Community Progress Blog

This is our twice-monthly round-up of news stories covering challenges related to vacant, abandoned, and problem properties — and how communities are transforming these properties into assets. (The headlines are for informational purposes only; inclusion does not indicate endorsement.) If you’d like to get this round-up in your inbox, join our email list!

Southside Chattanooga, TN (Credit: Jen Leonard for Center for Community Progress, 2014)

National

What’s at stake in Trump’s pick to lead HUD 
“The President-elect’s next steps on federal housing policy will have a profound effect on rural America and the inner city alike.”
Kriston Capps | CityLab | November 11, 2016

In search of answers on gentrification
“A new report on the affordable housing crisis warns that there’s no one single strategy that has yet proven effective in stemming the displacement of lower-income families.”
Brentin Mock  | CityLab | November 3, 2016

District of Columbia

D.C. raises taxes on blighted buildings
“Now, vacant or blighted buildings will be billed at property tax rates 5 and 10 percent higher than standard, respectively, until the owners prove to the DCRA that they’ve dealt with the structure.” 
Kelsey E. Thomas | Next City | November 2, 2016  

Illinois

Chicago Housing Authority gets new affordable housing tool
“The Community Investment Corporation, a Chicago-based CDFI (community development financial institution) recently won a $3.1 million grant from the U.S. Treasury’s CDFI Fund to seed the Opportunity Investment Fund, a revolving loan fund designed to encourage more developers in strong markets to participate in CHA’s project-based voucher program.” 
Oscar Perry Abello | Next City | October 26, 2016

Peoria examines new ways to deal with empty lots, vacant property
“Peoria will spend between $1 million and $1.2 million on the demolition of abandoned buildings in 2016, said Joe Dulin, the assistant community development director for the city. Along with eliminating dilapidated housing, city efforts are focused on more innovative ways to deal with the vacant lots that follow in the wake of removing an abandoned home.” 
Steve Tarter | JournalStar | October 24, 2016

Maryland

Baltimore passes first zoning overhaul in 45 years
“Baltimore’s City Council gave preliminary approval Monday for the city’s first zoning overhaul in more than four decades, the Baltimore Sun reports. The new rules, dubbed “TransForm Balitmore,” are intended to streamline development, encourage reuse of old buildings and create more walkable neighborhoods.” 
Jen Kinney | Next City | October 25, 2016

Massuchusetts

Silo-busting data analytics help Mass. cities tackle vacant properties 
“’We’re helping the left hand understand what the right is doing,’ says [Jorrit] de Jong. His team’s data analytics tool, dubbed CityNexus, creates a shared platform by which department data sets can be cross-referenced and visualized to score and map problem properties.”
Sandra Larson | Next City | October 14, 2016

Michigan

Flint Public Art Project presents half a million dollars of art 
“The Flint Public Art Project is planning to unveil its latest, over the top spectacle and it’s using a rather unusual canvas. Saturday afternoon, the old House of Spencer Mortuary on University Avenue will be covered with more than half a million dollars worth of art.”
Marc Jacobson | abc12 | October 26, 2016

Turning Detroit’s abandoned homes into greenhouses
“With the help of his design collaborative, archolab, Mankouche—a professor at the University of Michigan—is building a sunken greenhouse he calls Afterhouse, which he hopes will serve as a prototype for other projects across the city and beyond.”
Jessica Leigh Hester| The Atlantic | October 18, 2016

New York

Capital Region municipalities score $1.4M to combat zombie properties 
“The attorney general’s latest effort to combat zombie properties — vacant or abandoned homes foreclosed upon by a bank that are not maintained, pocking neighborhoods with blight — comes in the form of his Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative, which is offering the grants to municipalities so they can step up code enforcement actions, track and monitor vacant properties, and begin enforcement actions to ensure that banks and mortgage lenders engaged in foreclosure proceedings comply with local and state law.” 
Matthew Hamilton| timesunion | October 10, 2016

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh ready to launch city’s first community land trust
“For the past 30 years, Lawrenceville Corporation has been focused on attracting investment to Pittsburgh. Now that Google, Uber and Apple have all moved into the city — just one sign of Steel City’s renewed prosperity — Nusser’s CDC is participating in a major effort to improve affordable housing: the Greater Pittsburgh Community Land Trust (GPCLT).” 
Malcolm Burnley| Next City | November 2, 2016

And, Lastly, a Blight Bright Spot!

Credit: 1XRUN

Dozens of artists filled a Detroit neighborhood with larger-than-life murals
“For one week late last month, the streets of a Detroit neighborhood turned into a massive outdoor artists’ studio, where the public could watch painters at work. Though the artists are long gone, their larger-than-life murals are still illuminating the walls and buildings of Eastern Market.” 
Kate Abbey-Lambertz | Huffington Post | October 4, 2016