Washington, DC – March 19, 2010 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced that Community Development Corporation of Long Island, Inc. (CDC), a member of the national NeighborWorks network, has been awarded $383,400 in funding from NeighborWorks America. The grant will be used to support their efforts to revitalize and sustain communities across Long Island and promote and preserve affordable housing for the residents across Nassau and Suffolk Counties. Community Development Corporation of Long Island extends participation in Long Island’s version of “The American Dream” to people whose circumstances have precluded that participation. Working with a diverse client base, CDC helps people achieve self-sufficiency and success in the economic mainstream of society.
“Investing in Long Island communities and preserving housing that our families and young couples can afford is just what Long Island needs,” Schumer said. “During these tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to focus on communities and housing, as many families are struggling to simply make ends meet. The Community Development Corporation of Long Island has long been an outstanding organization that helps thousands of Long Islanders, and I am pleased that this funding has been awarded to such a worthy group.”
During the course of FY 2010, NeighborWorks America plans to provide more than $119 million in grants to its national network of more than 235 community-based nonprofit organizations to stem the tide of foreclosures that threaten neighborhoods and local economies; create homeownership opportunities for families, produce and manage affordable, high-quality rental properties, and revitalize and strengthen communities.
Additionally, through a Congressional appropriation of funds in support of the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program, NeighborWorks America has already awarded more than $356 million in grants to HUD-approved housing counseling intermediaries, state housing finance agencies and NeighborWorks organizations to provide foreclosure counseling to families facing the threat of foreclosure – and plans to award an additional $60 million by April 2010. As of February 1, 2010, more than 1 million home owners facing foreclosure around the country had been counseled by the 1,700 grantees and sub-grantees foreclosure counseling agencies receiving funds from the National Foreclosure Mitigation Counseling Program.
Established by Congress in 1978 as the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, NeighborWorks America is the original community/public/private partnership model, with locally-driven, efficient community development and leverage of the public investment as its hallmarks. Over the past 30 years, NeighborWorks America and its affiliated local community-based NeighborWorks organizations have consistently replicated this successful model in over 4,500 communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico; in America’s urban, suburban and rural communities. NeighborWorks organizations receive grants and programmatic support from NeighborWorks America, as well as training scholarships to the NeighborWorks Training Institute.
Over the past five years the NeighborWorks network has been able to invest nearly $20 billion in America’s urban, rural, and suburban communities; provide homeownership counseling to 500,000 families; assist more than 80,000 American families of modest means achieve their dream of home ownership; develop, own and manage over 73,000 units of affordable, high quality multifamily housing; rehabilitate more than 85,000 homes, using state-of-the-art methods, including green and healthy building techniques; create the nation’s largest force of certified homeownership education and foreclosure intervention counselors; invest in rebuilding efforts in hurricane-affected communities across the Gulf Coast; and mobilize hundreds of thousands of volunteers to revitalize communities.
In 1969, a group of concerned Long Islanders addressed the growing demand for nondiscriminatory affordable housing opportunities. Nearly 40 years later, Community Development Corporation of Long Island (CDC) employs over 80 people, serves Nassau and Suffolk counties, and provides a variety of programs and services that address the dynamic challenges faced by those who live and work on Long Island. CDC supports Long Islanders pursing their housing and small business dreams by investing its resources, talents and knowledge in households, small businesses and communities. Since its inception, CDC has assisted more than 50,000 Long Islanders, investing $628 million into their communities. Last year, CDC served more than 6,800 Long Islanders investing $113 million.
