CLPHA Press Room

From ABC 10 Sacramento:

The city of Sacramento is breaking ground on a new housing development for people transitioning out of homelessness.

It's called Northview Pointe and it's located in North Sacramento, off Northgate Boulevard near Garden Highway.

Set to open summer 2024, Northview Pointe will eventually be able to house about 100 people. It will include wraparound services to support people as they transition out of homelessness.

That’s as there are more than 9,200 people experiencing homelessness county wide.

La Shelle Dozier, executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, said projects like Northview Pointe are crucial.

"Until we create more housing, until we make sure there are projects like this one that has all of the wraparound services and all the amenities people need so that they can be successful in housing, then we're going to continue to find ourselves in the predicament that we are today,” she said at Monday’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Read ABC 10 Sacramento's article "Why permanent supportive housing in Sacramento is so important," featuring the Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency.

From HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Newsletter:

Through Choice Neighborhoods, the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver (DHA) created a unique fresh foods market in a former food desert. Decatur Fresh Market opened in November 2021 on the ground floor of DHA’s first housing phase. In addition to becoming the community’s main grocery shopping venue, it has transformed into a bustling hub of activity for residents, youth, and drop-ins looking for cup of coffee or that hard-to-find, international food item.

With strategic planning and decision making, the DHA Team has not only established access to fresh foods, but it has also honored residents’ ethnic diversity by stocking culturally relevant foods and created new job opportunities for residents.

Responding to a Need

Denver’s Sun Valley Choice Neighborhood, home to some of the City’s most vulnerable residents, is a multi-ethnic community rich in culture and diversity, where over 28 languages are spoken, and 33 different cultural backgrounds are represented. In 2013, when the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver (DHA) was first awarded its Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant, the Sun Valley neighborhood was a food desert, with the closest grocery store over 2 miles away. Residents were forced to turn to the local 7-Eleven minimart, where options were limited and fresh food was scarce, and had to travel two to three bus routes for culturally relevant food options. In addition to impacting basic health and nutrition, food scarcity and lack of variety limited the residents’ ability to share their cultures and connect with their neighbors through the simple pleasures of food.

As part of the larger Choice Neighborhoods FY13 Planning Grant visioning process, DHA and its partners administered several surveys on food needs within the community. They heard loud and clear the need for increased food access and employment opportunities. The Denver Team listened to its residents, creating a vision within its Planning Grant that evolved into a formal Critical Community Improvement (CCI) strategy for its $30 million FY16 Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant. Their strategy included three interconnected food initiatives – Decatur Fresh Market, the neighborhood’s own fresh food market; the community’s Grow Garden, a partnership with Denver’s botanic gardens; and a soon to be launched Food Business Incubator – to address food insecurity and bring economic opportunity and mobility into the community.

Strategic Launch of the Decatur Fresh Market

Originally DHA published a Request for Proposal (RFP) for operators to apply and broadcasted the RFP throughout the metropolitan area. However, several proposals came in that didn’t appear to meet the needs of the community and were not focused on residents. DHA already had prior experience overseeing operations for a food service enterprise and running job training programs through the Youth Employment Academy (YEA).

YEA oversees the Osage Café, located within a separate redevelopment site. While YEA is a standalone nonprofit whose board members are independent, DHA maintains a management agreement with YEA and provides staffing. Given their proven track record at the Osage Cafe, DHA decided the best option was to operate Decatur Fresh through YEA. They envisioned Decatur Fresh Market functioning as a community space, social enterprise, and training program. So, in 2020 DHA pivoted, and decided to have their nonprofit affiliate, YEA launch the market. This strategic partnership would also open multiple avenues for funding outside of store sales, including grants, fundraising, and donations. These funds would help support overhead and operations costs, enabling them to keep food costs low for the community.

DHA’s Opening and Keys to Operational Success

In conjunction with the opening of the first phase of revitalized mixed-income housing in Sun Valley, Decatur Fresh Market opened an 1,800-square-foot storefront. DHA purposefully chose this timing to make an impact on the community and demonstrate their deep commitment to immediately addressing the community’s critical food insecurity needs. DHA attributes the Market’s current success to several key factors:1) hiring the right staff, 2) participating in the SNAP/EBT Double Up Food Bucks food program, 3) strategically sourcing fresh produce and 4) remaining responsive to community needs.

Decatur Fresh Market was strategic in its hiring. The Market employs a rotating staff of six, all of whom except the manager, are Sun Valley residents who promote the store throughout the community. Their manager, a former DHA employee—who brings over 20 years’ experience in supermarket retail—has provided invaluable knowledge in ordering, stocking, and strategically locating goods throughout the market.

DHA participates in the SNAP/EBT Double Up Food Bucks fresh food program, through which shoppers using SNAP, or food stamps, receive a dollar-for-dollar match on the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables. This expanding program, establish in 2009 by Fair Food Network and currently offered in dozens of states, is critical to a neighborhood highly reliant on food stamps.

Decatur Fresh Market hosts a free lunch and snack program for the local elementary children in conjunction with Healthy Food and Denver’s Kid/DHA partnership.

In 2022, DHA sourced more than 5,000 pounds of fresh produce directly from DHA’s own Grow Garden, or though purchasing produce wholesale from other local markets. They also launched a farmers’ market just outside the store to allow for constantly accessible and rotating fresh produce.

The Market’s approach to tailoring itself to meet community needs has also contributed to their success. Staff piloted certain products and shifted inventory based on consumer preferences and shopping patterns. In addition to fresh food and other household products, Decatur Fresh Market carries international, culturally relevant food and spices and has set aside a space for resident-made merchandise for sale. They even sell a low-priced move-in care package with items like a mop, broom, trash bin, and towels for recent arrivals to the neighborhood.

Providing Economic Opportunity and Mobility

Just as important as addressing food access and insecurity, Decatur Fresh Market functions as a workforce development and education center for the neighborhood. In addition to hiring Sun Valley residents for all its front-line staff, Decatur Fresh Market offers youth internship opportunities through YEA’s Customer Service and Retail Management Program. 

The market also offers opportunities for resident youth entrepreneurs through their Arts and Creative Industries to make and sell merchandise. Lastly, Decatur Fresh Market partners with Bold Beans, another local Denver social enterprise, to offer barista training to young women. Decatur Fresh Market fulfills the goals articulated by residents throughout the Planning Grant process by offering fresh food and integrating job training and employment opportunities throughout its business model.

Bringing High Hopes for the Future

Decatur Fresh Market’s success has set the stage for the third CCI food initiative, the Food Business Incubator, scheduled to be launched in late 2024. The Incubator will consist of a commissary kitchen space and five kiosks within a food hall, where entrepreneurs can rent a space for $50 per month for up to 2 years to launch a food business. Entrepreneurs will be provided culinary and business management support services, with the goal of eventually graduating to full-fledged businesses like food trucks, catering businesses, or formal restaurants. In addition to promoting economic opportunity for local entrepreneurs, each kiosk is projected to create three to five jobs, plus additional food service jobs throughout the commissary kitchen space.

Denver’s Successful Food Initiatives Bring It All Together

DHA’s intentional use of CCI funds for their fresh food initiatives have proven to be a solid example of how to tie together Choice Neighborhoods’ objectives related to people, housing, and neighborhood. DHA’s Decatur Fresh Market provides access to fresh foods and specialty items, offers new employment opportunities, and creates a brand-new community amenity that will serve original residents and attract new residents to the neighborhood. Further, by bringing culturally relevant food directly to the community, Decatur Fresh Market has facilitated a natural pathway for sharing cultures, building community, and breaking down barriers within the community.

From Brinshore's press release:

Brookwood at Antioch, the 66-unit mixed-income development in the Chaumiere neighborhood of Kansas City’s Northland will celebrate its ribbon cutting on March 31, 2023, as the sixth phase of Brinshore Development, the Housing Authority of Kansas City, Missouri (HAKC), and the City of Kansas City, Missouri’s (City) Choice Neighborhoods (CNI) revitalization effort.

Brookwood at Antioch is the sixth development sparked by a$30 million Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CNI grant provided to HAKC and the City of Kansas City, MO in 2015.

A partnership of Brinshore Development, LLC and Affordable Housing of Kansas City, Inc. (HAKC’s affordable housing development arm), in close collaboration with the City, and United Way of Greater Kansas City, Brookwood at Antioch will deliver housing to households across the income spectrum: from families coming from public housing to market-rate renters. The development will include 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-bedroom units in townhomes and flats. As part of the CNI project, twenty-six of the units will have a preference at lease-up for former residents of the Chouteau Courts housing development. All units regardless of affordability are indistinguishable from one another and interspersed throughout the development. Brookwood at Antioch will also be certified bronze through the National Green Building System rating system. “We are extremely excited to open another choice for affordable housing in Kansas City. This is a unique opportunity to serve the needs of families in a location well-served by public transportation, shopping, and quality schools,” said Edwin Lowndes, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City, MO.

Read Brinshore's press release.

From Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's press release:

Mayor Michelle Wu today announced that Councilor Kenzie Bok will serve as the next Administrator of the Boston Housing Authority (BHA), the public agency charged with providing affordable housing to more than 62,000 Boston residents. Bok will begin a transition period next month before current Administrator Kate Bennett steps down later this summer.
 
“The Boston Housing Authority has been a lifeline for generations of Boston families, and in this moment of housing crisis, the BHA must be a model for housing as health, safety, opportunity, and community,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “Kenzie brings a deep commitment to our BHA communities along with an expansive vision of how public housing should anchor our neighborhoods and city—I’m thrilled for her leadership and look forward to building on the strong foundation set under Kate’s stewardship by the entire BHA team. We are all so grateful for Kate’s decades of service to our residents and work to ensure a smooth transition over the coming months.” 
 
“Public housing is a public good, and all of Boston benefits when our public housing communities are strong,” said Kenzie Bok, incoming BHA Administrator. “I’m so excited to return to BHA to put our residents and voucher-holders at the heart of everything our City does, by providing safe high-quality housing for every family and by ensuring the best access to jobs, services, and all the opportunities Boston has to offer. To truly have a City for all, we have to boldly invest at the local, state, and federal levels in the BHA housing that continues to anchor so many of our communities. I was lucky to learn from my predecessors in this role, Kate Bennett and Bill McGonagle, that residents come first at BHA, and I’m looking forward to working with Kate over the coming transition to continue that essential focus.” 
 
Prior to her election to represent District 8 on the City Council in 2019, Bok was the Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning at the BHA. In that role, she spearheaded the BHA’s efforts to vary the subsidy amount of federal housing vouchers by ZIP code. Previously, all voucher recipients received the same subsidy regardless of where they were applying to live in the Greater Boston area. The change has allowed for significantly greater flexibility for voucher recipients in deciding where they want to live and continues to be an impactful program today.
 
In 2016, Bok helped lead the successful ballot initiative campaign to enact the Community Preservation Act (CPA) in Boston, which has generated tens of millions of dollars for affordable housing in the City. She has also held community leadership roles in various local organizations, including the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) and the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance (MAHA). After graduating from Harvard College, Bok earned an M.Phil and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Cambridge in England as a Marshall Scholar, and formerly taught courses at Harvard on housing justice.
 
Bok will replace outgoing Administrator Kate Bennett, who was appointed to the role in 2020 after previously serving as Senior Deputy Administrator and various roles in the BHA since 1998. Bennett has helped oversee the capital improvements at the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments in Jamaica Plain, the Choice Neighborhoods revitalization at the Whittier Street public housing development in Roxbury, the redevelopment of Orient Heights in East Boston, and the Bunker Hill redevelopment in Charlestown. Under Bennett’s leadership, the BHA remains resident-centric and has cemented itself as a nationally recognized leader in innovation, environmental safety, and redevelopment work. Bennett has worked in affordable housing development, policy and planning for more than 25 years, with a particular focus on public housing revitalization. Prior to joining the BHA, she managed affordable housing programs for the City of Chelsea and the City of Newton. 
 
“I am delighted that Councilor Bok will become the next Administrator at the BHA,” said Kate Bennett, current BHA Administrator. “She is the right person to take BHA to the next level. She is passionate about the Authority and its mission, she knows our staff and residents, and she is a brilliant housing advocate.”

From Islander Media Group, Inc.:

"Home" is the perfect setting for Miami-Dade County's new director of the Public Housing and Community Development Department.

Alex R. Ballina was officially introduced during the recent Board of County Commission meeting by Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who said "he brings tremendous experience to the job."

Ballina, born in South Miami and a graduate of Florida International University, has more than 20 years of experience in successfully developing affordable housing and administering multi-family properties across the public and private sectors.

Throughout his career, he has administered more than $1.5 billion in assets and managed programs for over 25,000 multi-family units and 50,000 residents throughout the United States.

He also has held numerous executive positions within the County's Public Housing and Community Development Department; the City of Miami Beach Housing & Community Development Department; and Prudential Real Estate Services.

Ballina currently sits on the Miami-Dade County Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board and the Naranja Lakes CRA Board, and is Chairman of the Workforce Housing Group for the Builders Association of South Florida.

Read Islander Media Group's article "County makes major move to upgrade affordable housing initiatives with move of Alex R. Ballina," featuring the Miami-Dade Public Housing and Community Development Department.