The National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations (NACEDA) has opened early bird registration for the People & Places 2019 conference. The event will take place April 15-17 in Arlington, VA. 

Join people from different regions, cultures, and national networks as we share what's working to strengthen places and advance racial equality. We'll inspire each other, strengthen our skills, unite our networks, and raise our voices on behalf of the communities we serve. 

NACEDA will also host a pre-conference workshop, Claim the Torch: Community Organizations Advancing Racial Equity, on the morning of April 15.

Register here 

Scholarships are available for registration, hotel, and/or transportation. Those interested in a scholarship can contact Michelle Johnson at mjohnson@prosperityindiana.org.

The future looks bright in Martindale-Brightwood as the neighborhood celebrates the groundbreaking of a permanent branch of the Indianapolis Public Library and new KIPP charter high school, as well as the official opening of Edna Martin's Leadership and Legacy Center. 

Edna Martin Christian Center executive director Tysha Sellers said the development is a step toward fulfilling the neighborhood’s quality of life plan and “listening to residents, businesses and those who want Martindale-Brightwood to be the best place to be.”

Read the full article in the Indianapolis Business Journal. 

John Boner Neighborhood Centers is co-hosting the 2019 National Alliance for Strong Families and Communities in Indianapolis October 16-18, 2019. This conference will be held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis. The conference is the Alliance's largest event and provides an opportunity to showcase practice, policy, and research that advances knowledge and action in the following areas: 

A Thriving and Vibrant Nonprofit Sector: Advancing practices and policies that ensure a well-resourced and financially sustainable nonprofit sector that is resilient, able to manage risk effectively, and positioned for innovation and growth.

Health and Well-Being: Advancing an integrated, holistic, prevention-first health model that responds to the social determinants of health and achieves improved outcomes, particularly for populations experiencing disparities. 

Educational Success: Advancing a continuum of educational supports from cradle-to-career to prepare children and youth to succeed in the 21st century.

Economic Opportunity: Advancing policies, programs, models, and systems that advance living wages and pathways to financial well-being that support economic mobility and reduce poverty. 

Safety and Security: Advancing systems working together to ensure that children, adults, and families thrive and are safe from abuse, neglect, violence, and exploitation. 

Click here for more information about content focus areas, presentation formats, and submission requirements. The deadline for submissions is December 12. 

Prosperity Indiana is one of many partners who collaborated to launch the Opportunity Investment Consortium of Indiana and its Opportunity Zone deal matching portal. With a $100,000 investment from Fifth Third Bank for the initiative, consortium backbone organizations and training and resource partners hosted a launch event for early adopters at United Way of Central Indiana on November 16, 2018. The portal will connect investors and Opportunity Funds looking for projects with potential Opportunity Zone developers and businesses. As a training and resource partner, Prosperity Indiana will provide in-person and webinar training opportunities related to Opportunity Zones. Watch for upcoming trainings on our events page. 

To learn more about joining the consortium and accessing the online portal, visit the OIC website. 

For more information on the launch, see these articles: 

IBJ: New consortium to promote, facilitate investments in state 'opportunity zones'
OFN: Opportunity Investment Consortium of Indiana Launches to Support Projects in Newly-Named Opportunity Zones
Inside Indiana Business: Portal to Promote 'Opportunity Zone' Investment

Sens. Kaine and Hatch unveil bill to protect low-income families from housing discrimination

November 15, 2018, HousingWire

Ben Lane

Two of the most notable senators on opposing sides of the political aisle are partnering to unveil a bill that would expand the Fair Housing Act to include protections for low-income families and military veterans.

This week, Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, introduced the “Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2018,” which would prohibit housing discrimination based on source of income or veteran status.

According to Kaine and Hatch, the Fair Housing Act currently does not strictly prohibit discrimination based on those factors, meaning that landlords may deny housing opportunities to renters using housing vouchers.

But under Kaine and Hatch’s bill, the Fair Housing Act would be expanded to include source of income and veteran status among the other anti-discriminatory factors, which include race or color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability.

This isn’t the first time that Kaine has tried to expand the protected classes under the Fair Housing Act. Last year, Kaine led the effort to introduce the “Fair and Equal Housing Act of 2017,” which would have prohibited housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The fair housing cause is one long championed by Kaine, who spent much of pre-political career as a fair housing lawyer.

“As a fair housing lawyer, I witnessed the pain experienced by families who were discriminated against as they searched for a home,” Kaine said in a statement. “Housing decisions should be made on a potential tenant’s merits, not harmful prejudices that hurt the nation’s veterans and families in-need. The Fair Housing Improvement Act will help us continue that long pursuit to protect all Americans from discrimination.”

Congress currently provides vouchers to help 2.2 million veterans and low-income households afford housing, and this bill would help ensure they actually are able to obtain the housing they need.

“Helping veterans lead lives of dignity and independence has long been among my top priorities. This bill is part and parcel to that legacy,” Hatch said in a statement.

“It will put an end to the immoral housing discrimination against veterans and others who rely on veterans’ benefits, social security disability, or other non-wage legal income,” Hatch added. “This bill will address the fact that Source of Income is not a protected class under the Federal Fair Housing Act, thereby helping to remove an unnecessary barrier facing Utah families and veterans on the path to self-reliance.”

The move comes just a few months after the Department of Housing and Urban Development launched a push to get more landlords to accept housing vouchers, citing two studies that “most” landlords do not accept housing vouchers and therefore deny affordable housing opportunities to those who need it most.

According to Kaine’s office, the bill is supported by:

American Bar Association

Housing Opportunities Made Equal Virginia

National Fair Housing Alliance

National Housing Law Project

National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials

National Low Income Housing Coalition

Paralyzed Veterans of America; Veterans Association of Real Estate Professionals

Virginia Poverty Law Center

Members receive all workforce housing awards

The Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority announced 19 Rental Housing Tax Credit awards on November 15, 2018.

Prosperity Indiana members received tax credit awards in the following set-aside categories: Rural, Preservation, Workforce Housing, Community Integration, Qualified Not-for-Profit, and Small City. One member award was received in each category, except Workforce Housing, which garnered two member awards.

Members who received tax credit allocations include The Englewood Group (Rural), Partners in Housing (Preservation), Herman & Kittle (Workforce), RealAmerica (Workforce), Milestone Ventures (Community Integration), HOPE of Evansville (Qualified NFP), and Crestline (Small City). 

See the IHCDA website for the applicant list and full awarded and denied lists. 

Interested in commenting on the Qualified Allocation Plan, which determines how tax credit projects are awarded? Prosperity Indiana is hosting events on December 6, 7 and 14 in South Bend, Evansville and Indianapolis. Members can register here. 

AARP is partnering with Purdue Extension to assess the age-friendliness of Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. The Livable Communities Survey, which is available online from Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, is designed to determine attitudes and opinions of residents of Indianapolis, who are 45 years or older, regarding the current state of housing, outdoor spaces, transportation and streets, health and wellness, social participation, educational opportunities, volunteering and civic engagement, and job opportunities in their community. The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. The information gathered in this assessment will be used to spur a conversation with community leadership regarding the possibility of becoming an AARP Age-Friendly Community and provide information to improve the quality of life for older citizens.

Indianapolis residents can complete the survey by going here. Fort Wayne residents can complete the survey online here. All responses are completely anonymous, and no information will be collected that could identify any individual.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) recently announced plans to end supervisory examinations of banks, lenders, and other financial institutions for violations of the Military Lending Act, a statute designed to protect military service members and their families from predatory lending. Acting Director Mick Mulvaney has expressed the belief that the CFPB lacks the statutory authority to include MLA in its supervisory work. 

On November 1, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) published a comprehensive legal analysis of the CFPB's authority to include Military Lending Act compliance within its supervisory exams. The analysis concludes that the CFPB has ample legal authority for this supervision for four reasons:

1. Violations of the MLA render service members' loans void, thereby triggering concurrent violations of federal consumer financial laws that the CFPB must already cover within its exams.
2. The CFPB may use its supervisory exams to obtain information about MLA compliance because such information is pertinent to business practices already subject to CFPB enforcement.
3. The CFPB can cover MLA violations within its exams for the purpose of detecting and assessing risks to consumers.
4. The text of the MLA itself requires the CFPB to enforce the MLA in the same way that the CFPB enforces the Truth in Lending Act - which includes supervisory exams. 

The Indiana Nonprofits Project collaborated with the Indiana Arts Commission to include a special sample of Indiana arts and culture nonprofits to inform the Commission’s planning, capacity building, and training efforts.

Selected highlights:

Increased demand for services. Over half of arts and culture nonprofits say that demands for their services have increased over the last three years and very few say demands have decreased.

Dependence on volunteers. About a fourth of IAC nonprofits have no paid staff members and almost all use volunteers (other than board members).

Sources of revenue. Indiana arts and culture nonprofits are more likely to receive donations from individuals, grants from foundations, and government grants than other nonprofits.

Challenges in finance and marketing. Arts and cultural nonprofits are significantly more likely to face financial challenges than all other nonprofits; they also report more challenges managing programs, planning, and marketing.

IT and other capacities. Indiana arts and cultural organizations have significantly greater experience with a broad range of information technology resources and have more good organizational practices in place than other Indiana nonprofits.

For more details and highlights from the report, see the press release »

Download the complete report — “Indiana Arts and Culture Nonprofits: Overview and Challenges” and its other findings »

Asserting the Court of Appeals’ ruling in a rent-to-own dispute will adversely impact tenants across the state, Indiana Legal Services filed a petition Monday to transfer its litigation against Rainbow Realty Group for the company’s rent-to-own practices. In its transfer petition,Indiana Legal Services argued Rainbow's rent-to-buy contract is a lease governed by the state’s Landlord-Tenant Act.

For the full story, see theindianalawyer.com.