treasury.
Bus captains Arnitha McGee, Mary Brown and Dorothy Haskins provisioned the buses with food and water, movies, games and gifts to make the 29-hour round trip comfortable for riders aged 4 to 80. Several families had three or four generations represented--one family alone sent 20 members--to make sure that seniors who know the past shared the experience with children who will see the future.
When the buses arrived near the Capitol building on Tuesday morning, small groups formed to make their ways to the locations of their choice. Ms. Haskins and Ms. McGee had arranged for Silver tickets for standing room on the Mall and for invitations to a reception hosted by the offices of Senators Kennedy and Kerry. The group that chose to stay warm and attend the reception saw the Inaugural events on TVs. All were sad to hear about Senator Kennedy’s seizure at the Inaugural lunch and missed his presence.
Whether indoors or out, on the Mall with the millions or gathered around a television, the Academy I travelers were up close to history with people around the world. On 12th Street as the noon hour approached, Dorothy Haskins’ group met an English couple with two children. Unable to get onto the Mall, everyone huddled around the English couple’s tiny radio to listen to the Inaugural program and to cry and cheer together.
“The love that the people had still brings tears to my eyes”, Ms. Haskins declared a week after the event. “I’ve never seen it before.”
Back at the Roxbury development at 4:30 AM on January 21st, the travelers embraced and carried home the history they had seen and made together.
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