Guess who is turning 50? The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is celebrating the big ‘five-oh’ this year (and so is yours truly). I have a long history with HUD, their grant programs, their policies and their staff. I believe our greatest impact on economic development, childhood health and wellness, life-long health and wellness, workforce stability and growth, energy efficiency, and so much more – starts at home and with homes. The quality, safety and accessibility of housing, especially within our poorest communities, has a profound effect on our public systems – schools, the judicial system, medical system. I…read more →
Top 3 Reasons for Government Social Media Why is your local government on social media? Why is your mayor tweeting? Are you surprised to see your community development agency posting on Facebook? Why are local Governments Embracing Social Media? When a 5.9 earthquake hit near Richmond, Virginia on August 23rd, 2011, residents and first responders in New York City read about the quake as Twitter feeds exploded with news of the quake 30 seconds before they experienced the actual quake themselves, giving emergency personnel more response time and many citizens the opportunity to find a safer location. The City of San Francisco released…read more →
HUD OFFICE CLOSURES U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to close 16 of its 80 offices and 900 HUD employees may have to move or change jobs. The HUD Office closures will save the agency between $110 and $150 million over a 10-year period. The savings will begin to be realized in FY 2014. WHY IS HUD CLOSING 16 OFFICES: HUD, like other Federal agencies is balancing program delivery needs against the budgetary resources available to the Department. This action is in response to a White House executive order for more efficiencies. Federal government has stated that the…read more →
Advancing Healthy Housing – A Unified Federal Action We are excited to share with you news regarding the newly published report, Advancing Healthy Housing: A Strategy for Action. The Strategy for Action unifies federal action to advance healthy housing, demonstrating the connection between housing conditions and residents’ health, and promotes strategies and methods intended to control and prevent major housing-related exposures and hazards in a cost-effective manner. Health is not just about the quality of your health care, it’s also about where you live and the home you live in. It is estimated that over 30 million U.S. housing units…read more →
Are you and your staff 'Budget Heros' when it comes to grants? I work with people who love to DO their work. These are passionate, take-charge, capable leaders who become wide eyed and immobile we start to discuss the impact of the federal budget on their organization. It can be overwhelming when we try to consider how changes to a budget of $3.8 trillion, with nearly a $1 trillion gap in debt, could impact a single organization? Relatively minute changes in spending can drastically alter your government agency or nonprofit either through the impact on their clients or through…read more →
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