Last year, when the 1857 Portland home of Captain Francis Osgood was set to be demolished to make way for condominiums, the people at Bayside Neighborhood Association (BNA) saw an opportunity to save the house and provide an affordable home to an income-eligible first-time homebuyer.

When the developer donated the building and provided $100,000 in cash to move it, BNA, working with the City of Portland and HUD, got to work moving the house, buying a lot on Myrtle Street and beginning renovations and systems work. When the City's loan needed repayment before the extensive renovations were completed and a buyer could be secured, the Genesis Fund stepped in to assist with a $190,000 bridge loan.

On June 22, Gov. John Baldacci, Portland Mayor James Cohen, BNA President Ron Spinella, representatives from the New England HUD office and Maine's congressional delegation, Genesis staff, and many members of the Bayside neighborhood were on hand to celebrate 63 Myrtle Street as a model of community development sparked by creativity, vision and a whole lot of help from volunteers and friends of Bayside.

More than 20 years have passed since the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (NHCLF) first assisted a group of mobile home owners in purchasing their park and setting up a cooperative ownership plan. NHCLF recognized the importance of helping residents of manufactured housing parks who are particularly vulnerable to a park owner's whims: dramatically raised rents, utility and security problems, and insufficient maintenance as well as the always looming possibility of a sudden park closure.

Since 1984 NHCLF has helped the people of 75 manufactured housing parks, representing nearly 4,000 homesites, become owners of their own parks by offering loans, technical assistance and development expertise for both existing and new communities.

In Maine there are 552 parks where 19,708 families live, according to the Maine Manufactured Housing Board in Augusta. None of these communities is resident-owned.

At their June meeting, the Genesis Fund board of directors learned that this fall the NHCLF, in a program called the Meredith Institute, will share their expertise as a leader in the field by providing training to other organizations. Recognizing that such work linking affordable housing to the needs of underserved people in Maine is central to Genesis' mission, the board charged staff to attend the Meredith Institute and to begin to investigate how the Genesis Fund might become involved in this important effort.

Stay tuned.

The paperwork finalizing the $300,000 grant awarded to the Genesis Fund on behalf of eight Maine islands last April has been completed. This clears the way for the USDA's Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) grant to be distributed.

Genesis Fund Associate Director Liza Fleming-Ives, who returns from maternity leave on July 7, will pull together representatives from organizations on Cranberry Isles, Chebeague, Isle au Haut, Islesboro, Monhegan, North Haven, Vinalhaven and the Town of Long Island, to develop a granting strategy for the funds.

The Genesis Fund has partnered with the Network for Good, a non-profit dedicated to providing secure, low-cost credit card charitable giving, to allow for on-line giving at www.genesisfund.org

With one click from our home page donors can find out more about Genesis and view operational and financial information about the organization, including recent accomplishments and goals. On-line donors may make a gift in honor of another person (and then alert the honoree by sending an email greeting card). The Network for Good also allows donors to make a recurring gift to Genesis as well as donate to more than one organization in the same transaction.

"I see on-line giving as one more avenue for people who care about creating affordable housing and opportunities for community development in Maine to support the work of the Genesis Fund," said Executive Director Beth McPherson. "This is a natural step for us."