MISSION STATEMENT

The Neighborhood Enterprise Division seeks to increase the supply of decent affordable housing through a variety of rental and homeownership programs for the community’s low and moderate income residents as well as encourage neighborhood and housing sustainability through the preservation and rehabilitation of existing housing stock.

FY 2016-2017 Accomplishments

• 112 first-time home buyers purchased homes through the State Housing Initiatives Partnership, or SHIP, first-time homebuyer program, and nine homebuyers purchased homes through the HOME Program in Escambia County. All buyers participated in pre-purchase homebuyer counseling and post-purchase foreclosure prevention education.
• Administered various repair programs for low-income homeowners, completing 14 Community Development Block Grant rehabilitations, which included four complete lead based paint abatements. Eighteen State Housing Initiatives Partnership Housing Repair projects were completed in the unincorporated county, including seven tornado repairs and four referrals from Environmental Enforcement.
• Utilizing SHIP funds, nine homes destroyed by the February 2016 tornado in Century were replaced in partnership with Pensacola Habitat for Humanity. SHIP funds were leveraged with private funds at an average 1:1 ratio.
• Five low-income homeowners that could not qualify for the SHIP program were screened and referred for replacement housing under the Escambia County Housing Finance Authority’s disaster replacement housing program.
• Nine low-income homeowners were screened for Environmental Health’s septic to sewer program.
• Worked with the CRA and the Safe Neighborhoods Program to place new LED street lighting in the Atwood, Ensley and Myrtle Grove communities. A total of 1,351 LED lights were installed, utilizing $812,134 in CDBG Funds.
• Two neighborhood improvement groups participated in CDBG Neighborhood Renewal Mini Grant Projects, implementing volunteer-based improvements in the Warrington and Barrancas communities.
• Worked with Environmental Enforcement to assist 11 low-income property owners to abate code violations at their properties through demolition/clearance of their properties totaling $71,120. 
• The division, jointly with CRA, funded nine facade and sign grants in Community Redevelopment Areas totaling $39,982 and leveraging $42,321 in private funding.
• Administered five public service contracts with Council on Aging of West Florida, Escambia-Pensacola Human Relations Commission, Legal Services of North Florida, EscaRosa Coalition on the Homeless, and Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen, totaling $110,500 in CDBG funds and $142,245 in Emergency Solutions Grant funding.