Community Development Innovation Review

In 2012, Mercedes Márquez left her post as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development to return to Los Angeles and resume her role as the head of its Housing Department (LAHD). By virtue of these dual roles, she had the unique opportunity to see the foreclosure crisis and the response from both the local and federal policy perspective.

FHA’s Distressed Asset Stabilization Program, which builds on an existing program known as the 601 Accelerated Claims Disposition note sales program, is an innovative strategy to sell severely delinquent loans before they go into foreclosure.

This article begins by reviewing the evolution of the housing counseling industry and discussing the opportunities and challenges of adopting a “fee for service” model of housing counseling. We then highlight two recent business model innovations that have emerged in response to the foreclosure crisis—the Mortgage Resolution Fund in Chicago and the Occupied Homes Program […]

In this article, we describe the experiences of three regional nonprofit housing organizations—the Housing Development Fund (HDF) in Connecticut, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) in Minnesota, and the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership (ANDP) in Georgia—that have amassed a broad base of experience in redeveloping single-family housing. Their experiences demonstrate a range of promising solutions […]

Social enterprise models have been critical in the recent crisis because resources are few, the need is great, and the challenges are new. Since 2007, the market has changed rapidly and frequently. Significant federal policy response did not arrive until 2009; and in 2013, public stimulus has largely been exhausted even as foreclosures continue to […]

In this article, we define what we mean by “weak markets” and describe the challenges that weak markets pose to affordable housing development and neighborhood stabilization. We then provide an overview of our respective efforts in Cleveland, Ohio and Springfield, Massachusetts and describe the initiatives that we have launched to target resources strategically as part […]

This article attempts to capture some of the major lessons learned from the Neighborhood Stabilization Innovations Initiative, a series of demonstration programs funded with a $2.75 million grant from the Citi Foundation to the Housing Partnership Network (HPN), as well as drawing from the individual experiences of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership. We hope that […]

The foreclosure crisis has been devastating to neighborhoods. Homes have been abandoned and fallen into disrepair, families have been displaced, and community anchors have been uprooted. The numbers are staggering. Since the crisis began in September 2008, approximately 4.5 million homes have been foreclosed, with roughly 2.1 million homes still in serious delinquency as of […]

Done right, performance-based contracting (PBC) offers a win-win-win to government, providers, and, most importantly, the people being served. Government spends funds more effectively, higher-quality providers thrive, and recipients get better services. Take Tennessee’s experience introducing PBC to its child welfare system.

Valentino became homeless after struggles with gambling and alcohol addictions left him with nothing. For more than a decade, Valentino stayed in shelters in the Greater Boston area—or in the hospital. Valentino had three heart attacks while he was homeless, each one worse than the last. He was unable to take care of his health without a stable, safe place to live. Now, Valentino lives in permanent housing through the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) Home & Healthy for Good (HHG) program, which is a partnership between MHSA and its member agencies like Pine Street Inn, where Valentino lives.