National Self-Help Housing Conference

We will have greetings from the T&MA Contractors; Eric Vigil, New Mexico Acting State Director for USDA/RD; a video message from Congresswoman Xochitl Torres Small, and Bruce Lammers, Administrator of Rural Development’s Rural Housing Service. Tracey K’Meyer, who is authoring a book on self-help housing, will then share some of the program’s history. Tom Collishaw, President of National Rural Self-Help Housing Association (NRSHHA), will close with an inspirational message.

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1944-I updates are scheduled to be released prior to the conference: What are the new changes to 1944-I and what do they mean to my self-help housing program? Learn about the first changes to the regulations in years, what they will mean to the administration of the program in the future and how to ensure you’re complying. We’ll break down the changes and discuss the implications.

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Do you frequently struggle to find balance between minimizing construction time while meeting self-help program requirements? What is delaying construction progress and how? Can you speed up your construction projects? In this session, we will discuss innovative and contemporary construction methods, equipment and technology that will help you stay on schedule. We will review main causes of construction delays and hear from grantees on best practices.

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This session will cover financial management for 523 grant funds. A brief overview of structuring your accounting system will be covered, as well as a discussion of federal requirements, allowed and disallowed program expenditures, federal tax forms, and the importance of budgeting.

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Marketing to rural communities can be challenging. Discuss how to develop a message and the marketing tools used to deliver that message. Come prepared to share your ideas!

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Board governance is critical. This session will discuss Board of Directors’ authority, officer’s responsibilities, board liability, maintaining good corporate standing, meetings, personnel policies and warning signs for the Board. Exhibit E and evaluating a self-help program’s housing development plan will be covered.

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In this session, we will discuss the challenges that exist while appraising self-help homes and the ways in which the value of the properties is sometimes discounted. We will also share the experiences around the room and the challenges that the affordability restrictions pose to the fair valuation of the homes. This session will provide a forum to share not only your challenges but your solutions and best practices. At the end of the session, we hope to better understand the appraisal process and develop a list of solutions to ensure that the self-help homes are subject to a fair appraisal.

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Each year, Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies produces a comprehensive report that examines trends in housing markets, demographics, homeownership, rental housing, and policy challenges. Dr. Airgood-Obrycki will share major findings from last year’s The State of the Nation’s Housing, highlighting increasing unaffordability for middle-income households and housing supply constraints.

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Are you familiar with the regulations and all terms and conditions associated with your grant? Who is responsible for grant management in your organization? In this session, we will discuss competencies, systems and keys to successfully manage a self-help grant. In an interactive format, we will review established and current trends in grant management and hear from other grantees on best practices that will help you to develop a system that works.

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This session will outline bidding process practices, which leads to clear and concise construction contracts. Also included in this session will be preparation of cost estimates and tips for successful contract management.

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If your organization has more than one program and/or more than one funding source, you should have a fair and equitable way of allocating allowable shared costs. This may simply be a cost allocation plan or may include an approved indirect cost rate. But which one is right for your organization and what are the benefits and drawbacks of each? Learn the answers to these questions during this informative discussion dealing with fair allocation of costs.

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This session will encompass the applicant eligibility process from inquiry to approval for Rural Development Direct 502 and 504 programs. You will gain an understanding of counseling and coaching techniques to help transform housing inquiries into mortgage-ready clients.

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Strategic planning is an important function of the Board of Directors and management. It is designed to look forward and create the most resilient and healthy organization possible. Learn about the process of strategic planning and how it can benefit your organization.

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Technology can be pricy and intimidating. Most of us have graduated to a more robust accounting system but did you know that other components of your program could benefit from a similar upgrade? This session will highlight a grantee that is using technology in recruiting and pipeline management, participant labor hours and budget review, bid processing and project management. We’ll discuss the determination of cost effectiveness and the various options for you to choose from.

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This session will explore the use of leveraged funds to bridge the gap on 502 mortgages. These funds can be instrumental in helping your organization meet the goal of assisting 40% very low-income households. Learn how using deferred loans and grants can assist you in helping more participants qualify.

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Join us for an interactive session that will look at lessons learned and assist you with developing a support base with others in the same staff position. Share experiences, challenges and recommendations that create a successful self-help program.

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Development of sound and consistent 502 bookkeeping practices will be explained, detailing the process for establishing and maintaining proper records. We will also cover the importance of the families’ knowledge of their loan accounts. Custodial accounting and the traditional (SBA) method of bookkeeping will both be discussed.

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Effective teamwork begins with a motivated group coordinator working with the families to form groups in preconstruction meetings. It is important to keep construction groups motivated and working together. From preconstruction meetings through construction, come to hear and share strategies to keep groups collaborating well together.

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Have you heard of USDA’s self-help housing program but weren’t sure if it would be a good fit for your agency? This session will provide an overview of the program including new construction homeownership, the owner-occupied rehab and acquisition rehab programs. It will cover funding possibilities, regulations, and the grant application process, as well as eligible grant uses, program development, and staffing needs.

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Policies, procedures, and perceptions must support fair housing and civil rights laws throughout the management of the self-help housing grant. Learn how to make sure you are treating everyone fairly and preventing violations of fair housing laws before they occur.

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Andria Hively of USDA RD will present a regulation update, followed by a USDA RD Panel with Bruce Lammers, Roger Glendenning, Cathy Glover, Barry Ramsey, Myron Wooden, Andria Hively and Andrea Birmingham.

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Join us for an interactive session that will look at lessons learned and assist you with developing a support base with others in the same staff position. Share experiences, challenges and recommendations that create a successful self-help program.

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Identify and work through the stumbling blocks that can and will come up while guiding families through the construction of their homes. Challenges are inevitable, but most can be overcome!

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In this session we will discuss how financial statements can be used by your management team and board of directors. Proper fiscal controls and a review of how to prepare for an audit will also be discussed.

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A lot has changed in Section 502 loan processing recently; with new procedural notices, special guidance and even that Final Rule, there’s been a lot to keep up on! We’ll cover the changes that have occurred over the past year so you can to avoid the common packaging errors and future delays. This session will help you improve the quality and completeness of your applications getting your families a faster loan closing!

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Are you considering operating a Self-Help Housing Program? How do you know if the program is right for your area and if it would be successful? There’s a lot of work that should be done before deciding to go through with a Self-Help Housing Program. Learn what to look for in a community and what questions to ask before moving forward.

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How do we measure the impacts of our self-help housing program and which ones matter to our funders, communities and organizations? Self-help housing influences our economies, communities and people’s lives and this workshop will explore models of capturing and reporting on these impacts. Attendees will leave the workshop armed with practical tools for impact measurement.

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The passion that affordable housing professionals feel for their work is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, that fervor helps them keep going in the face of difficult challenges, especially when working on big challenges with limited resources. On the other hand, they can be so driven they don’t stop to practice self-care and develop personal resilience, an important skill to sustain their important work. This interactive keynote is based on her book, The Happy Healthy Nonprofit: Strategies for Impact without Burnout (http://bit.ly/happyhealthynpbook).

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Many organizations may need to diversify housing programs to continue assisting low and very-low income families. Come and hear about the alternatives that grantees are using to help their programs remain viable.

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Is self-help acquisition rehab the right program for your organization? This session will look at this alternative or companion to the new construction self-help housing program. This could be a good strategy for sustainability in a sellers-market. We will look at some of the challenges grantees currently face and look at ways to overcome them.

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Join us in an interactive roundtable setting to discuss your most difficult financial questions and triumphs. Share your challenges, setbacks and success stories with other self-help organizations nationwide. Exchange solutions, best practices and problem solve together.

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We will discuss the use of preconstruction meetings as a tool to build the families into a team of homebuilders. This session will be interactive as we cover home planning, taxes, insurance, money management, conflict and resolution and team building to increase productivity.

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This workshop is directed to organizational leaders that desire to recharge and move toward effective leadership. It will provide ideas to help identify policies, processes and/or procedures that could be improved to create greater efficiency or enhance the quality of your organizational documents.

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The Self-Help Automated Reporting Evaluating System (SHARES) will assist you in tracking your self-help housing programs’ progress. It also provides much needed national statistics to track the success of self-help housing. This session will provide an overview and a discussion on the SHARES system.

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What changes do you think the self-help housing program should make? Come to brainstorm potential program improvements for the future. (There are no current plans for RD to make major changes to the program … but the contractors thought this would be a good time to gather suggestions.)

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To be sustainable as rural practitioners, we find the need to diversify our organizations. In some cases rural non-profits end up not only managing their programs but also acting as the developer. Discussion topics will focus on the key roles of the development team and the steps to consider when starting a new project. We will share stories, resources, roadblocks, and barriers.

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As the markets continue to change many agencies have found sustainability by adapting their program to include the self-help owner occupied rehab component. We’ll learn about the challenges and best practices of grantees successfully administering this program. We’ll discover how they navigated the changes implemented by Rehab Guidance AN 4831 and have an opportunity for a best practices discussion.

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There are an infinite number of online methods we could use to recruit participants. Social media sites – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – are just some of the various platforms for connecting and sharing interests and information. This session will take a look at the most common and effective methods for participant recruiting, as well as the pros and cons of each.

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We will discuss ways to recruit employees that are the best fit for your program. Developing and providing training for new staff members will be covered. The importance of succession planning and the steps involved in successful staff transitions will also be discussed.

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What types of insurance should your agency have overall and what types of insurance are required by funding partners and regulatory agencies? How about the self-help families and volunteers, are they covered on site? Come hear an update on best insurance practices and policies for risk management.

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Evening transportation will be available to Old Town Albuquerque from 5:15-9:00. Please REGISTER if you wish to participate so that we can reserve adequate transportation.

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Bob Rapoza from National Rural Housing Coalition will deliver a legislative update and Lance George from HAC will provide a review of rural data. Some of the most important housing challenges in rural America may not be directly related to housing itself. For most of its history, the United States has been a predominately rural country. Today people of rural America make up roughly one-fifth of the U.S. population, but are located across 97 percent of the nation’s landmass. With stagnant wages, continuing out-migration of working age residents, rural communities contain larger shares of older and lower-income households. These demographic drivers are important bellwethers of housing markets and demand and will set the stage for a discussion on housing options and solutions in rural communities across the nation.

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Join us for an interactive session that will look at lessons learned and assist you with developing a support base with others in the same staff position. Share experiences, challenges and recommendations that create a successful self-help program.

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Are you still mailing or emailing 502 loan applications to Rural Development? There’s another method that is more secure and saves time in processing those applications. If you are not yet using E-Forms, come to learn more about it.

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USDA Rural Development site loan programs tend to be underutilized. Find out if they would be a good source of funding for your program. We will discuss what this funding covers, who may apply, eligible areas, the terms of the loans, and how to get started.

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Need to update your house plans or select new ones? Ever consider building duplexes, townhomes or multi-unit self-help homes and need plans? Join us to discuss how to choose house plans that are efficient, cost-effective and meet customers’ needs. We will also discuss where to find them and how much they could cost.

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So, you are interested in applying for a self-help housing grant, but don’t know where to start or what the application entails? This session will review what is required in a complete grant application. We will look at the application checklist and forms required by Rural Development.

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How can you expand your affordable housing program using your existing organization’s capacity? Become a Certified 502 Direct Packager and assist more families, expand your community impact and partners and bring in additional resources to your organization. Learn how the Certified 502 Direct Loan Packaging Program works and hear from self-help grantees who are using it. Attendees will explore the pros and cons of combining these programs and learn how to be become a certified packager.

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