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In the Community
Read about Lighthouse's staff service days and other activities we are involved with in the community ... read more
Local News
- Lighthouse Communities and Urban Pizza
Uptown Incubator, Urban Pizza to open April 1. - Madison Square Business Incubator
Madison Square business incubator has community backing for $1.7m project. - Flips Foreclosed Homes
Lighthouse Communities has several homes throughout Kent County that they are revitalizing. The positive investment and development of these properties will likely stabilize property values of the entire block, bringing vitality and prosperity to our communities. - Bringing in NSP funds to address foreclosures and blight in southeast Grand Rapids
Garfield Park and Madison Square neighborhood will benefit from an $820,000 investment in NSP funds allocated by the State of Michigan. Watch the video online. - Countrywide Settlement Funds allocated to housing agencies
Lighthouse Communities and other local housing agencies will receive funds to continue to stabilize the neighborhoods hardest hit by foreclosures in Grand Rapids. - Fighting foreclosures with Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds
Read about the effects of foreclosure in our communities and how Lighthouse will help tackle this issue through the NSP program by making improvements to foreclosed properties and returning them to homeownership. - Madison Square business district
Madison Square business district another step closer to becoming Grand Rapids' second CID
I thought because I was over the age of 55 that I would never own a home. You made my dream come true!
- program participant
Letter From the President
'And let us not be weary in well doing,
for in due season we shall reap if we faint not'
Galatians 6:9
-.-
Like the areas we serve, Lighthouse Communities continues to change and evolve to rise to the challenges that our neighborhoods are confronted with daily. Whether its re-developing single-family homes to assure quality housing and offset the destruction caused by the foreclosure crisis or counseling individuals to extend a helping hand when they need it most. Whether it's developing mixed use commercial buildings so that low-income families have a quality place to call home and start up business have an opportunity to thrive. Or whether it's the establishment of the first LEED certified neighborhood in Michigan, Lighthouse Communities walks alongside our neighbors, business owners and all community-based partners to help 'revive' the spirit of community by helping it become a vibrant, beautiful, healthy place to live, work and worship.
Let's face it; if you live in Michigan, we have all seen better times. That's why at Lighthouse Communities we understand that Economic Development is key to any kind of Neighborhood Revitalization effort. Our Business Incubator, located within the Lighthouse Development Center, will house 7 start-up businesses. By partnering these new entrepreneurs with the proper resources and cost structure, they will become the future of our local commercial corridors. By empowering local neighbors in the neighborhoods in which they live, true revitalization takes place. We view community development as more than simply the construction and rehab of great homes and commercial space; we understand that, above all, it's about the people of the neighborhoods in which we serve.
Our 'Stay at Home' program offers a helping hand to homeowners when they need it most, at the time of foreclosure. By allowing families to stay in their homes after a foreclosure has taken place, it eliminates the destabilization effects vacancies cause in the neighborhood. But, most importantly, it eliminates the destabilization that foreclosure causes to families.
These are just a few of the programs that Lighthouse Communities has the pleasure to work on with our partners in the community. We are dedicated to the revitalization of neighborhoods and promise to continue listening and working with communities in which we serve to make better neighborhoods and better neighbors.
I appreciate you taking the time to check out our new site. We welcome your feedback and are looking forward to hearing from you on our blog and Facebook pages. Thanks for your support!
Darel Ross
President