By Dana Bykowski
March 3, 2003

Mayors across the country continue to take advantage of CitiesFirst™, an innovative community development affordable housing initiative created by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Nehemiah Corporation of California. Working with mayors, CitiesFirst™ is designed to implement proactive strategies to develop urban communities.

Roundtable discussions are hosted in select cities, with mayors, and other community and business leaders, to discuss the affordable housing concerns and needs of a particular city. CitiesFirst™ has hosted roundtable discussions in North Little Rock (AR), Augusta (GA), Columbus (OH), Houston, Nashville, Tacoma (WA), Denver, Virginia Beach, and Charlotte (NC).

Some of the actions that have been achieved through CitiesFirst™ roundtable discussions are: develop strategies with the mayor, community leaders, and the business community provide special needs housing and down payment assistance to potential homebuyers who qualify for FHA loans; help foster and build new relationships between the city and local community organizations, banks, and real estate associations; and provide technical and potential financial assistance for affordable housing and community development challenges.

"As mayors across the country work to find innovative and practical housing solutions it is essential to have public/private partnerships like CitiesFirst™ leading a national discussion in cities across the country about the issue of affordable housing, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this discussion," said Augusta Mayor Bob Young, who recently hosted a CitiesFirst™ roundtable.

CitiesFirst™ offers several innovative housing initiatives to mayors including the Nehemiah Urban Land Trust (NULT), manages and preserves housing for social service agencies that assist low-income, special needs families and individuals. This $1,000,000 pilot program was launched in June 2001, is helping the cities of Baltimore, Charlotte, Indianapolis, and Atlanta.

In mid-July of 2002, NULT and the city of Charlotte held an application session for local social service organizations seeking additional funding and housing resources for their clients. Ten organizations sent in Request for Proposals (RFP's) to the NULT program. NULT is now working with the city of Charlotte and a local social service organization to establish a site to house those in need.

CitiesFirst™ will also join the mayor in welcoming a new homeowner into their first home. Together, the mayor, a CitiesFirst™ representative, and local builder partners will present a family with the keys to their new house during a press event/ceremony in front of the new home. Past key turning ceremonies have been covered by The Today Show, and other prominent local TV and print outlets.

Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran touched on the importance of CitiesFirst™. "We are very excited about this partnership with Nehemiah, and will continue to work closely with them to provide our members mayors with new and innovative ways to combat the serious problem of affordable housing in our nations cities," he said.