Reports and Studies

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 »

In 2008, NeighborWorks America made a formal commitment to "go green". A key component of that initiative is to support our nationwide network of community development organizations in bringing green tools, building techniques, and healthy environmental impact to urban, suburban, and rural communities across America. Over the last year we've made great strides, expanding our Green Course curriculum that provides education and skills training in healthy homes and green construction, and launching a Green Certificate program to train practitioners in successful strategies for green building and sustainable design. With the support of The Home Depot Foundation, NeighborWorks made more than $1.7 million in grants to support the NeighborWorks network in "green" activities including new construction, rehabilitation/renovation, and multifamily energy efficiency. A portion of that grant money also went to conducting Green Audits at twenty NeighborWorks organizations across the country. Working with the sustainability consultancy that helped us measure our own carbon footprint, these Green Audits provided each organization with a snapshot of their current environmental impacts, annual carbon footprint, and recommendations for going green. This guide builds on the observations gathered during those twenty-two Green Audits of NeighborWorks organizations. Its goal is to provide community development organizations with tools and strategies to go green. From understanding how to measure your organization's environmental impacts to choosing quick and easy ways to improve your office practices, we hope that this guide can be a source of inspiration. We've also included case studies from current NeighborWorks organizations, so that you can see how organizations like yours are incorporating green elements into their business operations. Whether you're ready to join us in the ambitious goal to reduce our carbon footprint by 10% in three years, or just looking for a few simple ways to be more eco-friendly at work, this guide is a great place to start. Read it all the way through, or sample a few pages as needed. Just be prepared -- once you start the process, the benefits of going green become hard to ignore! Complete info »

The following report provides an overview of a Home Value Protection (HVP) product to evaluate the practicality of making such a program more widely available and provide background for anyone considering such a plan. The paper is based largely on the Home Value Protection product established in Syracuse New York in 2002, and a number of the authors of this paper participated in the establishment of the Syracuse Home Value Protection program.

The paper contains four sections:

1: Investor Outreach
This section provides background information about the Syracuse program, the current and potential participants and what roles they might play, a review of a few of the ways such a program could be implemented, and links to various media coverage.

2: Index Research
The Syracuse program measured changes in house values by a real estate index for the area (rather than individual house sale price), and this section evaluates a number of different index methods using four markets historical data to see how well the different indexes would have performed with a HVP product (had it been available).

3: Capital Requirements & Pricing
This section provides a model for estimating the pricing requirements and capital required for a program across multiple markets. While not exhaustive, this approach will provide a useful reference and starting point for anyone evaluating investment in such a program.

4: Regulatory Environment
This section provides information on some of the regulatory entities across the markets used in the analysis. Due to the variations in the way a HVP product could be implemented, regulations could apply in a variety of ways and this section can only offer a starting point for potential investors or participants. Complete info »

This guide combines material from various sources in order to provide the best summary of homebuyer education programs. The enclosed samples range from job descriptions for home ownership counselors to Homebuyers Club schedules. Complete info »

Insurance companies have a vested interest in communities and homes that are safe and secure. Through their successful but underutilized housing rehabilitation expertise, NeighborWorks organizations seek to improve the quality of older, unsafe and/or vacant and abandoned properties in the communities they serve. 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 »

The benefits of owning versus renting a home have been extolled by policy makers for many years, and there is substantial recent research to support those views. Yet the research supporting these claims largely has been conducted on general samples of homeowners. Low- and moderate-income homeowners may have a different experience due to difficulties in keeping up with housing-related payments or a difference in the quality of the homes being purchased. A major objective of this report is to assess the impacts of home ownership on a sample of low- and moderate-income homebuyers.

We also know very little about the experience of lower-income homebuyers after they purchase their homes. To what extent do low-income homebuyers experience unexpected costs associated with maintenance or repairs? What proportion of low-income buyers take out home equity loans and what do they use the funds for? What proportion of low-income homebuyers default on their loans? What do buyers feel are the greatest advantages and challenges to owning a home? Answers to these questions may provide insight into how prospective lower-income homebuyers can be better prepared for home ownership.

The research described in this report involved a sample of persons who graduated from home-ownership classes taught by eight NeighborWorks organizations that participated in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Homeownership Pilot program. Neighborhood Reinvestment has encouraged its affiliated NeighborWorks organizations to offer services designed to increase access to home ownership among low- and moderate-income families. Building on Neighborhood Reinvestment's Campaign for Home Ownership, the Homeownership Pilot program was designed to assist low- and moderate-income households to obtain home ownership by providing them with counseling, down-payment assistance and affordable loans.

This report is the third of three reports on the implementation, outcomes and impacts of the Homeownership Pilot program. The first report, entitled An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program: A Preliminary Report (2000), covered the early implementation of the Pilot. The second report, entitled Supporting the American Dream of Home Ownership: An Assessment of Neighborhood Reinvestment's Homeownership Pilot Program (2002), covers the outcomes of the Homeownership Pilot, including the number of persons counseled and new homebuyers assisted. This final report was designed to:

1. Assess the proportion of customers trained by NeighborWorks organizations who go on to buy homes, as well as the factors that predict who among those graduating from the homeownership training go on to buy homes and who do not.

2. Assess both the social and financial impacts of buying a home on the program participants.

3. Assess the postpurchase experience of low-income homebuyers.

4. Assess the loan repayment experience of a sample of the affordable loans held by Neighborhood Housing Services of America (NHSA).

5. Assess changes in the Pilot program target areas before, during and after the Pilot program was in effect. 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 »

In June 2004, NeighborWorks America issued a request for proposals for its first Manufactured Housing Design Innovation Pilot Program. The goal of the pilot program was to support development using manufactured or modular housing to demonstrate that both housing types can be part of a viable affordable housing strategy. A jury reviewed proposals from 12 organizations and selected six finalists to share the $250,000 grant. In selecting the finalists, the jury considered the feasibility of the project and its ability to be a national model, and the strength and development experience of the organization, including prior experience with manufactured or modular housing.

The six funded organizations were:

• Affordable Housing Resources in Nashville, Tennessee;
• HomeSight in Seattle, Washington;
• Homewise in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
• Interfaith Housing Delaware in Wilmington, Delaware;
• Laconia Area Community Land Trust in partnership with the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund in Laconia, New Hampshire; and
• Rural Ulster Preservation Company in Kingston, New York.

The six projects cover different geographies and different approaches to development. This report presents the following case studies in an effort to inform interested organizations and individuals about the project specifics, as well as the challenges and lessons learned. Complete info »