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9)    Support neighborhood redevelopment initiatives of Community Development Corporations
Community Development Corporations (CDCs) play a critical role fostering the redevelopment of urban areas in Metropolitan Boston.  CDCs are attuned to the unique needs of urban neighborhoods and practice a distinct form of “community building” that involves a broad range of potential strategies: development of housing and commercial space, community organizing and neighborhood planning, technical assistance to small businesses, and cultural programming.  CDCs often create opportunity for women and minority contractors and low-income residents through contracts and employment.
As community controlled non-profit developers, CDCs are in a unique position to turn community visions into a reality, and are often willing to participate in challenging and high-risk ventures in weak markets.  Their developments often help to pave the way for more investment from the for-profit sector, creating additional housing and economic opportunities.  

Since their inception more than 30 years ago, Massachusetts CDCs have developed over 24,000 homes and attracted several billion dollars of investment to low- and moderate- income neighborhoods, mostly in urban municipalities.  

CDC innovation at the local level requires resources from a variety of private and public sources.  All too often, it is easier for CDCs to identify money to pay for new programs than it is to find funding to pay rent, buy basic supplies, or pay for important ongoing services and community organizing.  New state funding streams are needed to provide a stable and predictable foundation to support the ongoing work of CDCs and help them leverage other funds.  

9.a    The Department of Housing and Community Development should create a program to provide significant annual funding and technical assistance for CDC core organization operations

10)    Return foreclosed, vacant, and abandoned properties to productive use
While many urban communities have a limited supply of undeveloped land, there are many redevelopment opportunities in the form of vacant, foreclosed, and abandoned properties.  Municipalities need new programs to speed the rehabilitation of vacant and abandoned properties, in order to prevent neighborhood destabilization and jumpstart neighborhood revitalization.  

Properties can become abandoned in a variety of ways: owners may “walk away” during the foreclosure process; lenders may fail to assume title for properties valued at less than the lien; or owners with clear title may simply stop maintaining the property and paying taxes.  Even empty properties that are not truly abandoned may have a destabilizing effect on neighborhoods.  Concentrations of vacant, lender-owned properties can significantly depress surrounding property values and may attract crime and vandalism.

New strategies are needed to take advantage of the opportunities presented by vacant properties, by transferring them to community-based developers that will bring them back to productive use as affordable or mixed-income housing, commercial space, or open space.  At the very least, municipalities should adopt foreclosure ordinances that require bank owners to register and maintain foreclosed properties and provide contact information to the municipality.  

Challenging conditions exist when lenders fail to complete the foreclosure process, leaving properties in legal limbo; public/private partnerships might pursue clear title by completing the foreclosure action or pursuing title through forfeiture or nuisance proceedings.  Partnerships may be needed to address this issue as demonstrated by the Homeownership Preservation Initiative (HOPI) in Chicago, an organization working with servicers and the city to reclaim properties that remain owned by a financial institution that has not completed a foreclosure, and therefore cannot transfer title directly to the nonprofit.

Many vacant properties are not foreclosed but tax delinquent.  However municipal procedures for seizing and rehabilitating these properties can be outdated and excessively onerous.  There are innovative models to accelerate and streamline the foreclosure process for tax-delinquent properties, while still protecting tenants and minimizing financial impact to delinquent property owners. 

10.a    Municipalities should adopt ordinances regulating the maintenance of vacant residential property in the foreclosure process

10.b    The Department of Housing and Community Development should identify strategies to streamline the tax lien foreclosure process

11)    Prevent displacement of existing urban residents
Urban neighborhood revitalization efforts can provide existing residents with expanded housing choices, improved public services, new amenities, more nearby jobs, less crime, and other benefits.  As property values increase, homeowners (including low- and moderate income homeowners) see the value of their assets increase.  However, revitalization efforts can also have the unfortunate side effect of displacing residents and businesses due to increasing rents or rising property taxes.  

Urban revitalization strategies should be paired with comprehensive anti-displacement efforts so that current residents and entrepreneurs have the option to stay and benefit from revitalization.  Current residents should be involved in neighborhood planning through meaningful participation.  All deed-restricted affordable units lost through revitalization should be replaced by permanently-affordable units; and new affordable housing should be located in close proximity to market-rate development.  

A comprehensive, client-oriented strategy is needed to link existing residents and merchants with housing, business and employment opportunities, services, and healthcare.  MAPC is currently participating in an effort to implement such a coordinated strategy through a Human Development Overlay District in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood.  If successful, this pilot project, funded and created by the Environmental Simulation Center and the Ford Foundation, might provide a model that can be replicated elsewhere in the region. 

11.a    MAPC and the Asian Community Development Corporation should establish a pilot Human Development Overlay District in Chinatown and make recommendations for its replication elsewhere