Institute offers revenue, revival for neighborhoods - McAuley Institute - Cover Story

National Catholic Reporter, March 5, 1993 by Dorothy Vidulich

WASHINGTON--The story of Galvaston Place in southwest Washington begins to evolve at a glance.

There are signs of the neighborhood's degeneration over the years: boarded-up buildings, broken glass and piles of debris cluttering a few yards and sidewalks. "For sale" or "leave it or lien it" signs are absentee landlords' efforts to cash in on property bequeathed by parents or relatives.

There are signs of hope, too: homes with crisp white curtains, painted woodwork, new front doors, brushes and shrubs sprouting new beginnings. The key to understanding the neighborhood's revival is spelled out in two signs posted on a door frame of a house under renovation. One of them says, "Financing by McAuley Institute."

McAuley Institute is the only national Catholic-sponsored housing organization. It is named for Mercy Sister founder Catherine McAuley, who opened her home in Dublin to poor working women in 1830. The institute typically provides basic loan-financing programs and technical assistance and is an advocate for change in social and economic structures.

McAuley Executive Director JoAnn Kane said the institute was committed to working with groups that served very poor communities. "Because women and children suffer disproportionately from the effects of our nation's housing crisis, 50 percent of McAuley's resources aid programs that serve women and children," Kane said. Over the next three years, the commitment will increase to 75 percent as the institute works to expand its revolving loan fund.

Forty religious communities are now partners in this ministry as depositors in the RLF, which can be used to acquire, rehabilitate and/or construct low-income housing or for limited permanent financing, said Kane. In 10 years, McAuley has made 70 loans totaling $2.9 million, which helped generate $27.5 million in local housing development for low-income persons and families.

Kane came to McAuley in 1983 from housing projects funded by the public sector. She continues to be impressed by the vision and insight of the Mercy sisters. "It's privilege to be part of this organization founded by women," she said, "and to watch the skills they enable other women to bring to housing their families."

In addition to Washington, D.C., McAuley's work has assisted 850 organizations in 36 states. The benefits of this program have been wide-ranging:

* Proyecto Azteca, a nonprofit group working to improve living conditions for farm workers of the South Texas Rio Grande Valley, received a $30,000 loan from the RLF to finance eight homes in a rent-to-own project.

* McAuley Housing Development specialist Rhoda Stauffer provides technical assistance to Anawim Housing Inc., a small nonprofit organization committed to providing housing to the lowest income populations in northern Kentucky.

* Mercy Sister Barbara Sullivan helps tenants in Baston County, N.C., speak out for their rights to affordable housing, building grass-roots leadership and creating systematic change.

The institute does not work alone in its efforts. At Galvaston Place, next to the door sign that says "Financing by McAuley" is one that says "Developed by Manna."

Manna Inc. is a low-income housing-development group founded in Washington in 1983 by the Reverend Jim Dickerson of the Church of the Saviour. It has more than 300 low-income units to its credit.

During a guided tour of the Galvaston project, Ken Simpson, Manna's onsite manager, said he supervised anywhere from two to 20 "skill-builder" trainees, unemployed men and women who bring careful craftsmanship to rehabilitating dilapidated units into attractive two-bedroom apartments. "We contract out to licensed technicians only when necessary," said Simpson.

The Galvaston project involves seven buildings that will produce 30 condominiums by 1994 at a purchase price of 50,000 to 60,000 each for two- and three-bedroom units. The average annual income for families is $14,000.

Families occupy their homes during a two-year period and prepare for purchase by resolving credit issues and seeking assistance from Manna in securing mortgages. Eight condos were finished 1991 and the first families have moved in.

To bring about such positive change, financing is critical, said Dickerson, who first heard of McAuley Institute in 1983. That was when the Sisters of Mercy of the Union established a revolving loan fund to provide financial resources for low-income housing development using $2.5 million from the sale of their administrative "home" in Bethesda, Md.

"Manna asked them for a loan at a time when we had no track record," said Dickerson. "McAuley took a risk in faith and put up dollars long before others came to help."