Community Progress in the News

In the Detroit Free Press, Community Progress vice president of policy, Michael Brady, calls for Detroit and other Michigan cities to apply new federal funding for demolition in a strategic manner that will help to stabilize neighborhoods. The U.S. Treasury Department announced last week that it has approved a proposal from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) to allow Michigan to use $100 Million—or 20% of its total Hardest Hit Fund (HHF) allocation—to demolish vacant properties. Community Progress assisted both MSHDA and the Treasury Department in understanding the value of strategic demolition, optimal ways to organize and structure a federal program, and data necessary to understand the issue on the ground.

Bloomberg News reports on recent demolition efforts in Detroit to help stabilize the housing market and halt further decline in neighborhoods. In interviews with Bloomberg, Community Progress vice president of policy Michael Brady and senior fellow Alan Mallach point out that Detroit is not the only city to use demolition as a stabilization tool, especially as many other communities face significant population loss and growing vacancy and abandonment.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia highlights Pennsylvania's recently passed land bank legislation in it's latest issue of Cascade. The article addresses the powers, funding and history of land banks, and raises key questions for Pennsylvania communities considering land banks as a tool for returning vacant and abandoned properties to productive reuse.

In this Detroit Free Press op-ed piece, vice president of policy, Michael Brady offers six ways for Detroit's new emergency financial manager to help streamline systems and return vacant property to productive use. Some of these recommendations include embracing the community-backed Detroit Future City strategic framework, integrating property inventories across city-controlled entities, and empowering land banking.

Senior Legal and Policy Advisor, Frank Alexander, joins other land bank experts from around the country to lead a land bank training in State College, Pennsylvania following the passage of the state's land bank enabling legislation. Participants of the event learned how a land bank could help their community return vacant and abandoned properties to productive use. 

Detroit Future City, a strategic framework looking 50 years into Detroit's future envisions a reinvented, green and economically vibrant city. The Land and Building Assets element of the framework, developed by Community Progress' Alan Mallach and Michael Brady, offers a more efficient and strategic approach to managing the city's vacant and problem properties. Learn how this approach could help your community.

This week Michigan Governor Rick Snyder introduced the city of Detroit's first Emergency Financial Manager - a move certain to bring some significant policy changes for the city and its residents. Community Progress Vice President of Policy Michael Brady, who contributed to the planning of Detroit Future City, encourages others working in the city to see emergency management as an opportunity and continue to share their ideas in a way that will help to move Detroit forward.

In an interview with Detroit News, Community Progress Vice President of Policy Michael Brady says that "not foreclosing on these properties [abandoned properties with a willing buyer] is a missed opportunity" and contributes to the destabilization of neighborhoods in Detroit.

Community Progress President and CEO, Tamar Shapiro joined Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and State Representatives John Taylor and Chris Ross for a ceremonial land bank bill signing in Northeast Philadelphia on January 17th. The Pennsylvania Land Bank Act will allow Pennsylvania communities to better address the growing pattern of vacancy and abandonment in urban, suburban and rural areas of the state.