Issue #109, January/February 2000

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Now is the Time: Places Left Behind in the New Economy – Special Supplement: America's Northeast is part of HUD's ongoing Now is the Time series, reporting on the state of the nation's cities and regions.

The supplement focuses on communities in nine states – Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont – that continue experiencing economic distress. It also suggests ways new markets can be tapped to contribute to regional and national growth. The study makes seven key findings:

• Most northeastern cities are doing quite well, and unemployment is down in all central cities
• Over two decades, significant economic change has taken place in the region, with major shifts away from manufacturing and other traditional economic strengths. While overall economic trends are positive, the long-term effects of economic change remain, leaving the region with two economies – creating a striking "opportunity gap"
• The northeast region has vital assets for organizing an economic renewal that taps important traditions and leaves no community behind
• Unacceptably high unemployment remains in nearly one in five central cities
• Steady population loss affects four in 10 central cities in the northeast
• By the mid-1990s, persistently high poverty rates plagued nearly 4 in 10 northeastern central cities, reflecting structural changes that tend to keep poverty unacceptably high, even during a strong economic recovery, and
• One in six central cities faces "double trouble;" that is, 15 central cities in the region face continued high unemployment, plus long-run population loss and/or persistently high poverty rates.

Seizing The Moment, a how-to for using HUD's ConPlan to address housing needs of the mentally ill homeless. Available only on the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness website: www.nrchmi.com/publications/default.asp (Scroll down.)

Practical Lessons: The 1998 National Symposium on Homelessness Research. 13 papers on homelessness and how to address it. Limited copies available from the National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, 800-444-7415; full text available at aspe.hhs.gov/progsys/homeless/symposium/toc.htm.

Housing Our Elders: A Report Card on the Housing Conditions and Needs of Older Americans. from HUD. Available free at www.huduser.org, or from HUD User for $5, 800-245-2691.

State and Local Affordable Housing Programs: A Rich Tapestry includes descriptions of more than 100 programs. Available from Urban land Institute (ULI). $39.95 for ULI members, $49.95 for non-members. 800-321-5011.

Women Creating Social Capital and Social Change: A Study of Women-led Community Development Organizations by Marilyn Gittell, Isolda Ortega-Bustamante, and Tracy Steffy. 171 pp, $6.00. A summary including recommendations and photographs and a Spanish translation, La Mujer como Agente del Cambio Social, are also available. McAuley Institute: 301-588-8110, fax: 301-588-8154; www.mcauley.org.

Combining Funding Sources for Rural Housing Development, published by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC). Success stories of nonprofits who have developed affordable housing while balancing the demands of various funding sources. Focuses on rural organizations, but provides lessons for urban nonprofits as well. Leslie R. Strauss, HAC, 202-842-8600 x141; leslie@ruralhome.org.

"Catching the Brass Ring," in the February 2000 issue of Planning, published by the American Planning Association (APA), examines how to acquire military property for community use. APA, 312-431-9100; fax: 312-431-9985.

Measures for Community Research, www.aspenroundtable.org, is a data base of success measures for Comprehensive Community Initiatives.

Community Building Resource Exchange, www.commbuild.org, is a forum for sharing resources and information on innovative community-based efforts to improve the lives of families in disinvested neighborhoods.

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