Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, today announced that The Michigan Vibrant Small Cities Initiative administered through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) has been awarded the Sterling Achievement Award for Community Development Programs by the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA). COSCDA is the premier national association advocating and enhancing the leadership role of states in community development through innovative policy development and implementation, customer-driven technical assistance, education and collaborative efforts. This is the first time ever the award was given for this type of initiative.
The Award nomination featured the initiatives undertaken by MSHDA's Community Assistance Team (CATeam) and MSHDA's Office of Community Development in the communities of Niles and Newaygo. Both communities used the downtown facade improvement initiative. This program is designed to assist a community in making physical improvements to an entire traditional downtown area, block, or portion of a block that contains buildings, properties and businesses in need of facade improvements resulting in downtown revitalization and rental rehabs. These successful projects resulted in MSHDA committing $6 million in CDBG funds.
"We all remember the rich histories of the downtowns where we spent our early years, and the good memories that go along with those recollections," said MSHDA Executive Director Michael R. DeVos. "This initiative will help preserve and rejuvenate those cities, bringing them back to the illustrious vibrancy of former times while drawing more residents and tourists to our state."
Remember, community development projects like this typically have a 1:2 investment ratio, meaning every dollar spent generates two dollars in economic activity.
In other words, investment => additional investment.
The efforts of MSHDA and Michigan's affordable housing and community development industry are clearly paying off, but just imagine what we could accomplish through the Michigan Housing and Community Development Fund.