Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tabitha J Lacy, Communications, HECA, 205-323-9888; 205-936-8326

Housing Fund of Central Alabama Awards Grant to JCCEO

BIRMINGHAM, AL, February 23, 2006 -- The Housing Fund of Central Alabama announced today that it has awarded a $25,000 grant to the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity (JCCEO) to support its Housing Counseling Program.

The Fund’s Grants Officer, Lois Chenier, said today that the grant is helping to pay a portion of the salaries for the Program Coordinator and the Homeownership Education Specialist. These positions support JCCEO’s Housing Counseling Program, a program designed to provide housing counseling services to low- and moderate-income individuals who are Jefferson County residents.  Counseling services are offered first in groups of 15-25 individuals. Those are followed by individual counseling sessions.  Housing counselors spend an average of eight hours per client, according to JCCEO. 

JCCEO Housing Counseling programs that are supported by the Fund include:
• Default Mortgage and Default Counseling;
• Delinquent Rent;
• Pre-Purchase.

“We’re pleased to be able to offer this grant to JCCEO for its Housing Counseling Program,” said Lois Chenier, Grants Officer for the Fund. “JCCEO has been serving Jefferson County for more than 40 years, and the grant review committee was impressed by the non-profit’s longtime commitment to and positive impact in the community.”

The Fund’s 17-member Capacity Building Advisory Committee (CBAC) recommended approval of the grant to the HECA Board, which approved the grant.

Since 2003, the Fund has distributed $398,500. The amount includes more than $100,000 towards the Fund’s new Non-Profit Incubator, and a $40,000 companion grant to Aletheia House to assist with its Jefferson County housing redevelopment projects. The remaining dollars went to four non-profits for core-operating support.

About the Housing Fund of Central Alabama: Based in Birmingham, the Fund is a non-profit affiliate of the Housing Enterprise of Central Alabama (HECA) that opened in 2003 to increase the production of moderately priced housing by providing grants to non-profits for core operating support on a limited basis, technical assistance and programs related to capacity building in the non-profit affordable housing development community. The Fund also may partner with HECA, a for-profit lender, to provide financing to qualified private and non-profit developers to build and renovate single-family and multi-family housing for moderate-income families. The Fund also supports ancillary services such as homebuyer training and credit counseling, which help to guarantee the success and sustainability of communities.  The Fund has an initial grant pool of $1.9 million.

Major investors in the Housing Fund and its incubator are: AmSouth Bank, Regions Bank, Compass Bank, New South Federal Savings Bank, First American Bank, The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the Stringfellow Health Fund of the Community Foundation of Calhoun County, the Walker Area Community Foundation, State Farm Insurance Companies®, the Wachovia Foundation and the Alabama Power Foundation.

The Fund serves 12 counties in Central Alabama: Bibb, Blount, Calhoun, Chilton, Cullman, Etowah, Jefferson, St. Clair, Shelby, Talladega, Tuscaloosa and Walker

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