Clients & Projects
Past & Present Clients
City of Bowie, Maryland
Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, Cumberland, Maryland
City of Hannibal, Missouri
Enterprise Community Partners
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission, Montgomery County Planning
Municipality of Coamo, Puerto Rico
Prince George’s County Department of Housing & Community Development
The Allapattah Collaborative CDC, Miami, Florida
Foundation for Puerto Rico
Main Street America - National Main Street Center
Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders
Purple Line Corridor Coalition
University of Maryland - National Center for Smart Growth
US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Projects
Building a New Non-Profit for Small Business Preservation & Commercial Corridor Revitalization
Miami, Florida
The Challenge:
Real estate pressure was creating gentrification and displacement of Dominican and other immigrant-owned businesses in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood.
Our Strategy:
Since September 2017, Ochoa has led efforts for neighborhood revitalization in the City of Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, first as Director of Federal Affairs for National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) and since June 2019, as Principal and Founder of Ochoa Urban Collaborative (OUC).
Phase I
Ochoa helped establish a collaborative of 20 organizations through the South Florida Community Development Coalition to coordinate services and develop a joint strategy to address neighborhood change.
Funded by Citi Community Development and JP Morgan Chase, the collaborative completed a needs assessment of the small business and microentrepreneur environment, a small business survey of Allapatah’s 17th Avenue commercial district, and an analysis of neighborhood change with maps and data indicators.
Along with community input, OUC helped draft an Equitable Neighborhood Development Action Plan with specific policies and recommendations to address gentrification.
Phase II
Ochoa Urban Collaborative helped the community prioritize actions and provided advice and guidance to seed a new community development corporation focused on commercial district revitalization.
Currently, OUC is providing capacity building to the Allapattah Collaborative CDC to build the organization through resource and board development, training, and mentoring the new executive director.
Guiding a feasibility study with planning and zoning advice for the proposed site selection and construction of a mixed-use development with affordable housing and retail for local businesses.
OUC is also providing strategic and action planning to help the organization prioritize projects, resource development to fund their priorities, and join the Main Street program, a nationally recognized commercial revitalization strategy.
Progress to date:
Since 2020, The Allapattah Collaborative CDC:
The TAC now has an active board and increased staff from to three employees
Executive Director Mileyka Burgos co-chairs, the Public Land for Public Good campaign, a regional coalition for the use of publicly-owned land for affordable housing and economic development.
Designated as Miami’s first Main Street program by the Florida’s Division of Historical Resources.
Delivered over 1200 hours of direct technical assistance to over 50 small businesses in the Allapattah Main Street commercial corridor.
Secured over $700,000 in access to capital to small businesses.
Raised over $500,000 in new grants and funding to support its programs.
Connecting the Dots: A Fair Housing Plan
Prince George’s County and the City of Bowie, Maryland
The Challenge:
The City of Bowie and Prince George’s County hired Ochoa Urban Collaborative (OUC) and LSA Planning to prepare the county and city’s fair housing plan last completed in 2012 and updated in 2019.
Our Strategy:
The Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing Choice is a requirement by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, whereby local jurisdictions that utilize HUD funds are used to “affirmatively further fair housing.” The AI evaluates patterns of residential location, housing availability, and impacts of public- and private- sector actions. Using AI as our framework, OUC:
Completed over 15 interviews of stakeholders and leaders.
Analyzed data indicators and maps related to race, housing, transportation, environment, and other related indicators that might serve as a barrier to affordable housing.
Identified goals and actions through community engagement process with staff and community stakeholders.
Wrote substantial portions of the report including the Analysis of Fair Housing Issues, Disparities in Access to Opportunity, Fair Housing Priorities, Goals, and Actions.
Progress to date:
The County and the City have collectively:
Identified actions and funding priorities that have been included in their Consolidated Plan 2021-2025.
The County’s Human Relations Committee is seeking to become a HUD certified Fair Housing Assistance Program agency in order to directly investigate cases of housing discrimination, increase the number of units accessible to disabled persons, and expand a local housing trust fund to build more housing throughout the county.
The City of Bowie continues to provide fair housing training to its residents as well as nearby municipalities and is piloting incentives for workforce housing near transit.
Anti-Displacement Strategies, COVID-19 Small Business Assistance, Non-Profit Capacity-Building along the Purple Line Corridor
Montgomery County & Prince George’s County
The Challenge:
How to support diverse businesses and entrepreneurs in communities of color along Montgomery and Prince George’s Purple Line corridor
Our Strategy:
OUC provided research, advice and recommendations to the Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC) for preparation of the Small Business Strategy Report (July 2021) that is guiding the coalition on how to support diverse businesses and entrepreneurs in communities of color along the Purple Line corridor - a light-rail line from New Carrollton to Bethesda, Maryland. The Strategy Report is also helping to inform the economic development strategy for a Federal Transit Administration Planning Grant and guide resource development needs along the corridor. OUC is also providing community engagement services by facilitating the Small Business Action Team’s meetings to coordinate policies and strategies that will support diverse retail and services along the corridor. OUC facilitated various sessions to improve and coordinate service among service providers, better determine service areas, and address the capacity gaps of existing organizations as well as local governments. In addition, OUC provides strategic advice to the PLCC, organized webinars on COVID-19 relief programs including the Federal government’s paycheck protection program in both English and Spanish, coordinated state and local advocacy efforts, and provided guidance on how to implement place-based management along the corridor.
Progress to date:
The Small Business Support Strategy report informed the PLCC’s larger economic development strategy as part of its planning grant from the Federal Transit Administration.
Created an Action Plan - a roadmap with policies and activities to implement in 2021 and 2022
Strategies for improving non-profit board governance, staff training, and resource development for place-based management such as Main Street along the corridor.
Additional funding for business-serving non-profits along the Purple Line by Montgomery County and Prince George’s County
Additional marketing support and events for micro, minority and immigrant-owned small business along the corridor leading to increased customer foot-traffic and on-line orders.
Equitable Neighborhood Development Action Plan
Bonifant Street & Long Branch, Silver Spring Maryland
The Challenge:
To preserve Small Business in the Long Branch and Bonifant Street commercial districts in Maryland
Our Strategy:
In 2019, Ochoa Urban Collaborative provided project management, strategic planning, and policy advice to the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) for small business preservation in the Long Branch and Bonifant Street commercial districts for the development of an Equitable Neighborhood Development Action Plan. LEDC received a JP Morgan Chase grant award from the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB). As the project manager for NALCAB, OUC provided advice on the development a business survey, strategic planning, and policy guidance for the development of a plan that recommends policies and actions to address rapid gentrification and neighborhood change caused by the construction of the Purple Line, a light rail line from New Carrollton to Bethesda, Maryland. OUC provided guidance and analysis on the use of NALCAB’s data and mapping tools provided to LEDC. The survey, maps, and data are helping to inform neighborhood change tracking and policies in other commercial districts along the Purple Line light rail corridor.
Progress to date:
Because of its leadership in equitable development and advocacy, LEDC is co-chairing the Purple Line Corridor Coalition, a consortium of organization, service providers, and local governments working together to alleviate the impacts of construction and gentrification especially among communities of color.
In coalition with other organizations, LEDC led the effort to designate special state funding in 2021 to mitigate small businesses losses due to Purple Line construction and business-related COVID limitations.
In 2021, Successfully organized small businesses to advocate for additional grant support from local governments.
In 2022, LEDC was invited to join the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network (SBAN), a select network of non-profit organizations working to combat gentrification and displacement funded by JP Morgan Chase.
Whole Community Resilience Planning Program: Program Development, Strategy, and Capacity Building
Foundation for Puerto Rico
The Challenge:
To help Puerto Rican communities better withstand future natural disasters
Our Strategy:
In 2020, Ochoa Urban Collaborative provided advice and strategy in the development of program guidelines and the Request for Proposal for the Whole Community Resilience Program, a CDBG-DR funded program of the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (PRDOH) in the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Irma. The Whole Community Resilience Program is a competitive planning grant for communities to develop planning goals and actions that include infrastructure projects that will help communities better withstand future natural disasters. The Foundation for Puerto Rico is a non-profit whose mission is transformative economic development for the island. OUC also provided training in federal procurement and cross-cutting regulations as well as HUD CDBG-DR program regulations.
Progress to date:
OUC provided advice to the Foundation for Puerto Rico on renegotiating their role in managing the program
The program launched in June 2021. Applications were submitted in November 2021 with an expected announcement of grantees in March 2022.
Trilogy of Housing & Community Development Services
City of Cumberland Maryland
The Challenge:
The City’s Cumberland Economic Development Corporation, the City’s Human Relations Commission, and Neighborhood Advisory Commission were in need of a workforce housing needs strategy that also fit neatly with their upcoming HUD Consolidated Plan and Fair Housing Plan.
Our Strategy:
OUC partnered with LSA Planning consultants in 2019 working with highly-regarded economic and housing demographer and researcher Lisa Sturtevant. Working with CEDC to convene an advisory board of leaders including leading employers, the team interviewed experts, researched best practices, created a survey, and led a series of focus group and meetings. Site visits were key in better understanding the city’s strengths such as its solid regional employment base, location on the historic C&O Canal, proximity to two other states, and its rich historic fabric. The team was also asked to consider three sites for redevelopment.
Progress to date:
The team completed the 2020-2024 Five-Year HUD Consolidated Plan in March 2020. Key features included recommendations for Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Areas (NRSA).
In June 2020, the City of Cumberland submitted its 2020 Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (Fair Housing Plan) guiding the city’s use of limited HUD funds to NRSA’s where there is a higher concentration of poverty and people of color as well as concentrating limited funding to the lowest income families especially seniors and the disabled.
And finally, the Comprehensive Housing Analysis, that provided guidance on the three selected sites for mixed-income redevelopment using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and others subsidies, recommendations for small subsidies to small property owners, subsidies for homeowners, and a revisions to the city’s historic preservation guidelines to enhance opportunities for affordable and workforce housing.
The City continues to pursue reforms to its historic preservation procedures to more easily rehabilitate historic buildings for affordable housing. Other projects are on pause as CEDC refocuses efforts on saving downtown businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional Projects to Date
The following is a list of significant projects that are currently in process:
Regional Fair Housing Plan for the National Capital Area
Ochoa Urban Collaborative is part of a team with the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights Under Law and the Urban Institute to prepare a regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice for eight local jurisdictions through the Metropolitan Washington Council of Government (COG). COG, the area’s regional planning agency, formed a cooperative agreement with the District of Columbia, Montgomery County and the City of Gaithersburg in Maryland, and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William County in Virginia to jointly undertake a regional fair housing plan for the region. The Fair Housing Act ensures that individuals are not discriminated in the rental or purchase of a home due to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, family status, and disability. However, the Fair Housing Act goes went step further to ensure that all federal agencies affirmatively further fair housing. Fair housing plans are required by HUD as a requirement of the Fair Housing Act so that local jurisdictions can prioritize HUD funding that addresses the ill effects of previous federal policy on communities of color and potential goals and actions that increase housing choice for communities.
The team began work in the Spring of 2021. The team has strong experience preparing fair housing plans. The Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights has undertaken dozens of AI’s or fair housing plans across the country including Kansas City, Los Angeles County, and Orange County. And the Urban Institute is a leading nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence to help advance upward mobility and equity. Urban Institute is leading the effort to collect, interpret, and map the data, Ochoa Urban Collaborative is leading a robust regional and local community engagement effort across eight jurisdictions, while the Lawyer’s Committee, the team lead, is drafting the report including regional and local goals and actions.
Progress to Date:
Currently, the team is preparing the draft report for local government comment in the Spring of 2022 followed by public comment in the Summer of 2022. Pending approval by all eight jurisdictions, the project is expected to be completed in the Fall of 2022.
For more information about the project visit COG’s website.
Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness & Resilience Program
The National Park Service has engaged Main Street America in a three-year effort to provide resources, tools, and expertise so that commercial district organizations – urban and rural – are better prepared for a natural disaster as well as build more resilient infrastructure and buildings especially to protect historic buildings, districts, and resources across the country. Because of Manuel Ochoa’s previous experience with disaster beginning at HUD with the 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina recovery effort, Ochoa Urban Collaborative was selected to serve as senior advisor and collaborator to the project. OUC assisted in the recruitment and selection of a national advisory committee, recruited experts to draft case studies and research material for a toolkit, and designed the agendas and invited speakers for national and regional convenings. Manuel is also researching and writing sections of the Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Toolkit.
Progress to Date:
The team is currently drafting the toolkit which will be available in the summer of 2022. Main Street America has organized two virtual national convenings and one in person regional convening in March 2022 in New Orleans and Houma, Louisiana. The next convenings will take place at the Main Street Now Conference in Richmond, Virginia in May 2022 followed by regional convenings in Texas and Florida in the Fall of 2022.
For more information on the project visit: https://www.mainstreet.org/ourwork/projectspotlight/preparednessandresilience
Policy & Advocacy Strategies for Non-Profits
Since its inception, Ochoa Urban Collaborative has worked closely with the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders, a network of over national network of over 150 nonprofit Latino-serving organizations in communities across 40 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. Prior to launching OUC, Manuel Ochoa served as Director of Federal Affairs launching NALCAB’s first Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill. As principal of OUC, Manuel has been a speaker at NALCAB webinars and conferences, assisted in Advocacy Day campaigns, and advised non-profits in developing their first local, state, or federal policy and advocacy campaign as part of an advocacy and public policy capacity-building program funded by the Northwest Area Foundation.
Progress to Date:
OUC advised four organizations in pursuing their policy goals including one organization, Adelante Mujeres, that successfully advocated for the passage of a farmer overtime bill.
Increasing the Capacity of Local Governments in the Use of HUD Funds
Ochoa Urban Collaborative is an official technical service provider to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). LISC is a national intermediary and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) with 38 local offices working in 45 states. LISC partners with banks, corporations, and foundations to provide funding, capital, and resources in underserved communities across the country in housing, community, and economic development.
LISC is also a HUD technical assistance provider to local government and states. OUC is one of LISC’s technical assistance providers to HUD’s Distressed Cities Technical Assistance (DCTA) program. DCTA builds the capacity of small local governments in economically distressed communities that have recently felt the impact of natural disasters. Teams provide a needs assessment to develop recommendations to improve financial management and better marshal existing and outside resources in pursuit of housing, community, and economic development goals. In addition, teams provide technical assistance to better position local governments to adopt effective and sustainable financial management, improved financial performance to pursue additional federal, local, and other resources to implement affordable housing finance, community engagement practices, cross-sector partnerships, and program implementation.
OUC provided economic development technical assistance to Coamo, a community in southeastern Puerto Rico interested in revitalization its historic downtown. OUC conducted a focus group of local businesses and provided implementation steps to pursue and fund a Main Street commercial revitalization program. OUC also provided guidance staffing and management of their existing economic development programs. Additionally, Ochoa Urban Collaborative also provided economic development technical assistance to Hannibal, Missouri which is interested in reviving its defunct Main Street program. Facing internal resistance from beleaguered businesses and partners, OUC in partnership with LISC team researched and recommended a pathway to rejoin the state Main Street program including how to hire an AmeriCorps volunteer to help in the efforts.
Progress to Date:
Coamo is working with Main Street America to implement a Main Street program and is making changes to their small business assistance program to assist existing businesses and not just new ventures. Based on OUC’s recommendations, the municipality is also pursuing American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to hire a program manager to lead downtown revitalization efforts. Hannibal, Missouri is taking additional time to bring more businesses to the table before applying to the Missouri Main Street program. Hannibal Regional Economic Development Council has pledged the match required by the state should the community pursue the program.
Diverse Retail Study
&Access, and Partners for Economic Solutions, and Ochoa Urban Collaborative were selected by Montgomery County’s Planning Department, Small Business Navigator, and the Economic Development department to conduct the Retail in Diverse Communities Study to identify tools and policies to preserve and strengthen diverse retail in neighborhood commercial corridors throughout the county. The study took a close look at commercial corridors in Wheaton, Silver Spring, and Takoma-Langley Crossroads. The study looked at key metrics and demographics across the three commercial corridors, undertook an inventory of existing businesses, and conducted interviews of small businesses in each corridor. The team also analyzed best practices and policies from across the country and provided policy prescriptions for each corridor along with an implementation guide at the appropriate level – county and neighborhood.
Progress to date:
The study was completed in April 2021. In the Spring of 2022, the County Council is considering finding for diverse retail liaisons, a top recommendation of the study. The County Executive is also preparing a budget request to fund place-based management programs similar to Main Street programs in Maryland and across the country.
mochoa@ochoaurbancollaborative.com | 202-413-6910