[nfbmi-talk] update on old msb building

[joe harcz Comcast]

Greater Lansing Housing Coalition opens neighborhood center | MLive.com

The Greater Lansing Housing Coalition opened the doors to its Neighborhood Empowerment Center on Maple Street in Lansing.

 

In its original incarnation, the building was home to the library for the Michigan School for the Blind. Now it's a place for community members, neighborhood

groups and others to get information and meet, Greater Lansing Housing Coalition director Katherine

Draper told WKAR.

 

"We have frequent meetings in our board rooms, in our classrooms; we hold homeowner education classes in the classroom, and we invite other neighborhood

groups and just any other community groups within the Lansing area who need a space to meet to come and gather here,"

she told WKAR's Kevin Lavery. "

And we don't charge for those services."

 

The center also offers more specific resources, including help for homeowners facing foreclosure. That program was developed about a year ago.

 

Two counselors are available by appointment to assist homeowners in everything from refinancing their current mortgage to addressing their credit situation

to improve their future financial situation. The center is getting a lot of attention for other reasons, too.

 

City Pulse's Lawrence Cosentino

zeroed in on the center's impressive collection of art. Draper rounded up a committee of art experts who then secured the collection.

 

The center functions as a sort of hybrid art gallery, displaying donated art as part of its permanent collection as well as art that's been marked for sale.

The coalition gets a 25 percent commission on any art that sells, which is lower than standard galleries.

 

Other housing-oriented nonprofits rent space at the center from the coalition, including the Ingham County Land Bank and Lansing’s Neighborhood Stabilization

Program.

 

The space is already getting rave reviews from its tenants. Land Bank construction manager

Marty Lejuene told the City Pulse,

“I’ve never had a building to work in like this.”

 

E-mail Angela Wittrock:

awittroc at mlive dot com

and follow her on Twitter at

twitter.com/AngelaWittrock

and

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2011/08/greater_lansing_housing_coalit.html