Housing, Foreclosures & Vacant Properties
Stable, quality housing is a key component of a healthy neighborhood, but local markets vary widely. Before the recent recession, many communities were seeking to jump-start or nurture a nascent private market while maintaining affordable choices; others were working to manage rapid growth in housing demand and prices.
In the past few years, the foreclosure crisis in the national housing market has grown exponentially, not only adversely affecting major financial institutions, but also jeopardizing the livelihoods and homes of many low-income families and the stability of entire neighborhoods. A concentrated number of foreclosures in a given neighborhood can quickly lead to abandonment, declining property values, tax delinquencies, and increased crime.
Many communities that have taken years—in some cases decades—to renew are at risk of deteriorating rapidly in light of widespread mortgage foreclosures.
Institute Articles
Read our coverage of Housing, Foreclosures & Vacant Properties in the In The News section of this website.
Other Resources
LISC Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative
LISC established its Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative in 2001 to strengthen efforts toward the preservation of affordable rental apartments whose uses were in jeopardy because of expiring federal subsidies, and to promote preservation-oriented public policies. Since then, LISC has helped nonprofit community development corporations acquire and preserve housing developments, build partnerships with housing authorities and other organizations, and advocate for government policies that can reduce the loss of affordable homes and apartments.
LISC Housing Authority Resource Center
LISC started its Housing Authority Resource Center in 1998 to broker relationships between local housing authorities, LISC local offices, and other community developers in neighborhoods across the country. By providing access to best practices, information, and training the Center has helped connect these worlds to develop creative and collaborative solutions to local affordable housing problems.
LISC supports local vacant property revitalization and foreclosure response efforts by providing technical assistance through outside consultants and in-house national staff expertise; coordinating training opportunities and sharing best practices; supporting the implementation of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP); providing loans and grants to revitalize neighborhoods and support innovative programs; conducting research and data analysis; and supporting the National Community Stabilization Trust.