Housing As Economic Development Tool
Accelerating housing production in the low income neighborhoods, as part of the "Neighborhood Development Zone" concept, would accomplish the following:

• New Business Opportunities for Construction Trades: Increasing housing production would create opportunities for small businesses based in low income neighborhoods that are engaged in the construction trades (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, masons, landscapers, etc.).
  
  
  • At Present the vast majority of new construction projects take place in distant suburban areas and, as a result, inner-city based businesses are at a competitive disadvantage in competing for the subcontracts.
    
    
• Increasing Community Wealth: By increasing the percentage of home ownership in a community you simultaneously increases the overall "equity" capital generally available to community residents. Such equity would then be available for use as collateral for new obtaining business and other loans.
  
  
• Summary of How Housing Production can be Greatly Accelerated: The expansion of production could be accomplished by utilizing ideas summarized in other parts of this proposal. These would include: expanding the funds available to the "Surtax" program through new state legislation: leveraging HOME and Surtax dollars; streamlining the construction approval process; making available more predevelopment funds; maintaining the level of CDBG and HOME administrative funding for CDCS; County assistance with the land assembly puzzle, etc.
  

• Focus Economic Development Assistance to Take Advantage of the New Market Opportunities: Economic development assistance should be specifically targeted towards eliminating the barriers preventing subcontracting firms in the Zones from participating in the new market opportunities.
  
  
  • Unless such assistance is connected to actual market opportunities county funding technical assistance and loan programs alone will not produce the desired result.
    

  • Such assistance should include "accounts receivable" financing, new mechanisms to help firms meet any bonding requirements, programs to provide equity injections into subcontracting businesses, effective hands-on assistance with the bidding and contract management process. etc.