BALTIMORE, May 8, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Last July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) granted a Choice Neighborhood Initiative (CNI) award to the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC) and the City of Baltimore to carry out the PSO (Perkins, Somerset and Oldtown) Transformation Plan. This large-scale transformation plan addresses Housing, Neighborhood, & People.
Urban Strategies Inc. (USI), a national 501c3 non-profit organization with extensive experience in the design and implementation of place based human capital development strategies in communities undergoing comprehensive physical revitalization, was selected to implement the People Plan in the CNI initiative. The CNI Transformation plan will result in the re-housing of roughly 570 families. Through the process USI will provide and connect service partners in four areas: Housing Stabilization, Economic Mobility, Health, & Education.
USI is partnering with CCCSMD – a fully accredited, nonprofit credit and housing counseling agency headquartered in Maryland since 1966- to introduce residents to the wide range of financial solutions available within the private banking sector as well as the governmental level, including guidance on credit, debt, and homeownership. CCCSMD will provide education and individual financial counseling to the Perkins families to encourage a stable foundation for success within the community and to help resident families achieve economic mobility, asset building and ultimately impact generational poverty and self-sufficiency.
One highlight of the CCCSMD & USI collaboration is the creation of the Perkins Homebuying Cohort. The purpose of the Homeownership Cohort is to ensure that families in the Perkins community have full access to all economic opportunities and financial assistance made available through HUD to the greatest extent feasible. This includes the opportunity to establish generational wealth through home ownership. The program will create a safe environment for families to take advantage of individual and group coaching/support; expose families to the options, benefits and accessibility of homeownership; assist families through the home purchasing and closing process; provide one on one pre & post support to families interested in homeownership; operate as a pilot that could be mirrored for first generation homebuyers & low-income families throughout HABC sites, Baltimore City, the state of Maryland, and other US Territories.
The first cohort is schedule to begin in the Summer of 2019 along with additional monthly place-based programming offered by CCCSMD.
The goal is that all families are stable & thriving!
SOURCE CCCSMD
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