The Center For Community Progress Blog

Originally posted by Alan Mallach in National Housing Institute’s Rooflines Blog, May 14, 2013. Community Progress Senior Fellow, Alan Mallach, discusses the basic principles of neighborhood stabilization and what actions cities should be taking to achieve it in Rooflines, the Shelterforce/National Housing Institute blog. Last month I wrote about why Project Rebuild is basically a…

In March, Groundwork USA came out with a report that extracted lessons from a decade of their local Trusts’ experiences, hoping that it could help others build on their successful model and advance policies to support equitable land regeneration in the nation’s distressed communities. Here, Kate O’Brien, Groundwork USA’s Director of Outreach and Network Development,…

Kevyn Orr officially assumed the role of Detroit’s emergency manager last week and with it the monumental task of restructuring one of America’s great cities. Much has been written about Detroit’s financial problems of late, and they are truly staggering. At the same time, the city suffers from numerous related problems concerning public safety, basic…

Originally posted by Alan Mallach in National Housing Institute’s Rooflines Blog, March 26, 2013. Community Progress Senior Fellow, Alan Mallach, addresses the importance of code enforcement for neighborhood stabilization and calls for cities and CDCs to be more strategic in their use of the tool in Rooflines, the Shelterforce/National Housing Institute blog. In most circles,…

A national problem calls for federal action Sustained economic decline and the foreclosure crisis have resulted in a wave of vacancy, abandonment and blight in cities and towns across the country. Since 2000, the number of long-term or abandoned housing units has risen nearly 60 percent. The scale of the problem has grown too large…

Housing, finance, real estate, policy, and economic development groups are buzzing about the passage of the Cook County Land Bank ordinance that effectually creates a countywide land bank. Whenever new strategies and policies initiate, valid questions arise, such as how will this benefit my neighborhood, what are the unique advantages of this approach, and what…

Public and public interest advocates for distressed neighborhoods in the mortgage crisis and representatives from various types of mortgage and REO servicing companies are increasingly finding ways to sustain conversation with each other. This is a very good and important accomplishment. Successful dialogue is hampered by some conceptual and linguistic misunderstandings.  Here is one. I hear…

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to New York City and Yonkers, New York for the Groundwork USA Conference. The meeting kicked off with a whirlwind introduction to the work being performed all across the country by the organization – a national network of Groundwork Trusts helping drive community-based revitalization of…

Several years ago, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) renewed an agreement with the U.S. Postal Service to share quarterly aggregate data on addresses classified as having “undeliverable” mail. This new information has provided many communities, including Buffalo, New York with more accurate numbers of vacant properties in their community, allowing them…

With the 7th Annual Land Bank Conference just a few short days away, we are looking forward to the many breakout sessions, mobile workshops and training workshops that will be offered. We asked five of our staff members to answer the question: What session are you most looking forward to at the conference? Read below…