Housing, Foreclosures & Vacant Property

Fighting climate change at the community level: Carl Vogel, Dec 11, 2012; Thanks to a program that provides a comprehensive perspective on green development, urban neighborhoods are giving a new look at saving the environment.
Life after Sandy: Dec 11, 2012; More than half a dozen key LISC staff on the East Coast participated in a roundtable to discuss the effects of Hurricane Sandy and what it means for their cities and communities moving forward.
Mixed and matched: Jennifer Rodríguez, Oct 21, 2012; Pairing improvements to local infrastructure with social services and other supports is making a difference in low-income communities in Eastern North Philadelphia.
More alike than different: Micah Gursky, Oct 21, 2012; What works in rural community development is what works in cities—especially when you plan for any differences in scale.
Hard Hat High: Elizabeth Duffrin, Oct 1, 2012; A YouthBuild program in Los Angeles helps keep high school students on track for graduation while also teaching them the building trades.
A portrait of the artist as a young real estate developer: Gordon Walek, Jun 4, 2012; On Chicago’s South Side, Theaster Gates—an artist with a background in urban planning—is building a community.
Rethinking the American dream: Geraldine Baum, Apr 16, 2012; A Q&A with Tina Brooks, LISC executive vice president, about how five cutting-edge design teams radically revisited issues of housing, transportation and public space in today's market.
A lighter, quicker, cheaper way to use vacant spaces: Carl Vogel, Mar 19, 2012; Marisa Novara suggests some temporary projects that turn empty lots and abandoned buildings into fun, interactive and/or beautiful assets.
A coalition you never thought you’d see: John McCarron, Jan 30, 2012; When it comes to the housing crisis, leafy suburbs are sharing the pain with gritty urban communities. Maybe they should start sharing the solutions, too.
Big ideas sparked by the housing crisis: Carl Vogel, Jan 30, 2012; A six-city discussion of housing, regional development and urban neighborhoods expanded into a wider conversation.
Up for Discussion -- Regionalism and Affordable Housing: with Edward G. Goetz and Myron Orfield, Dec 12, 2011; To discuss one aspect of regional thinking—housing policy—we asked for the views of Edward Goetz and Myron Orfield, both long-time proponents of affordable housing.
When affordable housing looks good: By Carl Vogel, Oct 24, 2011; Is most affordable housing ugly by design?
Point-Counterpoint: Well, how important IS housing to neighborhood revitalization?: Oct 3, 2011; A give-and-take between Joe Kriesberg and Jim Capraro about affordable housing and economic development
Douglass-Sumner: The rebirth of a neighborhood: By Patrick T. Reardon, Sep 12, 2011; On June 21, longtime resident leader Beatrice Lee was joined by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to celebrate the completion of the first new homes in her Kansas City, Kansas, community in half a century.
Neil Barofsky details where the bailout went wrong: By Eileen Figel, Aug 29, 2011; On his final day as the special inspector general of TARP, Neil Barofsky wrote a letter to the New York Times decrying the failure of the program to protect home values and preserve homeownership.
Being smart (about neighborhood revitalization) with smartphones: By Lourdes Aceves, Aug 15, 2011; Young adults regularly use smartphones to tweet or update Facebook. But, in Pittsburgh, they've been employing the devices to lay the foundation for neighborhood revitalization.
Walking away — a disturbing trend: By Eileen Figel, Aug 8, 2011; In Chicago, the Woodstock Institute has documented a disturbing trend of mortgage service providers walking away from the foreclosure process and abandoning low value properties throughout the city.
Neighborhood Stabilization Program Chicago: Jan 6, 2011; Helping neighborhoods recover from wave after wave of foreclosures has to be comprehensive in scope, as this useful video details.
Another Take on ShoreBank Collapse: by Eileen Figel, Dec 21, 2010; In American Prospect , Tim Fernholz gives his take on the collapse of ShoreBank--exploring whether its social justice mission or the economic downturn was to blame for its demise.
COMMENTARY: After Shorebank: By Richard Taub, Dec 2, 2010; In August 2010 Shorebank, the nation’s first community development bank, failed after thirty-plus years of operation. Richard Taub reflects on Shorebank’s passing.
COMMENTARY: Shorebank and the Future of CDFIs: By Mark Pinsky, Dec 2, 2010; Shorebank's demise is sad and important, but the story here is CDFI resilience rather than industry decline.
After 33 Years, Wheels Turn on CRA Version 2.0: By John McCarron, Sep 15, 2010; The Community Reinvestment Act, pushed into law in 1977 by a vanguard of anti-redlining activists, is up for an overhaul. CD practitioners and LISC have some key fixes in mind.