North East Housing Initiative

The North East Housing Initiative, Inc. (NEHI) received a $15,000.00 grant from the Catholic Campaign for the Human Development for the Economic Development (CCHD) Program.

The data collected for us by Morgan State University’s School of Architecture and Planning underscored the need for permanently affordable housing in North East Baltimore. For example, the average household gross income in NE Baltimore meets the federal government’s definition of low income, while 86% of the elderly population is considered “very low income” and most of these people spend 50% or more of their income on housing.

After attending meetings of many surrounding community associations, canvassing the neighborhoods, holding public forums--and with the advice of the University of Maryland Law Clinic—NEHI decided to from a land trust because we determined it to be the best tool to not only tackle the housing problem but in the process it would stabilize housing values, support small local contractors, create training and employment opportunities for community residents, revive neighborhoods and create a stronger sense of community—while keeping money in the community. In addition land trusts have proven their resilience during the foreclosure.

With your generous donation, HEHI has been able to contract the best community development consultant in the country, Michael brown of Burlington Associates, to assist us with determining the feasibility of a NEHI CLT and the business planning assumptions which would underlie the establishment and operation of such a CLT

Working with Mr. Brown, we engaged in a series of meetings in which we are honing the who, what, where, when, and how of our vision.

So far NEHI has made the following decisions:

1. NEHI CLT will be incorporated as a non-profit organization and it will have the traditional CLT three part board (1/3 community residents, 1/3 lessees, and 1/3 community leaders)

2. It’s geographic service area will be the neighborhoods of NE Baltimore with the census tracts highlighted in the housing needs assessment conducted by the MSU students

3. For the foreseeable future, the HEHI CLT will focus on acquiring, renovating, and providing affordably priced owner-occupied single family townhouses or row houses—and single family detached homes when available

4. HEHI will carry primary and overall responsibility for developing these homes and plans to begin with 1-3 homes next year, and 3-5 homes a year for the next 5 years.

5. Our potential homeowners will be those with 60%-80% of North East Baltimore’s Area Median Income (AMI).

With the help of the University of Maryland Law School Clinic we are currently revising our 501(c)(3) application to reflect our decision to become, rather than create, a land trust. Among our important next steps will be assessing our organizational capacity. In other words, determining what functions will we need to carry out day by day and month by month to manage and operate the CLT, and what staff and skills will be needed to carry out these functions.

And finally NEHI must determine our budgetary needs—our development costs as well as our operating costs. Once we hired and executive director and secured financing, and obtained the first homes, we will engage small local contracts who--agree to hire at least one unemployed community member as a trainee—to begin renovations in 2016.

If you are interested in learning more about NEHI’s goals, and/or helping (or joining) NEHI, or if you would like to have someone from NEHI speak to your community association contact Chris Lafferty at 410- 299-7089 or kingdomministriesmd@comcast.net