Reports and Studies

Stabilization and regeneration of neighborhood business districts (NBDs) creates positive conditions for neighborhood life, including improved access to goods and services, greater social and political connectivity, and improved property values. In addition, it contributes to resident wealth-building by fostering local retail entrepreneurialism. Community development corporations (CDCs), though well positioned for the work of NBD revitalization, have achieved limited success. This reflects a need to pursue effective action and best practices in four core domains rarely found in a single organization: (1) commercial real estate development, (2) business funding, (3) business development and (4) business district organizing and
improvement. This report considers an integrated approach to NBD revitalization using the CDC as a base of operation, drawing upon the CDCs' existing strengths and developing the additional core capacities needed either internally or through partnering to maximize the potential for effective revitalization, transformation and long-term success of neighborhood business districts. In addition, this report provides an assessment framework and initial decision-making process for CDCs to use in considering whether to pursue this area of economic development work, determining the capacity needed for effective action and assessing the potential and opportunity
for success. Complete info »

Community development organizations are dynamic nonprofits that adopt a range of proven strategies to revitalize neighborhoods so they are great places to live, work and play. These place-based nonprofits are positioned as organizations through which local community residents, partnering with civic and business leaders, can create vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods. Complete info »

Green building programs traditionally have focused on improving building performance while mitigating the negative environmental impacts of the built environment. They include measures to lower energy and water consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and minimize the amount of solid waste and construction debris that ends up in landfills. Green building programs typically specify environmentally-friendly materials, and address the design and development of a project, as well as its subsequent operations and on-going maintenance. Complete info »

New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), an organization long dedicated to revitalizing the East Kensington, Fishtown, and Port Richmond neighborhoods of Philadelphia, launched an urban sustainability initiative in 2009 called "Sustainable 19125." The initiative's goal is to make the 19125 ZIP code the most sustainable ZIP code in the city.

Complete info »

Community based organizations have been providing mortgage loans in low-to-moderate income and minority communities on a small scale since the 1970s. These include community or economic development organizations, loan funds, and not-for-profit homeownership centers. Organizations offer different types of products: some offer subsidized, below market mortgages, others offer entirely market-rate. Many offer only subordinate loans, for purchase or home rehabilitation, while a smaller number offer first mortgages for home purchase. In general, these organizations seem to do a good job delivering mortgages to low-income communities; underwriting processes are often more flexible and personal than mainstream lenders, and almost always involve counseling and education. Default rates tend to be below the market average. Research on the relative performance of prime and subprime loans made to similar borrowers, generally those who had problematic credit histories or low incomes, has confirmed the wisdom of this model; borrowers targeted by subprime lenders are not inherently problematic; rather, the nature of the loan products was key to the subprime mortgage crisis.



However, many community based organizations are facing serious challenges post foreclosure crisis and in the context of a deeply troubled housing market. The organizations use a myriad of strategies for offering loans, ranging from referrals systems to mortgage banking. While most are quite successful with homebuyer education and counseling, many struggle with access to capital and generating profit through lending. Scale is increasingly important in lending and brokerage businesses. Regulatory changes that include increased licensing requirements may add substantial cost for loan originators. Most community based lenders depend on being able to sell loans on the secondary market, but they face loss and uncertainty with the withdrawal of their primary secondary market for subordinate loans and an unknown future for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Finally, some community based organizations are attempting to respond to some of the many problems left in the wake of the financial crisis, including large numbers of vacant homes and underwater homeowners. Complete info »

This report presents case studies of 12 nonprofit housing and community development organizations working to stabilize communities hit hard by foreclosures. Each provides a powerful example of the 5 Cs of community stabilization, a paradigm developed by the National Community Stabilization Trust to help define and identify effective local community stabilization efforts.

5 Cs of Community Stabilization:

Comprehensive -- Community stabilization efforts should result from a plan that addresses all destabilizing forces in the community.

Concentration -- Community stabilization efforts should be targeted for maximum impact.

Collaboration -- Community stabilization efforts should include a broad array of partners with a strong focus on resident engagement.

Capacity -- Community stabilization efforts should be undertaken by organizations with demonstrated capacity in the planned activities.

Capital -- Community stabilization efforts should be adequately capitalized and explore creative methods to take advantage of new sources of capital.

Complete info »

While interest in sustainable residential development and construction has increased, aligning markets to these goals is highly challenging. Useful information available to consumers to inform their decision-making remains relatively limited. Consumers have not been led to a performance-based approach to evaluating and valuing housing to the degree they have been in other products' markets. This paper argues that all delivery agents - as well as the end-users - would greatly benefit from a improved set of evaluative tools to assess housing and context performance and quality with respect to a variety of factors that fit under the sustainability banner. Complete info »

This report is a case study of a scalable replacement program for substandard housing, particularly pre-1976 manufactured housing, developed by Frontier Housing, a member of the NeighborWorks(R) Network based in Morehead, Kentucky. Frontier Housing's Manufactured Housing Done Right(TM) model offers a real opportunity to improve living conditions, reduce energy consumption and protect the environment. Decades of debate have not found a more cost-effective alternative for providing single family homeownership for low-income people living in the vast rural areas of the country. Complete info »

As housing markets across the country continue to struggle to bounce back, ever-increasing instances of foreclosures remain a daunting problem. While the situation in highly affected urban areas has received much attention, there has been a dearth and inconsistency in research on corresponding rural areas. While the forces commonly linked to the urban crisis such as widespread predatory lending, ballooned housing prices and excessive real estate speculation have affected some rural areas as well, overall the rural crisis is a unique, complex crisis all of its own. As the following analysis illustrates through the use of publicly available data, a survey and interviews, a clear and worsening problem exists in America's rural communities, and it is the goal of this paper to outline the workings of this rural crisis as much as the limited data availability allows. Further, the author makes the case that the crisis has exacerbated already difficult conditions in rural areas, and, while claims of a recovery begin to arise, in rural America, hopes of a quick recovery remain slim. Complete info »

In spite of a diminishing supply of public resources, many nonprofit housing developers are expanding their roles and their portfolios to address an increasing need for decent affordable housing. But as nonprofit housing organizations mature, the traditional project-by-project funding system fails to support their broader development goals. This paper stresses the urgent need for equity, or "organizational capital," to help nonprofit housing organizations build their capacity and their impact. Unlike conventional financing, organizational capital is underwritten against a borrower's balance sheet, or its organizational ability to repay. Whereas project-based loans are tied to one particular project, organizational loans can be a source of liquidity whenever an organization needs it: on the front end of a deal, for general business operations or during periods of organizational expansion. Despite its many advantages, there is an extremely limited supply of organizational capital in nonprofit affordable housing. This research outlines the practical challenges to organizational investing and uncovers the underlying barriers that have prevented a nonprofit organizational capital market from emerging. These findings lead us to explore nonprofit housing organizations in a "closed system" of standardized reporting and rational decision-making. The study concludes that while a new nonprofit reporting system would greatly encourage organizational investing in housing, the private markets alone will not bring organizational lending to scale. The final sections of the paper discuss the public policy implications of a closed nonprofit capital system and highlight some innovative approaches taken by lenders to overcome the obstacles of organizational investing and advance a new model of lending in nonprofit affordable housing. Complete info »