A Responsible Approach to Neighborhood Stabilization

In 2009 NeighborWorks America partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to encourage community development organizations across the country to redevelop Responsibly by giving neighborhood residents a seat at the table and incorporating the Responsible Redevelopment 12 Guiding Principles into their comprehensive community stabilization strategies.

Responsible Approaches to Neighborhood Stabilization

• Put people first, by minimizing the negative impacts of redevelopment and maximizing opportunities for residents to improve their lives.
• Do better than "business as usual." Stabilization and redevelopment, at the scale required by the current foreclosure crisis, calls for community development organizations to form new and innovative public-private partnerships. Sustainable and responsible solutions see residents at the table in a meaningful role during the planning and implementation of redevelopment efforts in their community.
• Create more than a "one size fits all" proposition to help residents. Adopt the Responsible Redevelopment Guiding Principles and tailor them to the unique conditions of the community you work in.
• Require a champion, to move the national dialogue toward Responsible Redevelopment and integrating the Guiding Principles into community stabilization efforts, using resources, relationships, and knowledge to influence stakeholders and forge and maintain local partnerships.

NeighborWorks America and the Annie E. Casey Foundation are offering opportunities to learn about innovative Responsible Redevelopment strategies and join the dialogue on how to take a Responsible approach to Neighborhood Stabilization:

• Join an interactive workshop, Responsible and Sustainable Redevelopment: The Green and Healthy Homes Initiative in Baltimore at the NeighborWorks Training Institute in Washington DC, Tuesday, December 9, 2009 4:30-6:00pm. 
• Sign up for a future webinar highlighting local strategies and efforts that embody principles of responsible redevelopment.
  • Download the audio and presentation: A Responsible Approach to Neighborhood Stabilization: Hardwiring AffordabilityIn this highly interactive webinar Rick Jacobus from NCB Capital Impact covered ways communities can “hardwire” housing affordability through the creative use of public financing options including the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Participants also had the opportunity to hear how one NeighborWorks network organization, The Housing Partnership, Inc. working in Palm Beach County, FL has adopted the Community Land Trust model to ensure long-term affordability in their community.
  • Register to join next webinar: A Responsible Approach to Neighborhood Stabilization: Anchor InstitutionsThursday, 10/29/09 webinar at 1:00pm EST Join us  for a free interactive webinar where the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Rutgers University and Michigan State University Extension will share ways Anchor Institutions including Colleges and Universities can and are supporting neighborhood stabilization and redevelopment efforts.
• Read the latest Case Studies - Learn lessons from the field: case studies highlighting Responsible Redevelopment efforts in communities around the country.Featuring 10 communities from Goshen, IN to West Palm Beach, FL each case study emphasizes the strategies and resources nonprofits and their partners are using to stabilize their communities in ways that treat the foreclosed properties and put residents first. 
• LaCasa Inc. Helps Residents Plan Economic Recovery - Goshen, IN
• Hudson River Housing - Comprehensive Stabilization in Poughkeepsie, NY 

Guiding Principles of Responsible Redevelopment:

Authentic Engagement

• Incorporate a robust engagement process into redevelopment efforts involving stakeholders and community-based organizations in planning, design, implementation, and evaluation activities. Empower residents with opportunities to voice their needs and concerns.

Capacity-Building

• Provide residents and community-based organizations with support and technical assistance to build their capacities to negotiate with developers, municipal officials, and other stakeholders.

Community Benefits

• Use Community Benefits Agreements and other legally-binding arrangements to provide tangible benefits to residents (e.g. economic inclusion provisions, job opportunities, living wages, dedicated affordable housing).

Responsible Relocation

• Minimize involuntary displacement of residents. If relocation is required, it should generate opportunities for residents, providing adequate relocation benefits, assistance in finding quality replacement housing, legal and social services, career development and employment support, and the right to return to their revitalized community through purchase or rental of new or rehabbed affordable housing.

Responsible Demolition

• Minimize potential health risks to residents, workers, and the public during demolition and rehabilitation of older buildings that often contain unsafe amounts of lead, asbestos, and other contaminants.

Building Mixed-Income Communities

• Establish mixed-income, mixed-tenure developments to create diverse communities for residents of all income levels. Help build a sense of community among socially and economically diverse residents.

Hardwiring Affordability

• To ensure that the community is accessible to low-income residents over the long-term, durable housing affordability should be “hardwired” through the creative use of tax credits, zoning policies, land trusts, shared appreciation mortgages, and other shared equity mechanisms.

Schools and Integrated Services and Supports

• Highlight high-quality schools and school-readiness programs to attract and retain families to mixed-income communities.

Transit-Oriented Development

• TOD not only helps reduce sprawl, mitigate negative environmental and health outcomes, and improve access to opportunities, but can catalyze the creation and sustainability of mixed-income communities benefiting moderate- and low-income families.

Community Ownership and Wealth-Building

• Develop programs to allow resident and community ownership of new businesses and commercial enterprises to help build assets for low-income individuals, their families, and their broader community.

Anchor Institutions

• Encourage “anchor institutions”—hospitals, colleges, universities, businesses, and other entities rooted in communities—to help catalyze and sustain Responsible Redevelopment.

Sustainable Partnerships and the Need for Champions

• Build “public-private partnerships” among stakeholders with varying goals, interests, and levels of power. Enlist public, private or philanthropic “champions” to influence and help ensure that stakeholders adhere to the Core Elements throughout the Responsible Redevelopment process.