" 95 million Americans struggle to pay their rent or mortgage"

At Active Rain, we have a concern about the above statement, and are doing something about it!  It all started when Jeff Turner posed a question to the Active Rain members after making us aware of the Growing Poverty Gap which he blogged about.  He felt we could do something collectively, as a professional online community. Jeff solicited ideas that generated responses after writing a blog called "Harnessing the Power of Active Rain". 

His "Idea Came To Life"!  RainforChange is now alive and well! We DO care as professionals!

The relevant article below is another source to be posted to the site:

Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich recently announced a reform of the state's housing policy, that will for the first time allow a comprehensive coordination of efforts to better distribute more than $600 million in annual state spending that will benefit over 115,000 people in Illinois.

There are thousands receiving state housing assistance, however there was no plan before this one that assured  the "neediest" were receiving these benefits. 

Gov. Blagojevich praised the Task Force on Affordable Housing for completing its work of drafting a comprehensive housing initiative with the goal of better addressing the state's growing affordable housing needs. The 35-member Task Force, which incorporated ideas from over 200 community and industry experts, submitted a report to the Governor and the General Assembly titled "Building for Success": Illinois' Comprehensive Housing Plan which includes over 80 recommendations geared towards 6 housing priority populations:

• very low income households and families;
• low income senior citizens;
• low income people with disabilities;
• homeless people and families & and those at risk of becoming homeless;
• low and moderate income families and people unable to find affordable housing near jobs or transportation;
• low income families and people living in existing affordable housing that is in danger of becoming unaffordable.

"Folks need stable and affordable housing in order to succeed-and quality, affordable housing is critical to helping hard working people get ahead" (Gov. Blagojevich)

"The goal is to bring down the costs of development, reduce growing operations costs and assure the development of a growing number of affordable housing options"

The release in it's entirety can be read here.           

In our little meager efforts to help, it's very encouraging to see programs being implemented on larger scales that we may latch onto to meet our smaller visions!   

      http://www.ricepropertymanagement.com/