Volume 7 Number 1
December/January 2010

In this Issue
New Approach To Serving Vulnerable Families
Foreclosure Risk Lowered With Downpayment Assistance
Stabilizing Communities With NSP Dollars
Models of Sustainable Affordable Housing
In the next issue of ResearchWorks

  • HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research has issued a report on Revitalizing Foreclosed Properties with Land Banks that features the experiences of three communities with land banking programs: Genesee County, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; and Baltimore, Maryland. We will discuss the study and review its key findings.

  • The foreclosure crisis has resulted in a number of abandoned and vacant properties that heighten the inherent risks associated with urban blight. Communities are stepping up efforts to remove blight, and at the same time, many see that this is an opportunity to implement "greening" of their cities. We will examine the efforts of one city that has a record of confronting property blight with cleanup and greening activities.

  • Pennsylvania's First Judicial District's Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Pilot Program, Chicago's Homeownership Preservation Initiative, and Cuyahoga County, Ohio's Foreclosure Prevention Initiative Pilot Program have something in common. Each of them is demonstrating proactive and innovative approaches to preventing foreclosures. We will see what they are doing and how their initiatives are working.

  • What does it take for a community to bounce back from negative impacts of the foreclosure crisis? We will learn from what researchers from the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California-Berkeley have concluded in a study of six large metropolitan areas that vary in the capacity to respond effectively to the crisis. We will examine the significant differences in housing markets and response capacities the research team found in these metro areas and explore the implications of the results for state and federal policy.