2.27.2008 - 02:17pm ET

(CSRwire) PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss., Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, residents of the Gulf Coast were left with the daunting task of rebuilding their lives and their homes. Today, 64 families who were facing significant housing challenges are in quality new homes through the work of Home Again, a subsidiary of ECD/HOPE.

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Home Again was created by Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), NeighborWorks America and ECD/HOPE (Enterprise Corporation of the Delta/Hope Community Credit Union). Supplemented by contributions from NeighborWorks America, the Home Depot Foundation, an anonymous donor, and the Rebuild the Coast Fund (a charity founded by Renee and John Grisham), Home Again provided an innovative solution to the housing crisis facing the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"Home Again was vital in helping to bring life back to our community," said Pass Christian Mayor Chip McDermot. "The homes built through the program provided a springboard for continued growth and revitalization."

Home Again has contributed more homes to the Mississippi Coast rebuilding effort than any other single project. Program organizers initially planned to build 35 units, but early successes and additional funding from businessman and philanthropist Jim Barksdale enabled the program to expand its building goal, resulting in a total of 64 new modular homes.

Home Again has taken advantage of the benefits of modular home construction to dramatically reduce the time and costs of building a move-in-ready home. Modular homes require minimal construction after delivery to the homeowner's property and can be finished in as little as two weeks. The houses are highly energy efficient, built to withstand winds of up to 140 miles per hour, and elevated to protect against future storm damage.

"This is the first time that modular housing has been used in such a way on the Gulf Coast," said Phil Eide, ECD/HOPE's senior vice president of Community Development and Housing. "This type of housing provides a unique solution in a region that has been experiencing a shortage of materials and labor since the storm. That means we can get more people with lower incomes into affordable, quality homes."

Home Again made zero-interest "gap loans" to fund the difference between the resources homeowners have available from FEMA, private insurance and other sources and the costs of rebuilding. The program also offered a variety of related services, including negotiating fair settlements with insurance companies and FEMA, creating specifications for rebuilding and selecting qualified contractors, connecting to existing volunteer rebuilding services, and applying for flexible mortgages and other financial services from banking partners.

One effort that has its genesis in the Home Again Program is the Hallelujah Housing Program, a partnership between Episcopal Relief and Development, the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi, and ECD/HOPE. The effort is designed to assist people rebuilding after Katrina or buying their first home who are earn between 60% and 80% of the average median income. It is estimated that 30% of all homes destroyed by the storm were occupied by persons living below the AMI.

Grant funds from Hallelujah Housing supported the construction by Home Again. It is the goal of Hallelujah Housing to increase affordable housing stock by at least 300-400 homes by 2015, with 100 for single mothers to be built by 2009, in the coastal Mississippi counties of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson.

ECD/HOPE (Enterprise Corporation of the Delta/Hope Community Credit Union) is a regional community development financial institution dedicated to strengthening communities, building assets and improving lives in economically distressed areas across the Mid South by providing access to affordable, high-quality financial products and related services. The organization leverages private, public and philanthropic resources to tackle development hurdles facing low-wealth communities (such as jobs, housing, child care, health care, etc.) that cannot be addressed with the resources of any one sector by itself. Since 1994 ECD/HOPE has generated over $300 million in financing for entrepreneurs, homebuyers and community development projects, and directly benefited more than 30,000 individuals in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee.

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