Opportunity Zone Update
Opportunity Zones are poised to attract significant capital for new housing, businesses and jobs in under-resourced communities. Unlike Low Income Housing Tax Credits sites will not have to be passed over year after year in competition through the state housing authority. If a site is within a defined census tract, this new law opens a major source of new funds.
The Federal Department of the Treasury has now completed the identification and designation of 8700 census tracts as eligible for deferred tax investments over the next 10 years. Without the type of cap put on Low Income Housing Tax Credits, this investment opportunity is expected to increase building and other income-producing activities in lower income areas. While rules and regulations are still rolling out from the U.S. Treasury, here is a summary.
Investors can defer tax on any prior gains until no later than December 31, 2026, so long as the gain is reinvested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund, an investment vehicle organized to make investments in Qualified Opportunity Zones. In addition, if the investor holds the investment in the Opportunity Fund for at least ten years, the investor would be eligible for an increase in its basis equal to the fair market value of the investment on the date that it is sold.
As a start to understanding the benefits visit (https://www.cdfifund.gov/Pages/Opportunity-Zones.aspx) With patience, the census tracts Identified in your state can be viewed on the map or in a list by census tract numbers. a call to your city development office might be quicker.
The Opportunity Zones initiative has tremendous potential to attract new investment capital for affordable housing in lower income urban and rural communities or adjacent to these neighborhoods. Though still early in the implementation phase, there is already great energy in the community development sector in support of this program. The Administration is hoping for the entry of billions of dollars in private investment activity within these census tracts. Generations of Hope believes that intentional neighboring communities offer a good choice for investments by the new investors.
Building a Library
A gentlemen from San Diego wants to create a new community. He ask me if I could suggest a book list of background material. While I am building the concise list of 10 to 15 books I thought you might add your thoughts. The diversity of the group of site directors and their Boards experiences should help develop an interesting list.
Angela Millar from One Kin Roof added a new book to the list with
Interdependence: The Route to Community, Second Edition, by Al Condeluci
My list starts with these baseline books:
The Village Effect, Susan Pinker
Pocket Neighborhoods, Ross Chapin
Creating Cohousing, Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett
Community Land Trust, ed.John Emmeus Davis
Also books about Hope Meadows
Hope Meadows: Real Life Stories of Healing and Caring from an Inspiring Community
Wes Smith
How We Live Now, Bella DePaulo
Becoming Grandma, Lesley Stahl
Disrupt Aging, Jo Ann Jenkins
We would like your favorites to add to this list in these categories:
Getting Started- Non-profit management
Strategic and Business Planning for non-profits
Financing Development
Small Market Analysis
Community Design
Planning for a quality life for a Community and Specific populations
Seniors, growing old in community
Managing Volunteers
Operational Program Budgeting
Just off the presses – Generations United All in Together
Generations United and The Eisner Foundation have just released ALL IN TOGETHER -Creating Places Where Young and Old Thrivehttp://gu.org/RESOURCES/PublicationLibrary/AllInTogether.aspx) This new document intended for a general audience, covers many of the intergenerational programming emerging around the country. Included along with lots of specific stories and example is the results of a national survey undertaken by Ohio State University and Generations United. Generations of Hope and specifically Bridge Meadows are included in the report. In addition to the report, a 57 minute You Tube recording of the release announcement was made. Derenda Schubert executive director for the Bridge Meadows group of communities is one of the panelist. A good listen.
Volunteer Work
As you market the new Generations of Hope community you will be asked many times– “What kind of volunteering will the elder perform in their 100 hours per quarter obligation?” Here is a short list of the volunteer activities performed at Hope Meadows. As you know, with different varieties of neighbors the volunteering will be different. If you have volunteer experiences we can add to the list, let me know.
What do Volunteers do?
Homework, Tutoring Supervising
Weekly Activities Computer/Games Activity
Indoor Activity Outdoor Activity
Community Coffee
Luncheons
Committee Work Community Events
Interacting with Parents Interactive with Seniors
Interacting with Children Transportation
Quilting and Sewing
Crossing Guards
Private Tutoring
Maintenance
Office Work
Decorating/Artwork
Recycling
Gardening
Landscaping
Cooking Cleaning
Delivering
Writing/Editing
Liaison
School Involvement
Showing off the Community
Osprey Village in Partnership with Just Love Coffee To Roast Its Brand of Coffee!
One of the most entrepreneurial Generations of Hope inspired sites has gone into partnership with Just Love Coffee to create a new blend of coffee called Porch Blend Coffee. As many of you know, Osprey Village operates two retail thrift shops -one on Hilton Head and another in Okatie, SC. The coffee to be introduced in the late summer. The business strategy behind coffee sales is to establish an ongoing revenue stream for the operation of the new Osprey Village.
Building Ohana marketing Tee Shirt with Logo
Building Ohana the Generations of Hope inspired site in Spokane is promoting a new shirt with its logo on the front. This shirt is made to order and is available at their website.
https://www.buildingohana.org/shop
Howard County Autism Society to Present Housing Initiative at the National Autism Society Conference in July
After two years of hard work, the HCAS Team including former Generations of Hope Washington staff Mark Dunham, will present their current thinking on bringing the Generations of Hope model to a Howard County Maryland site. The Team will describe the two years of work undertaken and the work that still needs to be done. The aspiration will be to create one of the first diverse, mixed-income communities designed to serve not only adults with autism and other disabilities but also older active adults and families.
There are now 10 communities in the planning stage using the Generations of Hope model with a focus on older young adults with disabilities. These include Osprey, Ohana, One Kin Roof, Autism Living, Sweetgrass Community, C.A.R.E, Harmony Christian Village, Community of Hope. The feedback from the National Conference will be critical to helping get these unique communities off the ground.
New Meadows for Aging Out Foster Teens Opens next to Bridge Meadows
In July a new 15 unit apartment specifically for teens 18-22 who have aged out of foster care will open across the street from Bridge Meadows intergenerational community. The $3.4 million project is a joint project between Bridge Meadows and New Avenues for Youth. The project, which helps meet the affordable housing needs of young foster youth was funded by a large donation and city resources. The most exciting aspect of this project is the challenge of integrating this single age sub-community with the larger multi-generational Bridge Meadows.
President’s Note
We have had about twenty inquiries this year from people or organizations wanting to start a new community. This is fewer inquiries than last year with most being centered around foster/adoptive children. Our marketing efforts to mega churches and to autism organizations have not yielded as many new sites as we had hoped for. The new initiatives around the opioid crises may return the interest in the foster care side as the first site Hope Meadows focused on cocaine foster children.
When we visited Dylan Tete executive director at Bastion in New Orleans, he noted work is underway to create opportunities for several more Wounded Warrior sites. With large varieties of vulnerable populations and with the affordable housing crises for seniors and families, the expectation is for an increase in people wanting to create new communities.