There are a variety of blogs out there on many topics. Of particular interest to National CAPACD members would be some of the housing blogs I’ve found.

The National Housing Institute, publishers of ShelterForce Magazine, has started their own blog called Rooflines.

The National Housing Conference’s blog Open House “focuses on the most current and critical issues facing the housing and affordable housing community”.

Then there’s the Housing Finance Blog, which provides a different perspective than the non-profits.

If you know of other good blogs that the National CAPACD network should be reading, let us know!

Interesting news from two major mortgage lenders:  Citi will be placing a moratoriums on foreclosures for mortgages of owner occupied single family units, while Freddie Mac will be extending its moratorium on foreclosures for single and 2-4 unit properties.   Citi’s moratorium is clearly more geared towards homeowners, while Freddie Mac’s is geared to both homeowners and renters of foreclosed homes.  Many times renters of foreclosure properties have no idea that their apartment is facing foreclosure until the eviction notice comes.

The questions that come to mind are:  how successful has Freddie Mac been when it comes to managing all of these rental properties?  How feasible is it to do this in the long term? While neither lender is proposing this, the fact that this is an extension of a previous moratorium by Freddie Mac suggests that this is a stop-gap measure while the entire industry is trying to figure things out.  Nevertheless, this may have been more effective six months ago, when sub-prime mortgages were seen as the primary culprit, but what about now, when unemployment rates are reaching new highs?

What are your thoughts on this?  How is this affecting your neighborhoods?

Of course, there are many other venues to share your organization’s experience with these issues:  KnowledgePlex will be hosting an online chat to introduce a new website, Foreclosure-Response.org.  The website looks to be another opportunity for community organizations to solicit advice or share best practices on foreclosure mitigation and neighborhood stabilization.  If you scroll down on that website, you’ll see that KnowledgePlex will be hosting another online chat to introduce HousingPolicy.org, which will be an opportunity to share ideas on affordable housing policy.  The moratoriums will only last so long and can only do so much, so hopefully the discussions both here at National CAPACD’s blog (and soon to be launched social networking site!) and KnowledgePlex’s sites can lay the groundwork for long-term solutions.

These sites are meant to be a forum for folks on the ground, so if you can attend a chat, please don’t be shy about giving feedback–these websites are for you!

I really enjoyed this article on AsianWeek, because it lays out the same story that National CAPACD is trying to tell.  If you disaggregate the data, you will find that the “model minority myth” doesn’t hold true for many Asian American subpopulations throughout the country.

Just as we have seen in the foreclosure crisis where certain communities are disproportionately facing foreclosures (This includes the South Asian community in Jackson Heights, the Southeast Asian communities in Minnesota and the Central Valley of California, and the Philipino community in California), this AsianWeek article outlines similar problems within the health field.

National CAPACD and the APIA Health Forum have already recognized the overlap between community health and community development.  As a matter of fact, we are working together to bring these issues together as part of our conventions on June 3, 2009.

Stay tuned to National CAPACD’s website for more updates on this and our convention!

The following is an article written by Reverend Norman Fong, Deputy Director of Programs at Chinatown Community Development Corporation in San Francisco.

When Lisa Hasagawa, the ED of National CAPACD, invited me to the Presidential Inauguration in Washington DC, I almost fell off my seat! She said: “You have to be here – it’s history! On my connecting flight to Dulles (IAD) from Atlanta, I sat next to a young African American student who had never been on a plane before… She had no inaugural tickets… She just wanted to “Be There!” like 2 million others to witness the inauguration of the first US President of Color!

The inauguration was inspiring and the words, prayers & songs were moving… but the real miracle was simply the coming together of so many people who had renewed hope in civic engagement and social change. From where Lisa Hasagawa and I stood, one could see movie stars like Oprah to Jamie Fox walking in… and when Aretha sang, I was movin’ to the groovin’!

At the Pearl Gala (API inaugural ball), it was empowering to see so many API leaders, celebrities, movers & shakers like Dr. Steven Chu (Secretary of Energy); Eric Shinseki (Secretary of Veterans Affairs), Senator Daniel Inouye, Congressman Mike Honda (who still calls me “Rev”); Actress Kelly Hu; and hearing Maya Sotero Ng and Konrad Ng (the sister & brother-in-law of President Obama) speak… More than just “being there”, it was clear that the API Community was now – finally there “at the table”…

Getting community voices to the table, to the halls of City Hall and all the way to the White House … well, that’s an affirmation of CCDC’s mission of empowerment & civic engagement. On the plane ride home, I sat next to a woman from Senegal who in tears said it was so worth just being there… She said “My son – only 3 years old – upon seeing the new President shouted: “He’s brown like me!” All of us can celebrate the inauguration of a new day when the walls of division are torn down and all are invited “to the table”.