This Fall 2008 paper by Dan Immergluck provides a basic approach that local governments, nonprofits and others can use to think through their responses to the foreclosure crisis. In addition to profiling the various responses available at the local level, Immergluck provides a basic classification of local responses to the foreclosure crisis and indicates the sorts of responses appropriate for different types of organizations within the nonprofit, public, and private sector.
This spreadsheet includes a link to nearly every NSP Substantial Amendment submitted to HUD by states, counties, or municipalities that received an allocation.
Frank S. Alexander offers steps governments can take to adopt Land Banking in their community in this 2008 report for Brookings. Land banking is the process or policy by which local governments acquire surplus properties and convert them to productive use or hold them for long term strategic public purposes. By turning vacant and abandoned properties into community assets such as affordable housing, land banking fosters greater metropolitan prosperity and strengthens broader national economic well-being.
HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) will make $3.92 billion in funds available for post-foreclosure community stabilization work. The National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) has compiled frequently asked questions and the answers from HUD as a resource to housing developers looking to use NSP funds.
This report from The Enterprise Foundation offers several steps the city of Albany should take to continue their progress in combating the problems of vacant and abandoned properties.
This report published by NeighborWorks America in 2002 highlights successful organizational and operating strategies observed in managing small, rural or scattered site rental properties.
This article, by Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayor John Fabrizi, highlights the mayor's efforts to return abandoned properties to productive use. A case from 2006, this report finds Mayor Fabrizi forgave the back taxes owed on two sizeable, abandoned properties in the city so as to encourage new owners to purchase and redevelop the properties.
This joint paper aims to help CDCs, government agencies, lenders, community members, and local foundations that provide resources for housing and community development in weak market cities to assess the effectiveness of current revitalization efforts, develop more potent goals and strategies, and allocate resources to best achieve these goals.
The Community Stabilization Home Loan Program makes owning a home more affordable for first-time homebuyers by offering a reduced interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage on selected REO properties in specified areas.
Case Study provides background on the community stabilization strategy used by Beyond Housing of St. Louis, MO to stabilize and revitalize Pagedale, MO a suburb of St. Louis where 36-54 percent of mortgage loans originated for home purchase and refinance in 2004 were subprime loans. Strategies highlighted include the use of a neighborhood-focused revitalization approach, development of supportive services, purchase-rehab and resale of single family homes and scattered-site rental for homes not sold.
Chelsea Neighborhood Developers (CND) operating in Boston's neighboring Chelsea, MA, is a nonprofit organization with a post-foreclosure community stabilization program already underway. This case study provides insight into CND's planning process and REO acquisition-disposition program. Best practices presented include the use of community engagement and neighborhood-based planning, a strong scattered-site, single-family rehab program, and development of strategic partnerships.
This case study profiles steps taken by City First Enterprises, a nonprofit CDFI, to acquire, rehabilitate and resell REO property at scale and in a high priced housing market. In this effort, City First offers best practices around the use of New Market Tax Credits and the development of a shared equity disposition model aimed at preserving affordable housing.
In the last four years 30,000 property owners in Columbus, OH and surrounding Franklin County have lost their properties to foreclosure. Columbus Housing Partnership (CHP) is poised to play a critical role in Columbus' recovery from the foreclosure crisis. This 2008 case study profiles CHP's efforts to use the New Market Tax Credit program to finance large scale REO acquisition and housing development activities.
LA NHS has taken multiple approaches to combat the effect of foreclosed property in Los Angeles County, CA. This Case Study highlights LA NHS' non-acquisition approach to community stabilization in their development of an in-house real estate broker service where LA NHS is a listing broker for lenders and servicers in addition to the acquisition work of the organization to purchase, rehab, and resell foreclosed properties. Best Practices include strategic organizational planning and staff development to prepare for community stabilization efforts, partnership development with other nonprofits, local and state government and the private sector, and creative partnerships with servicers and lenders.
Self-Help has developed a national lease-purchase initiative to help local nonprofits buy single-family properties using a Fannie Mae mortgage product, and lease the homes to families who are not yet mortgage-ready but can get there within a five-year time frame. Self-Help will purchase those loans, and the tenants can assume the mortgage when they meet redefined requirements. The case study provides more detail on this program in addition to background and lessons from Self-Help's pilot in Charlotte, NC to stabilize a relatively new subdivision left vacant as a result foreclosures. The North Carolina program features a partnership with area nonprofit, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership and the City of Charlotte.
Communities struggling with high levels of FHA foreclosures may want to enroll in HUD's Asset Control Area (ACA) program. ACA allows approved nonprofit organizations and local governments to buy foreclosed properties at a 50 percent discounted. This 2008 case study provides an overview one nonprofit's, St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center of Baltimore, MD, experience with the program and highlights best practices.
United Housing of Memphis, TN has received foundation funding to acquire, renovate and re-sell vacant foreclosed properties. This case study profiles United Housing's efforts to launch this program. Best practices captured in this case study include strategic partnerships between United Housing and the local University of Memphis and area nonprofits, and their effort to find neighborhood appropriate solutions.
Download the presentation describing the innovative lease-purchase model from Colorado Rural Housing Development Corporation entitled "Lease-Earn-Own Program" made December 11, 2008 as part of the NeighborWorks forum, Put Your Action Plan to Work: How to Use HUD's Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Your Community.
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