 NOAH's Real Estate Programming
Continues to Grow
With 164 units in our pipeline, NOAH now has an exciting portfolio of housing development projects throughout the Boston region. To help us secure financing, keep track of the myriad of details on these exciting projects, and work collaboratively with hard-working towns seeking to create affordable housing, we have hired Ms. Toby Kramer as our Director of Real Estate Development. Toby (pictured at left) comes to us with deep experience in the field. She is well-known to housing intermediaries, she understands the complexities and regulations of housing finance, she has permitted 40b sites and projects, and she has performed numerous feasibility studies for towns and housing authorities. Toby has worked inside the field on housing finance for a large asset management/finance firm, Boston Financial; as a Vice-President at Housing Partners on numerous projects including restructuring Section 8 properties; and as a housing Finance Project Manager at The Community Builders where she worked on several HOPE-VI, tax credit and expiring use projects. For the last seven years she has operated her own business, Riverside Consulting. She and her husband David reside in Concord. Toby is not only experienced, she is organized and personable. "Working for NOAH is an exciting opportunity for me to work with a respected non-profit to help suburban communities fulfill their housing goals. We share a mutual mission in creating high quality affordable housing where it is needed." We are glad to have her with us. She can be reached at 617-418-8259 or tkramer@noahcdc.org.
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 First 'Secrets of Eastie' Event a Great Success! NOAH's 'Secrets of Eastie' event on June 25 at the Hyatt Harborside was blessed with sunshine, and attracted over 120 attendees, who helped "uncover" the hidden treasures of East Boston. NOAH Board Chair Dharmena Downey and Executive Director Phil Giffee emcee'd the event, which not only gave all who attended a nice sense of the neighborhood's outstanding restaurants, history, culture, and geography, but also a chance to network along the gorgeous Boston Harbor. A few NOAH clients gave presentations, including children from the O'Donnell Schoolyard Summer Program and Youth Soccer Program, and two homeowners whose homes had been saved through their participation in NOAH's Foreclosure Prevention and Mitigation Program. Mid-evening, the audience was treated to a regatta of sailboats, courtesy of one of East Boston's "Secrets", the Piers Park Sailing Center; and one of their staff addressed the audience, Olympic medalist Maureen McKinnon-Tucker. Ms. Tucker was the first American as well as the first woman to ever win a Gold Medal in the Paralympic Sailing Competition. Pictured above are the two Fundraising Committee Co-Chairs, Jennifer McCloskey (left) and Michael Lake (at the podium), along with Committee member Peter Herbst; all are new members on NOAH's Board of Directors.
There were two corporate sponsors for the evening, Citizens Bank and the Beal Companies LLP. Additional donors included: the Herbst Family, Michael Lake, Peter Ciampi, Landmark Structures, John Cannon, Jennifer McCloskey, Mary Ellen Welch, Greg Comeau, Kyla Curley, Salvatore LaMattina, AMS, the East Boston YMCA, Karen Courtney, the O'Donahue Insurance Agency, East Boston Savings Bank, Philip Giffee, Yumi Yasutake, Samuel Klar, Eric Georgi, John Smolak, Brian Vaughn, Ellen Cataldo, P.J. Schott, Vinny Qualtieri, James Taylor, Rosa Marie Olortegui, Property Solutions, Justin Pasquerillo, Nina Gaeta, and Hilary Feldman. MassPort donated free parking, and there were also free gift certificates donated as raffle prizes from Dough, Spinelli's, Sonny Noto's, Meridian Food Market, Jeveli's Restaurant, Scups in the Harbor, Rino's Place, and Piers Park Sailing Center, all of whom were some of the Secrets announced during the function. Many thanks to all who supported this event!
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Community Building and Environment
Is Growing, Too!
NOAH's CBE Department has been very busy this summer. The Chelsea Creek Action Group (CCAG) hosted 100 youth from the Gulf of Maine Institute who came from points north in Nova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts to attend a one-week educational experience focused on environmental justice work in urban settings. The Youth Soccer Program and O'Donnell Schoolyard Program are going strong, with numerous volunteers supporting them. Summer youth crews are hard at work in "Our Garden" and elsewhere.
The Chelsea Creek Action Group (CCAG) is looking to transform the Hess Site into a protected wetlands area, and is working with community and political partners to apply for $4.6 million in North American Wetlands Conservation Act funding to help restore the Chelsea Creek and the rest of the Lower Mystic River.
NOAH also welcomes its second community organizer, Melinda Alvarado-Vega. Melinda (pictured above), is dually enrolled at UMass-Boston and at Bunker Hill Community College as a biology major, and has a long history of community activism. She was elected to the Chelsea School Committee at the tender age of 19, and still serves on the Committee. Previously, she was a business manager for McKay Construction Companies in Chelsea. Most recently, she has been directing the activities of the NOAH youth crews for a Community Block Party at the Condor Street Urban Wild park. If you look closely at the next picture, you will also see Melinda participating in the River Revel festivities!
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 6th Annual Chelsea Creek River Revel The 2009 Annual Chelsea Creek River Revel celebration drew a great crowd of about 1,500 people on one of June's few lovely days. Food vendors, local businesses, and non-profit and community action groups set up tables along the closed Meridian Street Bridge, offering information about important resources in housing, foreclosure prevention, and banking, as well as educating attendees about regional environmental concerns. The River Revel is a free multicultural festival that includes talent shows, road races, live music, food, games and youth activities. NOAH's Community Building and Environment staff led a Climate Action Puppet Parade, where community residents armed with noisemakers, drums, puppets, and posters marched along Meridian Street from Central Square to the bridge. Sponsored by CCAG, the event also celebrated NeighborWorks America's June 2009 'NeighborWorks Week'.
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Foreclosure Prevention Programming Busier Than Ever &
Getting Great Results!
NOAH continues to get many positive responses with its Foreclosure Prevention and Mitigation work. NOAH has been able to help over 600 homeowners either prevent or mitigate a foreclosure situation during the past twelve months thanks to the sustained efforts of the foreclosure prevention team. Our staff of specialists has expanded to include Smita Das (right) and Marie Constance Theodossiou (below). Smita is a 2007 graduate of Rice University, where she studied economics and public policy. One of her recent NOAH success stories involved saving the home of a Gloucester fisherman and his two sons. The client received a principal reduction with a mortgage payment that is now $900 less per month. "He was a victim of predatory lending," she said. "He had thought that he would lose everything." In her spare time, Smita is working on a research project about the labor market for domestic workers in India.
 Constance is a native of Greece who was a litigation attorney in Paris prior to beginning study for her master's degree in banking and financial law at the Boston University Law School. She is taking the New York bar exam this summer. Constance started volunteering at NOAH in December, and was recently hired on staff. One of her latest cases involved that of a single mother with two special-needs children who had lost one of her two jobs, and who had also had a reduction in hours in her other position. The client initially received a three-month forbearance, but Constance was able to utilize options in the new 'Obama Plan' - the Making Home Affordable program - to secure her client a permanent modification that reduced the monthly mortgage payment from $2,200 to $1,184 per month, enabling the family to stay in their home.
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Another  NOAH Success...
Diana Franco, BHA Program Manager, and Zaragoza Guerra, BHA Program Assistant, have now helped the initial client homeowners close on new homes through the Boston Housing Authority-Washington Beech Program. The Program provides $20,000 in HOPE VI funds to qualifying clients in order to assist them purchase their first houses. Preference for this funding starts with former residents of the Washington-Beech Housing Project, who were displaced during its redevelopment, and then passes to Section 8 and public housing residents. In December, the program will become available to all Boston residents meeting the income requirements. NOAH provides extensive education and individual counseling to potential homebuyers navigating the entire home purchasing process. The HOPE VI monies are available to buy Massachusetts single-family homes or condominiums, and the $20,000 loan becomes a grant if the family stays in their new home for two years or more. NOAH will help create 50 homebuyers by the completion of this program; we created 51 first-time homebuyers during the first such project, the BHA-Maverick Program, not long ago.
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 English for New Bostonians Donates $25K
NOAH is grateful to English for New Bostonians (ENB) for supporting its English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programming. Managed by NOAH's Senior Community Organizer, Manlio Mendez, the ESOL classes are now held five days a week and educate more than 50 students at each course session. ENB is a public/private/community partnership initiated by the Mayor's Office of New Bostonians in 2001.
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Upcoming Summer Events
All events are held at NOAH at 143 Border Street in East Boston, unless indicated otherwise.
Bilingual Foreclosure Clinic
Monday evenings, July 27 and August 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at NOAH. This is the initial counseling and education session for NOAH's foreclosure prevention and mitigation counseling. Attendees should bring recent mortgage-related correspondence and paperwork. These sessions are held in Spanish and in English. All of NOAH's foreclosure avoidance education and counseling sessions are free of charge to distressed homeowners. For additional information, please contact Home Counselor Kathy Objio at 617-418-8262.
First-Time Homebuyer Class - In English
This three-night class will meet on Monday, August 3, Wednesday, August 5, and again on Monday, August 10. To receive a City of Boston certificate, attendees must attend all three evenings. For more information, please contact BHA Program Assistant Zaragoza Guerra at 617-418-8261.
La Comunidad's Everett 'River Fest'
We're supporting our partner, La Comunidad, in their first-ever Everett 'River Fest', on August 8. For more information, contact Melinda Alvarado-Vega at 617-567-5882.
Chelsea Creek Action Group (CCAG) Meeting
The next CCAG meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 11, at 6:30 PM at 80 Border Street, room 130. CCAG meetings are now held on the second Tuesday of each month. Newcomers are welcome. For more information, please call Director of Community Building & Organizing Brenda Cotto-Escalera at 617-418-8241.
Hess Site/CCAG Community Meeting
Our Community Building and Environment's Wetlands Restoration Committee is organizing a large-scale community meeting on the evening of Wednesday, August 12 as a preliminary to applying for North American Wetlands Conservation funds that would be used to restore the Chelsea Creek and Lower Mystic River wetlands. For more information, contact Melinda Alvarado-Vega at 617-567-5882.
O'Donnell Schoolyard Summer Program
Ongoing to Thursday, August 27, the O'Donnell Schoolyard Summer Program runs from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, providing free breakfast and lunch, and offering recreational and educational activities for children ages 6 to 12. It is held in the renovated schoolyard, one of seven-such refurbished elementary schoolyards in East Boston whose redevelopment has been coordinated and/or managed by NOAH. NOAH's East Boston Schoolyards Initiative was so successful that it served as a model for the citywide Boston Schoolyards Initiative. NOAH is still accepting donations for this very worthwhile program. For additional information, please contact the O'Donnell Schoolyard Fundraising Committee Chair, Anthony Giacalone of Tony's Realty, or NOAH Director of Fundraising & Communications Linda Miller-Foster at 617-418-8246.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
Weeknight classes are held from 6:00 to 8:30 PM. Level I classes are held every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Level II classes are held each Wednesday and Friday. The ongoing English Conversation Group meets each Saturday morning from 10:00 AM to noon; newcomers are welcome. Please contact Community Organizer Manlio Mendez at 617-418-8242 for additional information.
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Thank you for your interest in NOAH! You can find out further information about NOAH events at our web site calendar at www.noahcdc.org.
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