BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE:New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

Alan Mallach

A Joint Publication of

Community Development Partnerships’ Network

The Enterprise Foundation

Local Initiatives Support Corporation

National Housing Institute

32942_MCKN_CDPNbk_rev1 6/30/05 12:44 PM Page 1

Alan Mallach, Research Director of the National HousingInstitute in Montclair, New Jersey, served as Trenton,New Jersey’s director of housing and economicdevelopment from 1990 to 1999. Author of InclusionaryHousing Programs: Policies and Practices and manyother works on housing and planning, he is a memberof the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He holds a B.A. degree from YaleUniversity in New Haven, Connecticut.

BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE:New Directions for Housing Policies

in Weak Market Cities

Published by: Community Development Partnerships’ NetworkThe Enterprise FoundationLocal Initiatives Support CorporationNational Housing Institute

June 2005

Written by Alan Mallach Research Director, National Housing Institute

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSSpecial appreciation to Linda Hudecek, Neighborhood Progress, Inc.

and Jen Schneider, The Write Doctors, LLC.

The publishers wish to thank Home Depot for generous support of this publication.

32942_MCKN_CDPNbk_rev1 6/30/05 12:44 PM Page 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i

I. HOUSING AND WEAK MARKET CITIES:

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

II. REVERSING DECLINE: POLICY GOALS FOR HOUSING

INVESTMENT IN WEAK MARKET CITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

III.TURNING GOALS INTO REALITY: GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND

INVESTMENT STRATEGIES FOR WEAK MARKET CITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Principle 1: Think strategically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Principle 2: Capture your market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Principle 3: Set the table for investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Principle 4: Tailor strategies to neighborhood market dynamics . . . . . . . . .13

Principle 5: Build on assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Principle 6: Build quality into all neighborhood investments . . . . . . . . . . .18

Principle 7: Address affordable housing needs to create opportunities

and strengthen neighborhoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

IV.CONCLUSION: GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

This paper is a shorter version of the full paper, Building a Better Urban Future: New Directionsfor Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities. The full paper can be downloaded from cdpn.org orcan be ordered from:

National Housing Institute460 Bloomfield Avenue, Suite 211Montclair NJ 07042973.509.2888www.nhi.org

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INTRODUCTION

Changes in the American economy have given rise to new opportunities andnew risks for the nation’s older cities. Over the past decade, the revitalizationof downtowns and urban neighborhoods has brought new vitality tocommunities that were all but written off only a few years earlier. Localgovernments and community institutions such as universities or hospitalshave led some of these revitalization efforts, while other neighborhoods havebeen transformed through in-migration or through the efforts of residentsthemselves, mobilized by neighborhood organizations or communitydevelopment corporations (CDCs).

America’s cities have not shared equally, however, in the economic gains ofthe past decade. While many cities have thrived, gaining new residents,companies, and visitors, others have not. Those “weak market cities” continue to lose population, jobs, and businesses into the new century.Their threats are not land and housing shortages, but population loss andstagnant economies.

An important theme in the revival of many American cities has been theemergence of a new paradigm for urban revitalization. This paradigm not onlyacknowledges the central role of the marketplace in driving the future, butalso defines new and creative roles for local government, nonprofit CDCs, andother stakeholders in harnessing the power of the marketplace for positivecommunity change. While weak market cities face particular challenges inseeking to apply this paradigm, opportunities exist everywhere.

Although job growth and tourism are important for reversing the trends ofout-migration and economic disinvestment in weak market cities, no city canhope to thrive unless it becomes an attractive, desirable place to live. Housinginvestment is central to the urban future of weak market cities. Better housingand neighborhoods of choice are not only intrinsically valuable, but bringmajor investment in job-generating retail trade, services, and entertainment intheir wake. The decisions that local actors—including public officials, CDCs,foundations, corporations, and other institutions—make to secure and investhousing resources are crucially important.

There are few tasks more important and more necessary in American societytoday than the regeneration of cities. Recognizing the importance of this task,four different organizations concerned with the future of our cities—theCommunity Development Partnerships’ Network, The Enterprise Foundation,the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the National Housing Institute—have joined forces to prepare this paper, hoping that it will advance andaccelerate the revitalization of America’s cities. The information in this papershould help CDCs, government officials and agencies, lenders, communitymembers, and local foundations that provide resources for housing andcommunity development in weak market cities assess the effectiveness ofcurrent revitalization efforts; develop more potent goals and strategies; andallocate resources to best achieve these goals.

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HOUSING AND WEAK MARKETCITIES: OPPORTUNITIES ANDCHALLENGES

CHAPTER 1

BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

Weak market cities are often places of sharp, glaring contrasts. They have many assets, includingvibrant neighborhoods, strong cultural and educational institutions, and creative leadership. Yet theirstrengths are not reflected in their economic and market conditions. These conditions have spawneda series of housing market dynamics that reinforce one another, perpetuating a cycle of decline andundermining the ability of weak market cities to capitalize on their assets.

Weak market cities have many assets thatrepresent market opportunities

Economic decline is not the entire reality, even in the most distressed city. Older cities havesignificant assets, many of which have yet to be fully harnessed in efforts to rebuild theireconomies and quality of life. These include:

● A rich, concentrated physical fabric. Oldercities often offer a dynamic mixture ofaccessible open spaces and civic assets suchas universities, riverfronts, Olmsted parks, and historic buildings. Despite the ravages oftime and urban renewal, much of this fabricremains intact.

● Strong neighborhoods and unique housing

stock. Most weak market cities have strongneighborhoods where houses are wellmaintained and desirable, though perhapsselling for less than they might elsewhere.Much of the housing in these neighborhoodshas a historic or architectural character thatmakes it unique.

● Flexible housing and building inventory.

Large parts of the urban environment are well adapted to reuse as needs and marketconditions change. Yesterday’s factorybecomes today’s upscale apartment building;

mansions of late 19th century merchantsbecome offices for lobbyists and tradeassociations; and former industrial sitesbecome reuse opportunities for everythingfrom big box retail to townhouses.

● Reviving downtowns and strong anchor

institutions.The reinvention of urbandowntowns as residential communities isbringing new vitality and civic identity tocities. Many urban neighborhoods havedistinctive assets that can be used to fosterrevival, such as parks, historic districts, andanchor institutions, including hospitals anduniversities.

● Creative leadership. Finally, the leadership ofpublic officials, CDCs, and other communityinstitutions in these cities is perhaps theirmost powerful asset. Many mayors andcommunity leaders have demonstrated thatchange is possible.

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The housing market in weak market citiesis trapped in a cycle of decline

Understanding the challenges that revitalizingcities may face is critical to confronting anddealing with these challenges. A series ofinterlocking forces drive the housing markets inweak market cities downward—weak demandleads to low housing values and high vacancies,which leads, in turn, to property abandonmentand neighborhood deterioration:

● Weak demand. Lack of growth, either withinthe city or the region as a whole, has led totwo critical patterns in the housing markets ofweak market cities. First, total housing demandis limited. Second, those looking for housingare disproportionately likely to be low-earninghouseholds.

● Low housing values. Where demand forhousing is weak, market values are likely to below. Homebuyers who have choices tend toavoid low-value communities, because thehouses are not seen as good investments.

● Poor housing conditions. Because housingsurpluses and low prices discourageinvestment, housing conditions tend to beinferior, particularly for the poor. Although low prices may result in bargains for a fewmoderate and middle income families, manylow-income families in weak market citiesexperience severe housing problems. These are overwhelmingly problems of quality, not quantity.

● High vacancy rates and widespread

abandonment. When housing supply is greaterthan demand, the result is high vacancy ratesand abandonment. With high vacancy rates,abandonment increases as owners see nomarket or long-term prospects for theirproperties.

● Declining neighborhoods. Finally, marketweakness has a profound effect on aneighborhood’s stability and quality of life. Aneighborhood with large numbers of vacantlots and abandoned buildings is a troubledneighborhood. Few people will put their own

money into rehabilitating or upgradingproperties in these areas, while families whoseeconomic conditions improve are more likelyto move out of the neighborhood and the city.

To begin the process of rebuilding their housingand their neighborhoods, communities must notonly make a commitment to change, but mustpull all of their key stakeholders together todesign a strategy to invest their housingresources in ways that respond to and build onthe realities of the local market. The goalsdescribed in the following section grow out ofthe features of the housing markets summarizedabove, and provide a basis for sound decisionsabout housing choices and investments.

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A more productive approach is to think of housingnot as a way of addressing a set of problems, butas a response to a broader citywide and regionalchallenge. Housing investment in weak marketcities can become a tool for strengthening the cityand its neighborhoods, and improving the qualityof life for the city’s citizens of all income levels.Housing policies in these cities should be designedto help restore the city’s competitive position in itsregion and foster a more diverse economic mix inthe city’s neighborhoods. This can only be achievedwhere housing investments are more than discreteprojects, but are part of a larger long-term strategicframework driven by market-building strategies. Tothat end, each housing investment or activityshould be designed to achieve one or more of fourfundamental policy goals:

● Build neighborhoods, not just houses.

● Foster a more diverse economic mix in the cityand its neighborhoods.

● Make sure the community’s present residentsbenefit from change.

● Leverage housing investment to help rebuildthe city’s economy.

Goal 1: Build neighborhoods, not just houses

A stable thriving city is a city of stable thriving

neighborhoods. People choose to move into, orstay in neighborhoods more than houses. Thedetermining factor in the future of weak marketcities is how well they maintain the stability andenhance the appeal of their neighborhoods, andcreate a climate that not only encouragespeople with choices to buy in the city’sneighborhoods, but encourages existingresidents to stay and invest their time, energy,and money in their neighborhood. The task, in aphrase widely used today, is to createneighborhoods of choice: these areneighborhoods that people—specifically, thosewho are in a position to choose—remain in ormove into. To create neighborhoods of choicerequires equal attention both to making housinginvestments and to building and preservingneighborhood amenities. They are two sides ofthe same coin.

Housing investment is neighborhood

investment. Of all the issues which must beaddressed if neighborhood revitalization is tobecome a reality, housing may be the most

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REVERSING DECLINE: POLICYGOALS FOR HOUSING INVESTMENTIN WEAK MARKET CITIES

CHAPTER 2

BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

Every city shares the same dilemma. Resources for housing investment are limited, needs far exceedthe dollars available, and these needs compete with one another for resources. These issues are hardto resolve, especially in weak market cities. Do we seek to tackle the most disinvested neighborhoods,or focus on neighborhoods at risk of further decline? Do we concentrate on meeting lower incomehousing needs, without regard to the market consequences, or focus on strengthening the real estatemarket, at the risk of neglecting the housing conditions of the poor? In the absence of clear policiesand priorities, many cities may try to do a little of everything, often scattering limited resources in waysthat help a handful of direct beneficiaries but may yield little sustained benefit to the community.

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important. Not only do residential areas makeup the greater part of any neighborhood, buthousing investment drives the decisions madeby individuals and families to buy or rent, to fixup or neglect, and to stay or leave. Each housinginvestment should be evaluated both as shelterand in terms of how it contributes to making theneighborhood as a whole stronger and morecompetitive. Similarly, public amenities such asnew schools, green spaces, transit lines, andshopping districts should all be planned anddesigned in conjunction with housinginvestments, so that the money being investedin a neighborhood has the greatest cumulativeimpact on its market appeal and quality of life.

Goal 2: Foster a more diverse economicmix in the city and its neighborhoods

Cities as a whole are disproportionately poor,and weak market cities tend to be the poorest,reflecting the steady outward movement ofthose residents with the economic means tomove out of the city. Unless cities can reversethis pattern, they will remain locked into anongoing cycle of continued deterioration andimpoverishment. Thus, a city that becomesattractive to the moderate, middle and upperincome people who could choose to liveelsewhere will not only draw a new generationof affluent in-migrants, but will encouragemore of its own residents to stay and put theirtalents to use in the city.

A healthy city is a diverse city, offering anenvironment that appeals to people of differentgenerations, racial and ethnic groups, andeconomic levels. Fostering a more diverseeconomic mix can reduce concentrations ofpoverty and reverse the cycle of decline. Ashousing demand grows, property valuesincrease, encouraging better propertymaintenance as well as investment in both newconstruction and rehabilitation, reducingabandonment and improving neighborhoodquality. In turn, increased property values andhigher resident incomes translate into greaterproperty, sales, or income tax revenues forlocal government. These revenues can translateinto improved city services, and a better qualityof life for all residents. Finally, as disposableincome grows, retail spending grows.

Entrepreneurs can translate additionalspending into new business and jobopportunities in the city.

Cities have three ways to change their economicmix, and build their middle class. First, they cangrow upward mobility by investing in education,financial literacy, job training, and improvingcity residents’ access to suburban jobopportunities. Second, they can retain upwardlymobile households by improving services,reducing crime, and fostering a better quality oflife in the city’s neighborhoods. Finally, they canattract middle and upper income householdsfrom outside the city by creating and marketingneighborhoods of choice.

While some cities can attract middle and upperincome residents by more effectively marketingtheir existing assets, others may have to providefinancial incentives to compensate for the low market values and limited appreciation inthe city’s housing stock. This raises the questionof when and how it is appropriate, from a policyand ethical standpoint, to use scarce publicresources to assist non-poor households, whenlow-income housing needs remain unmet. Localofficials and CDC staff must have a solidunderstanding of the local housing market and the real estate development process if theyare to be able to determine what thosecircumstances are, and use public resourceseffectively. Only by developing the ability to target public investment to leverage significantprivate resources can cities develop responsible,ethical policies to promote the economic mixthat is needed for a viable, sustainable,community.

Goal 3: Make sure the community’spresent residents benefit from change

Ideally, the movement of more affluenthouseholds into the cities would be matched bygreater housing opportunities throughout theregion for low-income households.Unfortunately, this is not the reality that mostcities and regions will experience. The slow paceof economic change dictates that poor and near-poor households will remain disproportionatelyconcentrated in cities for the foreseeable future;cities, therefore, will continue to bear the

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greatest part of the responsibility to addresstheir needs, including continued production ofaffordable housing. To contribute to the city’srevival, however, affordable housing must beclosely tied to the city’s strategies to rebuild itsneighborhoods, build its middle class, andreinvigorate the local economy. To do so, CDCsand developers should follow two principles:

Build affordable housing to build wealth. It isboth good policy and good politics to ensurethat long-term residents of the communitybenefit from the city’s revitalization. Affordablehousing can create opportunities for lowerincome families to build individual assets,wealth, and self-sufficiency, and to becomemore stable, engaged members of thecommunity through home ownership. At thesame time, cities should avoid pursuinghomeownership strategies that placefinancially stressed households into uncertainownership situations, which may deplete ratherthan build the family’s assets.

Enhance neighborhood quality with quality

affordable housing. Providing higher qualityaffordable housing for lower income families notonly benefits those families, but also theirneighborhoods and the city as a whole.Rehabilitating substandard housing or buildingnew, well-designed affordable housing canimprove the physical and aesthetic quality of aneighborhood. Furthermore, affordable housingdevelopment in itself can provide a boost to aneighborhood, eliminating blight, buildingcommunity capacity, and engaging lenders, localofficials, and others in the neighborhood’s future.To this end, cities should:

● Make the best use of the existing housingstock. Affordable housing can and shouldbe pursued where possible through betteruse of the existing housing stock. This canhappen by assisting households to findbetter housing through counseling orrental assistance, improving currentlyoccupied housing, or restoring abandonedproperties to productive use.

● Maintain a healthy balance. All cities, butparticularly weak market cities, should avoidcreating or perpetuating neighborhoods that

concentrate poverty and low-income rentalhousing. The closely related goals offostering a diverse economic mix and ahealthy balance of homeownership andrental housing in each neighborhood shouldguide affordable housing investment.

Finally, affordable housing investments shouldalways be paralleled by investments that buildthe value of the city’s human capital, througheducation, training and job opportunities.

Goal 4: Leverage housing investments to help rebuild the city’s economy

Housing plays a far larger and more positiverole in most cities’ fiscal picture than manypeople realize, particularly in cities that rely onthe property tax for a large part of their localand school revenues. By even modestlyincreasing the value of residential real estate, acity can raise more incremental property taxrevenues than from strenuous efforts to attractnew businesses and industries. Cities shouldtherefore focus on increasing the value of theirhousing stock as a whole. The best way to dothat is to improve the city’s neighborhoods,making them more attractive to an increasinglydiverse body of homebuyers.

Housing strategies and housing investmentsshould be closely linked to economicdevelopment strategies. These strategies mayinclude developing housing in conjunction withtransit systems, developing downtownhousing, and neighborhood revitalizationstrategies that link housing and economicdevelopment at the neighborhood level.

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TURNING GOALS INTO REALITY:GUIDING PRINCIPLES ANDINVESTMENT STRATEGIES FOR WEAKMARKET CITIES

CHAPTER 3

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BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

Goals must be translated into strategies and programs. Without effective implementation, they are nomore than good intentions. Carrying out any of the goals described above requires that communitiesplan, design, and systematically carry out a cluster of related strategies and programs that are groundedin principles that make it possible to address cycles of decline. Seven guiding principles are presentedhere, along with specific strategies that follow each principle. These principles and strategies reflect therecent experiences of many cities.

Principle 1: Think strategically

The common ground of all weak market cities isthe need for change. People want to change the conditions that have led to the decline of theircity’s housing market and rebuild the city’seconomy and quality of life. More than just avision for the future, however, a strategy forchange demands a clearheaded assessment ofthe reasons for decline, a series of carefullyformulated steps to address those conditions,and a strategic commitment of resources.

STRATEGIES

A. Get everyone on the same page.

B. Make partnership a way of thinking.

C. Inform your strategy with reliable and

up-to-date information.

D. Encourage community-based planning for

neighborhood change.

E. Use resources strategically.

A. Get everyone on the same page.

Perhaps the hardest step in building a strategy isto unite the efforts of the many funders andfunding sources into a coordinated strategy.Public funds come from different entities atdifferent levels of government, governed byseparate statutes and regulations, and driven by

inconsistent or competing organizationalinterests. While coordination may never becomeperfect, it can be significantly improved byfocusing on two things. First, leadership iscritical. A key local stakeholder—the mayor, afoundation president, or a major corporateexecutive—can often provide the leadership thatbrings a variety of public and private funderstogether to agree on a common agenda for theallocation of their resources. Second,coordination is an incremental process. A step-by-step approach, first building joint strategiesamong those entities that are easier to bringtogether, and gradually moving outward, is likelyto be most effective.

GOOD PRACTICES

In Rochester, New York, local governmentfunding decisions and priorities are coordinatedand tied to the citywide neighborhood planningprocess. Decision-making level staff from eachcity department and the school district meetquarterly to review how their efforts are linked toeach other, and to the neighborhood plansdeveloped through the city’s Neighbors BuildingNeighborhoods process.

In Cleveland, Ohio, three local foundations, alongwith many of the city’s major corporations, cametogether to create Neighborhood Progress, Inc., a

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vehicle through which they could pool resourcesand leverage public funds to foster neighborhoodrevitalization and strengthen the city’s communitydevelopment corporations.

B. Make partnership a way of thinking.

Thinking strategically means buildingpartnerships. No city, however talented itsleadership and dedicated its staff, can carry out acomprehensive rebuilding strategy by itself.Similarly, even the most effective CDC can do littlewithout the support of the city in which it islocated. City governments, CDCs, developers,neighborhood associations, funders, and localinstitutions must all be willing to work together asgenuine partners to make change possible.

Building and sustaining effective partnershipsoften requires a major change in the wayinstitutions think and operate. City governmentshould be able to share decision-making withneighborhood organizations, while CDCs mustlearn to think about their neighborhoods andneighborhood strategies within the larger contextof the overall future of the city. Building thecommunity’s revitalization strategy should includewherever possible a deliberate, incrementalstrategy of bringing people together in workingpartnerships.

C. Inform your strategy with reliable, up-to-date

information.

The most effective housing strategies aregrounded in neighborhood and propertyinformation systems that use hard data to enablepublic officials, CDCs, and community groups totrack changes in their neighborhoods, rangingfrom negative trends such as criminal activity,fires, tax delinquencies, foreclosures, and codeviolations to positive trends such as homepurchases, market value increases, and increasedspending on home improvement. This knowledgehelps communities target resources where theywill be most effective.

Data on an array of indicators is routinelygathered and entered into computer systems inthe typical American city. An effective, user-friendly and timely system requires a high level ofcooperation among different public and private

organizations, and usually calls for a single highlycapable entity—often a university-based researchor planning center—to take the lead in creatingand maintaining the system.

GOOD PRACTICE

To support the community planning andneighborhood revitalization efforts of the city ofMinneapolis, Minnesota, the MinneapolisNeighborhood Information System (MNIS) wasdeveloped at the Center for Urban and RegionalAffairs at the University of Minnesota. MNISserves the city and the city’s 88 neighborhoodcouncils. The Center provides MNIS training toneighborhood leaders and CDC staff, and recruitsfaculty and students to carry out research studiesusing the MNIS system on behalf of theneighborhood councils. This is but one of agrowing number of information resourcesavailable to community groups, includingNeighborhood Knowledge Los Angeles (NKLA)and the National Neighborhood Indicators Projectat the Urban Institute. More information on theProject is available at www.urban.org/nnip/.

D. Encourage community-based planning for

neighborhood change.

Comprehensive, community-based, neighborhoodrevitalization planning is a powerful tool forneighborhood change. A strong neighborhoodplan, engaging the full range of stakeholderswithin and outside the neighborhood, servesmany useful and important functions:

● It provides a clear direction, or road map, for the neighborhood’s future.

● It provides an effective means of balancingmarket forces with other community objectives.

● It can build support for the community’s future,both among neighborhood residents as well askey prospective funders and supporters.

● It gives credibility to the serious, ongoingnature of the community’s revitalization efforts.

The strategies, activities and budgets of a goodplan should be ambitious but realistic. Based ona pragmatic assessment of the resources that are

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potentially available and the city’s larger goalsand strategies, they must be firmly rooted in asense of what is feasible under current andlikely future market conditions.

E. Use resources strategically.

The demand for funds, particularly “soft”money such as grants or below-market loans,always exceeds what is available, especially inweak market cities. However, while neverenough, the amount actually available is oftenunderestimated. Cities that spend the time tosystematically identify potential resources,particularly at the state level, may discover thatthe dollars potentially available for targetedcommunity investment are greater than theymay believe. Some of these potential resourcesmay include state and federal transportationfunds, or state funds for open space orinfrastructure improvements.

Perhaps the single most important dimension tousing resources strategically is the will and theability to give priority to investing resourceswhere they can best further the community’sgoals. Targeting resources is difficult. Prioritizingcertain areas or activities means that someareas will receive more investment than otherswith equally compelling needs. To succeed, thecommunity must be convinced that thetargeting strategy is a rational one, and that itwill lead to funds being used more effectivelythan in the past.

Principle 2: Capture your market

In our market-driven economy, the marketmakes key decisions that determine the futureof a city or a neighborhood. The market is made up of economic actors making decisions, based on the choices and information available tothem, about where they should spend theirresources. Cities can better understand theseprocesses by:

Building local capacity to address market

issues. More than ever before, today’s urbandecision-makers need to be more sophisticatedabout market principles and their application,so they can understand the factors that canmake their city or neighborhood morecompetitive within regional and nationalmarkets. While much of this expertise maycome from consultants, or from a smallnumber of specialized personnel, key localofficials and CDC staff must be able to use theinformation effectively.

Learning to target housing markets

systematically and aggressively. Most peoplewho are not poor have a variety of choiceswhen deciding where to live. A city’s growthand prosperity hinge on these choices, and theextent to which people conclude that it makeseconomic sense to live, buy, or build in thecity. A growing, prosperous city is acompetitive city, to which people move notbecause they have no choice, but because they actively want to be there.

ModelCitywide neighborhoodrevitalization strategy

Target neighborhood revitalization strategy

Neighborhood-drivenrevitalization planning

DescriptionThrough city initiative, neighborhood revitalizationplanning is carried out in all neighborhoods – or allneighborhoods meeting threshold criteria – in city

Through city initiative, neighborhood revitalizationplanning is targeted to selected neighborhoodsdesignated on the basis of priority criteria

Individual neighborhoods initiate “bottom-up”revitalization planning strategies for their area

Examples Minneapolis, MNRochester, NYPortland, ORSeattle, WA

Richmond, VABaltimore, MDChattanooga, TN

Camden, NJEast St Louis, IL

TABLE 1: THREE MODELS OF NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION PLANNING

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STRATEGIES

A. Grow the middle class.

B. Hold onto the city’s upwardly mobile

households.

C. Draw new residents from around the region.

D. Market the city.

In order to thrive, weak market cities mustdevelop ways to become competitive. Thatbegins by understanding how the market works,identifying the market opportunities that areavailable, and making those opportunities real bymarketing the city effectively.

A. Grow the middle class.

The people who already live in the city representthe greatest resource for building housingdemand in weak market cities. The mission ofcities, including local governments, schooldistricts, social service organizations, and CDCsshould be to increase the number of the city’sresidents moving up the economic ladder. Thisrequires enhancing their ability to compete in theregional economy, and increasing their ability touse their resources to build economic stabilityand wealth. This can be accomplished byimproving outcomes in the local educationsystem, providing job training and retraining,improving access to jobs through bettertransportation, and more.

B. Hold onto the city’s upwardly

mobile households.

The best way to hold onto upwardly mobilefamilies is to make neighborhoods better. Themore positively a homeowner feels about aneighborhood and its future prospects, the morelikely she will either buy in that neighborhood, orimprove her house in that neighborhood. Keepingthese families in the city is one of the mostimportant things a city can do to preserve itsfuture. Cities should actively work to influencetheir choices by first convincing them to buyinside rather than outside the city; and second, if they already own a house in the city, convincingthem to invest their funds in improving theirpresent home rather than relocating.

Holding on to upwardly mobile families mayrequire creating housing products that are notcurrently available. Some older neighborhoods,and in some cases entire cities, contain littlevariety in the type and size of housing they offer.In some communities the strategy may includedeveloping larger, more expensive housesthrough new construction or rehabilitation toenable households to “trade up” within the city.In other areas, the housing itself may appeal toupwardly mobile families, but the quality of theneighborhood’s schools must improve beforethey will make the commitment to remain in the neighborhood.

GOOD PRACTICE

St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society, in Camden, New

Jersey, initiated a comprehensive strategy torehabilitate abandoned houses in the Stocktonneighborhood for homeownership, combinedwith a strong homebuyer education andcounseling program. The CDC’s long-termimprovement strategy was to convince largenumbers of prospective homebuyers that thearea was a sound investment, leading manybuyers who might have left the city to buyhomes in that neighborhood. Over the course ofnearly 10 years, the CDC has rehabilitated over250 units, capturing as much as 80 percent of thetotal internally generated homeownershipdemand in the city. Abandonment has beensharply reduced, and house values have risensignificantly relative to the rest of the city.

C. Draw new residents from around the region.

Cities also need to tap the demand for housingfrom households living in the rest of the region,or moving into the region from outside the area.Many regions surrounding weak market cities aregrowing, some rapidly. Capturing even a smallshare of suburban growth or drawing back evena small part of the suburban population to theurban core could turn around decades ofpopulation loss in many cities.

Cities should compete with the suburbanneighbors for its particular niche markets, thosefamilies and individuals who by age, familycomposition, or other factors are most likely tobe interested in city living. This is known as

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target marketing, a process that demandscareful, dispassionate, and experienced analysisand solid market research data. It is premisedon the idea that certain groups may be attractedto certain cities or neighborhoods because oftheir particular assets. Such assets can includethe employment base, entertainment venues, adistinctive or affordable housing stock, orwalkable access to downtown or a majoremployment center. While in rapidly growingregions cities can focus on capturing a share ofregional growth, in slow growth or no-growthregions, cities should identify their targetmarkets from within the existing suburbanpopulation. A stronger, more competitive cityultimately benefits the entire region.

GOOD PRACTICE

In Norfolk, Virginia, Collins Enterprises, workingclosely with the Norfolk Redevelopment andHousing Agency, designed a new developmentfor downtown Norfolk based on a detailedtarget market analysis developed byZimmerman/Volk Associates. The analysisindicated that the market was both larger, andmore heavily skewed to young singles andcouples, than either the city or the developerexpected. The development, Heritage atFreemason Harbor, has been highly successful.Nearly all of the units were pre-leased or pre-sold well before construction.

D. Market the city.

In order to sell a city’s neighborhoods to potentialresidents, the city must mount a marketingcampaign to change the way it is perceived bothregionally and nationally. The campaign shouldbe multidimensional, utilize a variety of media,provide a variety of layers of outreach to targetedgroups, and involve meaningful partnershipsamong local government and other actors, suchas realtors and CDCs. It must be a long-termcommitment, constantly refined as marketconditions change. If the campaign is closeddown or scaled back after one, two, or even threeyears, it risks having been largely a waste of time,money, and energy.

Marketing a neighborhood is much the same asmarketing a city, except that it must be even

more tightly focused on the particular assets ofthe neighborhood and the particular targetgroups that are likely to be most interested inthose assets. Marketing plans should take intoaccount that present residents not only form the base of support for any neighborhoodassociation or CDC, but also represent asignificant marketing opportunity in their ownright, by focusing as much on changing theperceptions of the area’s residents in order tomotivate them to stay in the area and buy orupgrade their present home, as on marketing theneighborhood to people outside the community.

GOOD PRACTICE

The city of Baltimore, Maryland, partnered in1997 with non-governmental stakeholders tocreate a new entity, called LiveBaltimore, tomarket the city. With five marketing professionalsand support personnel and operating out of avisible downtown storefront location,LiveBaltimore carries out a dizzying variety ofactivities promoting Baltimore as a place to live.Some of their many activities, which are closelycoordinated with city improvement programs andhomebuyer incentives, are:

● Maintaining a website with detailedinformation on neighborhoods andhomebuying incentives

● Conducting targeted marketing of cityneighborhoods

● Building relationships with major employersand creating employer incentives for city living

● Organizing homebuyer fairs and house tours● Recruiting real estate agents, title insurance

companies and others to participate inmarketing efforts

Although it is impossible to isolate the effect ofthe marketing campaign, the average home saleprice in the city of Baltimore increased from$64,000 in 1998 to nearly $105,000 in 2002, anincrease of 64% over five years.

Principle 3: Set the table for investment

Cities must make people want to invest there,rather than elsewhere. Urban redevelopment canpose challenges not faced in suburban areas. It isoften harder and more expensive to build on an

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urban site than on a cornfield at the region’s edge,or to restore a Victorian row house than to buy anew house in a suburban development. Thefinancial return from building or buying in the city,moreover, is often more uncertain than in itssurrounding suburbs. Cities that are serious aboutchange must create a climate where people whowant to invest constructively in the city aresupported in their efforts, using public funds tobuild their market and “prime the pump” fordevelopment.

STRATEGIES

A. Build a positive investment climate at city hall.

B. Use public funds to fill market gaps and

leverage private investment.

A. Build a positive investment climate at city hall.

Everyone seeking to invest in a city comes tocity hall for zoning variances, planningapprovals, building permits, tax abatements, orother financial incentives. How they arereceived, and how efficient, transparent, andpredictable the processes are, will not onlydetermine whether they persevere in theireffort, but whether others will follow in theirfootsteps. To that end, cities should:

Welcome potential investors. The physicalappearance of the city offices servingprospective investors, the manner in which thestaff deals with their inquiries and solves theirproblems, and the quality of the city’s websiteand written materials should all convey themessage that the city is eager to work with theprospective investor. The city’s website is

particularly important, since today it is mostoften the first point of contact between a cityand a potential investor.

Create a predictable and transparent process.

Nothing discourages investors more thanuncertainty. Not knowing which office isresponsible for dealing with a particular issue orwhat information or forms are required before anaction can be taken, for example, can deterinvestment. A one-stop center, where aprospective investor can find all of the necessaryinformation, can make a major contribution to apositive climate. Relevant information, includingdownloadable forms, should be posted on thecity’s website.

Make the process fair for everyone. A city’sapproval processes should be fair, and allinvestors should have equal access to an open,responsive system.

Make the process efficient. The process ofgaining approvals should not only be predictable,it should be efficient. While large-scale projectsinvolving hundreds of acres or housing units mayrequire more extended reviews, city officialsshould work to turn around small projects indays, not weeks or months.

Get the tools right. Finally, even with the bestprocesses in place, a city’s efforts will be severelyconstrained if it is operating on the basis ofantiquated or inappropriate codes and regulations(see box below).

Create a positive neighborhood climate for

investment. To encourage individuals and

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As each city rethinks its processes, it should ask these questions about its codes and regulations:

● Do building codes reflect modern standards and requirements?● Do building codes provide realistic standards to encourage rehabilitation?● Is an efficient, fair appeal process available?● Do the zoning and land use codes permit the types of development that the city is seeking without

requiring variances?● Do the zoning and land use codes permit planned development, in order to foster large-scale

redevelopment efforts?● Does the city have clear, written procedures and standards for discretionary actions such as

conveyance of city property, tax abatements, and other incentives?● Do the procedures and standards clearly further the city’s revitalization goals?

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families to invest their own money in buying,rehabilitating, and maintaining homes in theneighborhood, a positive climate must alsoexist at the neighborhood level. Thecommitment to neighborhood change should be visible, reflected in a neighborhoodrevitalization plan, improved services, or visiblepublic investments; strategies to make peopleaware of the rehab opportunities and incentivesthat are available; and technical assistance anda supportive atmosphere for individualsrehabilitating property in the neighborhood.

GOOD PRACTICE

The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, set up a one-stop Development Center as the “single sourceof contact for people and businesses needingpermits to construct or remodel buildings in thecity of Milwaukee.” In addition to a walk-incenter, it provides a wide range of on-lineinformation in user-friendly fashion, enablinganyone to find out the zoning of a property andwhether a permit is needed for a particularactivity. Applicants can also track the progressof their applications on line.

B. Use public funds to fill market gaps and

leverage private investment.

Cities provide millions of dollars each year assubsidies or incentives for construction orrehabilitation of housing, foregoing even moremillions in tax and other revenues. Withresources limited, every dollar a city puts out inincentives or subsidies must be used effectivelyand productively.

Incentives to encourage people to buy or

rehabilitate properties.The most effective wayto improve many neighborhoods is forhomebuyers, small builders, and contractors tobuy and fix up the houses in the neighborhood.As cities have found when a neighborhoodbecomes “hot,” many people have the will, theenergy, and the financial resources torehabilitate such properties. Providingincentives to stimulate this type of privateinitiative often requires less expenditure ofpublic funds than other types of rehabilitation,while funds can often be provided in the form oftax abatements, credits, or rebates rather than

direct subsidies. These residents are likely to beeconomically diverse and strongly committed totheir homes and the neighborhood.

It must make economic sense for a homebuyerto buy a particular house. “Economic sense”reflects the purchase price and carrying cost ofthe house and how the buyer perceives thepresent and future of the city and theneighborhood. That leads to two key points.First, incentives will work better where a largerframework of neighborhood revitalization andan active support network for people buyinghomes and improving properties exist. Second,within that framework, incentives should beused to encourage people to invest in theneighborhood beyond the level investors see asbeing supported by current market conditions.

A major obstacle to getting people to restoredilapidated or abandoned houses in manyneighborhoods is their concern that the costof rehab will exceed the value of therehabilitated property, or that the propertymay lose rather than gain value in the future.Incentives can be designed to overcome thatobstacle, by filling the “market gap” betweenthe cost of rehabilitation and the subsequentvalue of the property. The incentives must belarge enough to truly affect the investor’sdecision rather than simply reward a decisionalready made, and must be carefully targetedto generate the greatest results with theresources that are available.

GOOD PRACTICES

A growing number of cities are providingincentives to encourage people to rehabilitatehomes for owner-occupancy. In Richmond,

Virginia, the city’s Redevelopment and HousingAuthority has created the Urban Pioneer IncentiveProgram for the Jackson Ward neighborhood,offering matching fund loans for the purchase andrenovation of homes for owner-occupancy up to amaximum of $35,000. If the owner lives in thehouse for 7 years, the entire loan amount isforgiven. Hartford, Connecticut, has created asimilar program, called the HomeownershipAppraisal Gap Funding program, providing loans of up to $40,000.

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The Maryland state historic rehabilitation taxcredit program provides a credit against stateincome taxes equal to 20% of the rehabilitationcost to both commercial developers and toindividuals restoring historic homes for their ownuse. It has provided a major boost to therevitalization of a number of Baltimore areas,including the West Side, where it made possiblethe conversion of the abandoned Hecht Companydepartment store into housing.

“Prime the pump” for market-oriented

development. Cities can and do also offerdevelopers incentives to build or rehabilitatebuildings for “market rate” housing, wheredevelopers perceive the market to be too weak tosupport development without public sectorincentives, and may be concerned that the rentsor selling prices of the new units, at least initially,will not cover the cost of developing the project.When the project is an important part of the city’slarger strategy, it must offer incentives to move itforward. These incentives are considered “pumppriming,” because they are designed to triggerpreviously weak or nonexistent market demand,which, once activated, will make future use ofthose incentives unnecessary.

Ground rules for “priming the pump”:

● Provide incentives only when the nature orlocation of the project is clearly designed tobuild a stronger market for that product orthat area.

● To the extent feasible, incentives shouldreflect amounts needed, based on soundproject analyses and underwriting practices.

● Any incentive, such as tax abatement, that isnot provided as a one-time front-endinvestment should be designed to phase outover as a short a period as possible, not toexceed five years.

● Where feasible, build in provisions, such assubordinated mortgages, that will enable themunicipality to recapture all or part of thefunds in the future.

Developer incentives may mean significantfinancial commitments by the municipality, either

as direct cash outlays, free land, significant tax andfee revenues foregone, or a combination of these.Using these tools successfully demands technicalsophistication about real estate market conditions,real estate development, and housing finance.Municipalities that want to succeed in this areashould consider building or retaining technicalpersonnel to analyze project costs and marketconditions and negotiate fair, balanced incentivedeals with developers. The municipality should beprepared to walk away from a deal if the costsbecome too great relative to the public benefits.

Principle 4: Tailor strategies toneighborhood market dynamics

Every neighborhood is different, with its ownstrengths and weaknesses. In order to revitalize aneighborhood by rebuilding the housing market,that neighborhood must be evaluated from amarket perspective. Nearly every weak marketcity shows a consistent pattern of neighborhoodmarket conditions, with neighborhoods rangingalong a continuum from those that are regionallycompetitive and largely insulated from the cycleof decline affecting the rest of the city, to thosethat have been heavily disinvested, with a poorlyfunctioning real estate market, widespreadpopulation loss and abandonment. Eachneighborhood requires a different mix ofstrategies, incentives, and investments tosupport or rebuild its market, and preserve orrestore neighborhood vitality.

STRATEGIES

A. Use neighborhood market dynamics to frame

effective revitalization strategies.

B. Adopt targeted strategies for intermediate

neighborhoods at risk.

C. Apply large-scale or long-term transformative

strategies in disinvested areas.

A. Use neighborhood market dynamics to frame

effective revitalization strategies.

A wide variety of information resources areavailable to evaluate the market dynamics of a city’s neighborhoods and plan effectivestrategies. Census data on demographicconditions, housing tenure, cost, and vacanciescan be supplemented with information from

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local sources on current home prices, lendingactivities, tax delinquency, and demolitions toprovide a detailed picture of an area’s marketconditions. By tracking many of these dataelements over time, analysts can identify keytrends affecting the neighborhoods, whileother techniques can make it possible tounderstand the relationship between differentfactors. All of these can give planners a deeper understanding of the neighborhood,enabling them to develop strategies that hold out the greatest promise for positivecommunity change.

Given their value, many cities have undertakenneighborhood analyses. Many have found thatneighborhoods can be clustered into a fewbroad categories and that this clustering canbe useful for exploring and framing plans andpolicies that appropriately address the marketopportunities and challenges of eachneighborhood. As such, clustering is not abasis for rationing attention and resources, butrather for focusing those resources mostconstructively. Although neighborhoodtypologies provide a broad framework forplanning, investment strategies for any givenneighborhood should be based on the marketconditions of each particular neighborhood.

Most models typically involve three basicneighborhood “types,” which can be brieflydescribed as follows:

Stable or regionally competitive

neighborhoods. These are the city’s strongestneighborhoods from a market standpoint. Inthese areas, the housing market is workingreasonably well, there is a steady demand forthe housing in the area, and prices are equal toor greater than replacement or rehabilitationcost. For these neighborhoods, the city’sprincipal responsibility is to ensure that theydo not lose their edge, by providing a highquality of public services and facilities.

Intermediate neighborhoods.These areneighborhoods in which the market is stillviable at some level today but is visibly underthreat. They are areas where maintenance maybe slipping, homeownership rates may bedeclining, and abandoned properties are

beginning to appear on otherwise sound cityblocks. Such areas demand targeted strategies;housing investment is far more likely to take theform of small-scale infill and rehabilitation thanlarge-scale construction.

Disinvested areas.The third category is made upof those areas in need of investment on a largerscale. While such areas often have assets thatcan serve as the nuclei for redevelopment, thescale of deterioration and abandonment is suchthat more ambitious efforts at rebuilding areneeded to create the framework forrevitalization. Some revitalization efforts haveincluded giving the neighborhood a newidentity, which may be an important marketstrategy in the face of long-standing negativeperceptions of the area.

The following discussion focuses onrevitalization strategies for intermediate anddisinvested areas, which require the most publicintervention.

B. Adopt targeted strategies for intermediate

neighborhoods at risk.

Viable but threatened neighborhoods are criticalto any city’s revitalization strategy, since theirdecline, with the resulting loss of propertyvalue, deterioration, loss of stable homeowners,and ultimate abandonment, will have adramatic negative impact on the city as awhole. The cost of stabilizing such an area maybe substantially less, moreover, than the cost ofbringing back an area where the fabric of thecommunity must be rebuilt from the ground up.

Go after vacant houses. Tackling the few vacanthouses on a largely occupied block is critical. Ifleft untended, they will gradually undermine therest of the block. Strategies for boarded housesmay require local government to take controlthrough tax foreclosure or eminent domain forsubsequent rehabilitation by a CDC, or offeringattractive financial incentives to families thatwill rehabilitate the property for their ownoccupancy. These strategies can be tied tomarketing activities designed to encourage suchfamilies to buy and restore substandard orabandoned properties in the neighborhood.

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GOOD PRACTICE

In Orange, New Jersey, HANDS, Inc. has beencarrying out a systematic strategy of identifying,gaining control of, and rehabilitating scatteredvacant properties in troubled neighborhoods forhome ownership. HANDS works aggressively togain title to properties by buying tax liens,intervening in mortgage foreclosures, andbuying HUD properties. HANDS’ strategy hasstabilized three neighborhoods in the city, andreduced the abandonment rate to less than 1/3of its prior level.

Focus on scattered-site/small-scale strategies.

Housing investment in intermediate areas shouldgenerally take the form of small-scale infill andrehabilitation rather than large-scale newconstruction. Local government should work withCDCs and reputable small local contractors anddevelopers, and provide financial and otherincentives to encourage individual households,both neighborhood residents and new in-migrants, to buy, rehabilitate, and occupy homesin the area. Revitalization strategies includeproviding assistance to struggling homeowners,creating programs to buy out irresponsibleabsentee owners and fix up properties for resaleto homebuyers, along with targeted codeenforcement and nuisance abatement.

GOOD PRACTICE

In Baltimore, the Patterson Park CommunityDevelopment Corporation has initiated asystematic effort to gain control of the vacantproperties in the city’s Patterson Parkneighborhood. They rehabilitate the properties,and either sell them to homeowners ormaintain them as quality rental housing,depending on the market conditions of theimmediate area, and the needs of thecommunity. Since 1996, they have rehabilitatedover 200 houses, leading to millions in privateinvestment, dramatic increases in propertyvalues, and higher tax revenues for the city ofBaltimore.

Enhance neighborhood curb appeal. Efforts toimprove housing conditions should becombined with beautification activities to bothfoster neighborhood pride and enhance thearea’s curb appeal, such as façade grants,

minimal landscape treatment of vacant lots,street tree plantings, or provision of attractiveuniform front yard fencing along block faces.

Use larger projects as anchors. Larger “anchorprojects” can help stabilize the neighborhoodand serve as community assets. These includelarge apartment buildings, surplus schoolbuildings, or vacant or underutilized commercialand industrial buildings. Converting suchbuildings into attractive housing or mixed usefacilities can provide a neighborhood with amuch-needed shot in the arm, leveraging furtherinvestment in surrounding properties.

GOOD PRACTICE

The Circle F neighborhood in Trenton, New

Jersey grew around a large factory built inphases beginning in 1880. When it closed in1990, the neighborhood began to decline, bothbecause of the loss of jobs and the blightingeffect of the vacant factory. The city, working witha nonprofit developer, divided the property,converting part into a showcase senior citizenshousing complex, and the balance into lightindustrial space, which provided over 100 jobsfor area residents. Simultaneously, the cityinitiated a neighborhood preservation program inthe area, improving the streetscape and offeringowners home improvement grants and loans.

Finally, any strategy to preserve or improveviable neighborhoods at risk must recognize thatone of their greatest long-term assets is themany families who already live there, and whoare steadily improving their economic conditions.Holding onto these families, while attracting newfamilies to the area, should be a priority for everyneighborhood.

C. Apply large-scale or long-term transformative

strategies in disinvested areas.

Weak market cities often contain heavilydisinvested residential neighborhoods andformer industrial areas that may occupy only asmall part of the city’s total area yet contain adisproportionate share of its abandonedproperties. Such areas may be candidates forlarge-scale redevelopment projects or long-termtransformative strategies, particularly where they

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contain large expanses of vacant land as aresult of sustained abandonment. Large-scaleprojects can create important opportunities for a city by changing the way the area is perceivedby the marketplace, building new housingproducts not available elsewhere, providing“move up” opportunities for upwardly mobilecity households, and engaging regional andnational developers and investors in the city.

Focusing large-scale strategies for maximum

impact. Whatever an area may offer in terms oflocation and other assets, its redevelopment mustbe part of a tightly and effectively focused andmarket-driven redevelopment strategy, makingsure that redevelopment builds demand ratherthan creating excess supply and cannibalizingdemand from other parts of the community,destabilizing viable neighborhoods that mayalready be at risk. When designing aredevelopment strategy, the city and its partnersshould perform a careful assessment of theopportunities and benefits the project offers andthe opportunity costs of using scarce resourcesthat could be used elsewhere. In so doing, theyshould identify which populations make up thepotential market for redevelopment, and how tophase it for greatest success. This includesidentifying the specific housing types mostsought after by the potential market, and whatdesign and site planning features will renderthem most attractive to the market, and build astrong, sustainable community.

Long-term cumulative investment. Large-scale,developer-driven redevelopment is not the onlyroute even for severely disinvested areas. Astrategy based on the cumulative effects ofsmaller projects and activities taking place onthe basis of a long-term strategy can be a viablealternative in a neighborhood where a CDCexists with the capacity and commitment topursue such a strategy over a sustained period.Public sector and foundation funders should dotheir utmost to ensure that these CDCs haveaccess to consistent long-term funding streamsand support for neighborhood revitalizationplanning activities.

While a strong community cannot be builtwithout building a strong market, market successalone does not ensure a strong community. If not

grounded in a solid long-term strategy to buildthe market, the success of a large-scaledevelopment can be transitory, conferring nolasting benefits on the neighborhood or the city,particularly if it is artificially propped up with taxabatements or other short-term incentives.Similarly, a development that is imposed on aneighborhood without resident engagement, orwhich displaces large numbers of residents, caneasily become an enclave conferring little benefiton the neighborhood that it may be in, but not of.

Principle 5: Build on assets

Building on community assets lies at the heart ofany revitalization strategy. Assets are what givepeople a reason to live in a neighborhood orcommunity, and invest their time and money inthe future of the area. Assets can take manyforms, including:

● The quality of the housing stock and thephysical environment.

● The neighborhood’s location and its proximityto desirable communitywide or regionalfeatures.

● The level of social capital in the neighborhood.

● The presence of hospitals, universities, orreligious and cultural institutions.

● The residents of the neighborhood.

● The presence of a strong civic associationor CDC.

There are several strategies cities can deploy toleverage their assets, including maximizinglocation, engaging key institutional partners inrevitalization activities, and linking housing toother neighborhood investments.

STRATEGIES

A. Think location, location, location.

B. Enlist key institutions as partners in

revitalization.

C. Link housing investments to other

neighborhood investments.

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A. Think location, location, location.

The most important assets for revitalization are often a neighborhood’s location and itsrelationship to key physical features of thelarger environment. Among the many assets that can be the basis for successfulredevelopment are proximity to water bodies, open space areas, transit hubs, majorinstitutions, employment centers anddistinctive buildings or historic districts.

Analyzing these factors is a critical step indeveloping revitalization plans, and determininghow resources should be targeted. Although it isbest to build on the location assets that alreadyexist, it is sometimes possible to create asubstantial asset, such as a park or light rail stop,where there are compelling reasons to pursuethe revitalization of a particular area.

B. Enlist key institutions as partners in

revitalization.

Major institutions or corporations within oradjacent to a neighborhood can be key partnersin revitalization efforts. Hospitals, colleges, anduniversities have a large stake in the future oftheir neighborhoods, which affects not only thevalue of their holdings but their stature as aninstitution. While housing is far from the onlyarea in which institutions can be involved, theirpotential roles in revitalizing the neighborhood’shousing stock can include support for communityplanning and neighborhood beautificationefforts, investment in real estate development,directly or through CDCs, and the creation ofhomebuyer or rehabilitation incentives,particularly for their workforce.

GOOD PRACTICE

Yale University, in New Haven, Conneticut,

has assisted Yale employees to buy homes intargeted neighborhoods in New Haven since1994. Yale currently pays buyers a total of$25,000, of which $7,000 is provided at closing,and the remaining $18,000 in 9 annualpayments of $2,000 as long as the buyerremains in the home. The program is offered toany permanent employee at any level workingmore than 20 hours per week, and has led tonearly 600 university employees buying homes

in the city, with a positive effect on the city’shousing market as a whole, particularly on theDwight neighborhood immediately north of theYale campus.

C. Link housing investments to other

neighborhood investments.

A neighborhood is more than housing. A strong neighborhood contains attractive, well-maintained open spaces, schools and othercommunity amenities, all working together tocreate the quality of life that makes people ofdiverse incomes and backgrounds want to livethere. The most effective housing investments are tied to other efforts and investments takingplace in the same neighborhood. Open space,schools, transit stops and hubs, and commercialdevelopment all offer particularly strongsynergies with housing investment. For thatreason, it is important that entities such as school districts, transit authorities, and othersconsider how their investments can best be used to enhance housing opportunities in aneighborhood.

Open space. Building new housing next to arestored city park adds to the value of thehousing and provides the park with a built-inconstituency. In turn, a new park or other openspace in conjunction with new or rehabilitatedhousing enhances housing value, whileproviding an important amenity for thecommunity. Open space initiatives that can belinked to housing investments include squaresand plazas; mini-parks, playgrounds, and sittingareas; community greens or commons;neighborhood parks and greenways; waterfrontparks or promenades; and city or regional parksand greenways.

GOOD PRACTICE

Hope Communities redeveloped a highly crime-ridden block in a low-income neighborhood inMinneapolis with rental housing around aninternal green commons, including walkways, aplayground, a community garden, and a pavilionon a concrete pad left from an old garage. Thesite is designed so that the open spaces aretransparent to observation by the residents,while the area is accessible from the outside to

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permit neighborhood children to use the playareas. The executive director of HopeCommunities notes that, although thecommunity is both low income and racially andethnically diverse, “the family lives are stablebecause the kids are happy. The stability infamily life translates to stability on the block.The renters never want to leave.”

Schools. In recent years, many cities and stateshave initiated massive school rebuildingprograms, reconstructing and expandingexisting schools, and building new schools toreplace older ones. School construction projectsoffer powerful synergies with housing,including the important benefit of making theneighborhood more appealing to families withsmall children. Schools can be linked to housingin a number of different ways. First, siting ofnew housing and new schools can be integratedto enhance the value and appeal of the housing.Second, new schools can be constructed withinlarge-scale redevelopment projects, providing avaluable anchor or asset to those projects.Finally, schools can be developed as communityschools, containing facilities, such as libraries,health centers, senior citizen centers, recreationfacilities and community meeting spaces thatbecome community assets.

Transit stops and hubs. Proximity to goodpublic transportation, particularly rail or lightrail service, is a major asset for residentialdevelopment. Transit stops and hubs representvaluable revitalization opportunities, both formixed-income residential development and forintegrating housing and commercialdevelopment. Many areas are planning newlight rail or bus rapid transit lines, or expandingexisting systems. Local officials and CDCsshould be at the table where this is taking place,advocating for routes that serve neighborhoodsslated for revitalization, and new stationslocated to accommodate new residential ormixed use projects. Where systems alreadyexist, it is often possible to create new light railstops on an existing line, creating a majorneighborhood asset at a cost that is modest bycomparison to the benefits it will generate.

GOOD PRACTICE

The Belmont Dairy project in Portland, Oregon,

took advantage of a trolley stop to redevelop asite that had sat abandoned for many years,attracting graffiti and squatters, anddestabilizing both the commercial area in whichit was located and the adjacent neighborhood.Using part of the original buildings and addingnew structures to the site, the developmentopened its first phase in 1996 with 85 mixedincome units and 26,000 square feet of retailspace. Subsequent phases have added 30townhouses, with 22 live/work units in planning.

Commercial development. Everyone shops, andmany retailers have discovered in recent years that urban neighborhoods can be desirableretail markets. Linking commercial ventures tohousing activities going on in the same areacan enhance the value of nearby housing andstrengthen the market for the new retail stores.Depending on the character of a commercialdevelopment, a variety of opportunities may be present to integrate housing into thedevelopment. Such opportunities include thecreation of mixed-use developments, whichinclude both housing and retail spaces, and the development of moderate to high-densityhousing adjacent to commercial centers. Evenwhere they may not specifically incorporatehousing into their plans, the design of newshopping centers should be compatible with the area’s vernacular, pedestrian-friendly andaccessible to neighborhood residents.

Principle 6: Build quality into allneighborhood investments

Any community that is serious about becomingmore attractive to current and potentialresidents should make sure that all newdevelopment, rehabilitation, and adaptive reuseprojects meet the highest standards ofplanning, design, and construction. Cities canuse design quality as a strategy both to improvethe city’s quality of life and create a competitiveselling point within its region. How well adevelopment is planned, designed, andconstructed will have a powerful impact onwhether it enhances the quality of theneighborhood and fosters its regeneration. By making sure every new development adds

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quality to its environment, cities can not only fuelrevitalization, but increase the likelihood of long-term, sustainable, change.

STRATEGIES

A. Respect the past.

B. Make sure each project adds value and

quality to the community.

C. Remember the spaces between the buildings.

D. Enforce design standards sensitively

but seriously.

A. Respect the past.

Quality planning and design begin with respectfor the past. Urban rebuilding almost alwaystakes place within an existing neighborhoodcontext, usually established in the late 19th orearly 20th century. The features of eachneighborhood or block should be defined andused as the framework for future development.Respect for the existing character of aneighborhood does not require that newdevelopment be a literal imitation of existingdevelopment patterns, but rather that the newand the old exist in a harmonious relationshipwith one another. This is particularly important ininfill locations where new buildings are added toa block with existing buildings. Each newdevelopment should be seen as “belonging” tothe community.

These principles are particularly integral in areaswith distinctive historic or architectural character.These areas should be cherished for how theyreflect the city’s past and for their value toenhance the city’s future. They are among themost powerful assets that older cities have tobuild their markets. In some cities, architecturaldesign guidelines have been developed andadopted to ensure that new development blendswell with existing buildings. Other cities havecommissioned architects to prepare ‘patternbooks’, to show local architects and contractorshow to design houses consistent withneighborhood character.

B. Make sure each project adds value and quality

to the community.

Individual projects in a neighborhood are notself-contained islands, but parts of a cumulativeprocess of neighborhood change. Design choicesmade on one project affect all those that follow.The choices made for each projectsimultaneously create and close off futurerebuilding opportunities in the rest of theneighborhood.

Where the neighborhood fabric is largely intact,and housing is being created throughrehabilitation or infill, development should seekto restore the existing fabric, through sensitiveuse of design guidelines and standards. Wheredemolition has created large open areas, orwhere the existing housing is unsuitable forrehabilitation, and large-scale redevelopment isbeing planned, there is no substitute for a strongneighborhood plan to provide a framework forrecreating the neighborhood on the basis ofsound new design principles, oriented to market-building strategies and the goal of creating aneconomically diverse community of choice.

C. Remember the spaces between the buildings.

The public and private spaces between newbuildings affect the character of theneighborhood as much as the buildingsthemselves. The fabric of many older areas isfrayed from decades of decline. Any strategy thatuses housing investment to improve the qualityof a neighborhood should also address thespaces in between, including tree plantings,façade improvements, uniform fencing,streetscape improvements and simple landscapetreatments for vacant lots. These improvementsenhance the value of both the new housingunder construction and the neighborhood as awhole. They also demonstrate to the existingresidents of the neighborhood that they, and notjust new residents, are also benefiting fromimprovements to the area.

GOOD PRACTICE

In Baltimore, Operation Reach Out South West(OROSW), a coalition of neighborhoodorganizations, created an Open Space

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Management Program to address the impact ofvacant parcels on the quality of life and marketperception of the Southwest Baltimore area.Targeting highly visible locations alonggateway streets, the program turned 185vacant lots into attractive, well-maintainedgreen spaces. In addition to the neighborhoodcoalition, the effort engaged a local hospital,city agencies, a youth service corps, theCommunity Law Center, and the BaltimoreNeighborhood Design Center.

D. Enforce design standards sensitively

but seriously.

Design standards are a critical tool for buildingquality into new housing investments. They needto be enforced firmly, but sensitively, meldingclear legal authority with solid technical expertiseand thoughtful judgment, permitting architects towork creatively, rather than forcing them intodull repetition of existing building patterns. Adesign advisory board can be established toreview submissions and recommend actions tothe body with the ultimate legal authority,including individuals with planning andarchitectural expertise, as well as residents of theneighborhoods where the effect of the designguidelines is likely to be most substantial. Finally,both the advisory board and the ultimatedecision-making body should have access tostaff or consultants with solid design expertise.

Educating and engaging those involved at theneighborhood and city levels is critical. Wheredesign guidelines are neighborhood-specific,residents should be deeply involved in framingthe guidelines in order to reflect their sense ofwhat neighborhood features are most valuableand to build their support for future enforcement.The local officials who act on redevelopmentproposals must also understand the importanceof enforcing design and planning standards, as atool to further the rebuilding of theneighborhood as a sound, sustainablecommunity. By enforcing strong designstandards from the beginning, the city is buildingvalue for the future. That value will ultimatelytranslate into greater property values and marketdemand than if the community adopts a laissez-faire attitude toward developers’ proposals.

Principle 7: Address affordable housingneeds to create opportunities andstrengthen neighborhoods

There are compelling ethical, practical, andpolitical reasons to address the housing needsof lower income households, who will remaindisproportionately concentrated in cities for theforeseeable future. Providing higher qualityaffordable housing not only benefits thosehouseholds, but also the entire community bycreating opportunities for them to become morestable, engaged residents of the community,and helping them build assets and move out ofpoverty. Lower income housing strategies inweak market cities must be about more thanshelter; they must also be sensitive to theparticular realities of the housing market, andbe designed to complement, and not conflictwith, efforts to attract a more economicallydiverse population.

STRATEGIES

A. Make the most of the community’s existing

housing stock.

B. Ensure that new construction of affordable

housing serves neighborhood

revitalization goals.

C. Integrate new lower income housing through

mixed-income development.

D. Preserve affordable housing opportunities in

areas experiencing market appreciation.

A. Make the most of the community’s existing

housing stock.

While some older units may be unsuitable forcontinued use, many can continue to providedecent affordable housing with less capitalinvestment than is required to replace themwith new units. The key is to identify andrespond to decline before existing housesdeteriorate to the point where majorrehabilitation is needed. Communities shoulddesign and implement strategies to preserveand improve existing affordable housing,including reaching out to owners of at-riskrental properties, developing effectiveintervention tools to deal with problemproperties, helping lower income homeowners

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remain in their homes, combating predatorylending, and providing access to flexibleaffordable financing for qualified individuals to buy, improve, and refinance existingmultifamily buildings.

GOOD PRACTICES

In Cleveland, Ohio, the Housing Court has linkedassistance to landlords with code enforcementby employing a team of housing specialists thatprovide training through landlord-tenant clinicsand one-on-one assistance to landlords seekinghelp finding financial resources to correct codeviolations and improve their properties.

A consortium of 90 banks, insurance companiesand public sector entities created the CommunityPreservation Corporation to offer both short-termand long-term acquisition, refinancing and repairloans for small and medium-sized privatelyowned affordable rental properties. Through2002, CPC had provided over $3 billion infinancing for over 90,000 units in New York

and New Jersey.

B. Ensure that new construction of affordable

housing serves neighborhood revitalization goals.

There are many circumstances under which it isappropriate to build new housing as part of anaffordable housing strategy. Much older housingwas not well constructed and is wearing out,while other housing may be too expensive ordifficult to rehabilitate for modern use orreconfigure for special needs. In addition to suchpractical considerations, a newly constructed andwell-designed housing development may helpimprove the way the neighborhood is perceived,both by its own residents and by outsiders, tostart the process of revitalization. Coupled withthe elimination of highly deteriorated housing, itcan improve lower income residents’circumstances while establishing a morefavorable market position for the neighborhood. In contemplating new construction of affordablehousing, local officials and CDCs must make surethat the proposed development will serve goalsthat cannot realistically be met within theexisting housing stock and will not increasevacancy and abandonment in the community.While affordable housing, particularly for owner-

occupancy, can itself enhance a neighborhood, itis also desirable, where feasible, to incorporatenew affordable housing into mixed-incomedevelopments.

C. Integrate new lower income housing through

mixed-income development.

Integrating lower income housing with market-based housing helps build economically diverseneighborhoods, while maintaining a continuingbase of affordable housing in the event of futuremarket-driven appreciation in the area. It is nowgenerally recognized that lower income units canbe incorporated into mixed-incomedevelopments without impairing themarketability of the more expensive units. Thepercentage of lower income units must becarefully determined, the quality of design andplanning must be high, and the more affluentbuyers or tenants must see the project as givingthem good value for their money.

While the ultimate goal of mixed-incomestrategies is to expand the number of middle andupper income households in the neighborhood’sand city’s mix, intermediate steps, particularly inhigh poverty areas, such as affordable rentalhousing, may be appropriate in order to movetoward that goal. Such developments must beplanned and executed not as ends in themselves,but as steps toward the ultimate goal of greatereconomic diversity.

In mixed-income developments, units targeted tomiddle and upper income households should bemarket-based. They should be sold or rentedwithout reference to the income of the tenant orbuyer, and structured in ways that ensure thatthey work effectively to build the market. Thismay require public subsidies in low-value areas,where the highest rents or sales prices that unitscan command will not support the cost ofcreating the unit.

GOOD PRACTICE

The New Jersey Housing & Mortgage FinanceAgency’s MONI (Market-Oriented NeighborhoodImprovement) program provides capital subsidyfunds for mixed-income homeownershipdevelopment in specifically designated target

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neighborhoods in the state’s cities. Projects areeligible for up to $35,000 in capital subsidy forthe market-rate units, if needed to bridge themarket gap.

D. Preserve affordable housing opportunities in

areas experiencing market appreciation.

While preserving and providing affordablehousing is a citywide issue, it takes onparticular weight in appreciating or gentrifyingareas, where increased rents and marketvalues may erode the pool of affordablehousing and displace long-term residents fromtheir community. Rapid appreciation orgentrification can shrink the pool of affordablehousing, exacerbating housing problemselsewhere in the community; impose physicalor psychological hardships on long-termresidents, many of whom may havecontributed to the neighborhood’s revival; andsharpen political and social conflict in thecommunity by pitting more affluentnewcomers against less affluent long-termresidents, and in some cases, whitenewcomers against people of color.

By addressing these issues early in theprocess, cities can allow appreciation to takeplace while minimizing the problems that itcauses. Timing is critical. Cities must becareful not to stifle appreciation that may justbe emerging. Over-concentrating housingrestricted to lower income households, forexample, to the point where it represents adisproportionately large part of aneighborhood’s total housing stock, candepress middle-class in-migration, effectivelyblocking appreciation at a high cost to thecommunity as a whole. Similarly, strategiesthat may be effective in a hot market, such asinclusionary or affordable housingreplacement ordinances, may not be feasiblein a market that is just beginning to showsigns of vitality.

One of the best strategies to pursue in agradually appreciating area may be for citiesor CDCs to bank land for future constructionof lower income or mixed income housing,with the specific timetable and character ofthe housing driven by assessment of market

trends. Other tools to create or preserveaffordability in these areas may include using shared-equity homeownershipstrategies, financial incentives to propertyowners to keep housing affordable, anti-speculation ordinances, and vacant propertyreceivership to gain control of buildings heldfor speculation.

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CONCLUSION: GETTING STARTED CHAPTER 4

BUILDING A BETTER URBAN FUTURE: New Directions for Housing Policies in Weak Market Cities

This paper outlines an extensive body of strategies for change. Many cities already have parts of thesestrategies in place and there are many potential partners and allies, from neighborhood organizationsto university faculty, who can be recruited to help put additional pieces together. Most important,perhaps, is that building a strategy for change is a step-by-step process, which is likely to stretch overmany years. Pieces of the strategy can be put in place as resources permit or as emerging opportunitiesdictate. The main thing is to get started and continue to move ahead, making the most of the pieces thatare already in place and building incrementally on them.

Weak market city governments and CDCs areoften limited in their resources. As a result,for most cities it may make sense to set thestage for more ambitious efforts with initial,modest steps, such as the following:

● Inventory what is already in place. Manycities may have pieces already in place, aswell as organizations eager to initiateefforts or contribute resources. Simplyputting down the information in oneplace—a good project for a team ofinterns or a college class—can be a usefulstarting point.

● Share ideas and information. Few localofficials, CDC staff, local businesses, orfoundations have a complete picture oftheir potential partners for change.Creating venues and forums where peoplecan share ideas, information, and jointprocesses is an important starting point.

● Build a road map. Once people havestarted to come together, and a goodpicture of the city’s opportunities andongoing activities is in place, it isimportant to build an action plan toensure that both current and plannedfuture activities have the greatest impact.

● Take small steps. Table 2 illustrates anumber of small, inexpensive actions thatcan be taken by local officials, CDCs andothers to move forward as outlined in thispaper. Some of them cost no money, andonly a modest amount of people’s time.Others may cost money, but only a smallamount. All of them can begin to make a difference.

At some point, however, the question ofallocating resources must be addressed. It is always difficult for financially stretchedcommunities to choose among competingneeds, yet it is essential that they do so. Though these decisions may reduce therevenues available for current expenditures,if properly planned and executed, theyshould bring about future revenue growththat will more than offset the costs.

Having accepted the principle of investing inthe future, one of the most difficult questionsis where to put the money. Should funds beused to build a neighborhood informationsystem, fund a major marketing campaign,bridge the market gap for a new housingdevelopment, or pay for a new light railstation in a struggling neighborhood? Thereis no simple answer. In making those

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PrincipleThink strategically

Capture your market

Set the table for investment

Tailor strategies toneighborhood marketdynamics

Build on community assets

Build quality into all physicalinvestments

Address affordable housingneeds to create opportunitiesand strengthen neighborhoods

Initial Action Steps● Have the mayor or city manager organize a monthly meeting of the heads

of the departments dealing with abandoned property issues to discusswhat each one is doing, and how they can work better together.

● Approach area universities to explore the possibility of a university-basedresearch center or department developing a local information system.

● Organize a roundtable on community-based planning for local CDCs andpresent/potential funders. Bring in speakers from other cities where it hasbeen an effective tool.

● Hire a top-notch marketing firm to identify the city’s target markets andhow best to reach them.

● Prepare marketing materials and organize meetings with human resourcedirectors of major corporations and institutions in the region to enlist theirinvolvement in promoting the city to new hires.

● Hold home fairs in targeted areas, offering small incentives to the first 25families to attend the tour and then buy in the area.

● Put comprehensive information online about (1) what permits are neededfor any construction or rehabilitation project; (2) what information ordocuments an applicant needs to get the permit; and (3) who issues thepermit and how they can be reached.

● Get a university-based team to do a simple analysis of trends in houseprices, mortgage activity (from HMDA), and tax delinquency by Census tract.

● Create a fund to provide incentives to families willing to buy and rehabvacant buildings for owner-occupancy.

● Enlist a local university to offer a pilot incentive program to staff to buyhomes in the neighborhood adjacent to the university.

● Bring the school district, a neighborhood CDC, and city recreationdepartment together to develop plans for integrating housing andcommunity open space into a planned school construction project.

● Explore designating (additional) historic districts in order to takeadvantage of state historic rehabilitation tax credits.

● Work with local architects to develop simple design guidelines forrehabilitation and infill development in the city’s neighborhoods.

● Recruit a group of retired landlords, property managers, or buildingsuperintendents to create a support system for landlords of troubledrental properties.

● Freeze auctions of city-owned properties in a neighborhood showinghouse value appreciation and place properties in a land bank for futureaffordable housing development.

TABLE 2: IDEAS FOR GETTING STARTED

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decisions, local officials should look to theinvestments that generate the greatestleverage, not only in the direct sense of theratio of private to public dollars, but whichgenerate the greatest potential benefit orcommunity impact.

Getting started is not just about taking specificactions, but about recognizing and acting onthe need for far-reaching, transformativechange. Transformative change involves newways of thinking about the community anddoing business; it requires new skills and new relationships with a broad array ofpartners. It can be wrenching and painful. It happens only when and where leadershipemerges to make it happen. While gettingstarted will require a wide variety of skills,talents and resources, without effectiveleadership, the results are likely to be far less than the sum of the efforts. Leadership—whether coming from local government,CDCs, foundation executives, orneighborhood organizations— is the catalystthat makes transformation possible.

The leadership that cities most need arisesfrom faith in the city’s future, and a convictionthat the city’s future can be a bright one. It builds bridges between the different sectors and interests in the community,making them partners in a creative enterprise.Ultimately, it leads to a sustained effort,where the commitment to change does notbelong to a single individual, but is embodiedin the entire community, its organizations, and institutions.

No report or document can provideleadership. It is the hope of the author andsponsors of this paper, however, that it willhelp spur leadership among those who read itby demonstrating that change is possible, byoffering a blueprint for change, and byoffering a body of tools and resources thatcan make it happen.

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ORGANIZATIONS

National Housing InstituteThe National Housing Institute is an independent nonprofitresearch and education organization dedicated to communityrevitalization by empowering residents of low-incomeneighborhoods, strengthening the civil society and enhancingthe work of community builders through public policy andprogrammatic analysis, development and promotion.Founded in 1975, we communicate our research throughsymposia, reports and in our national journal Shelterforce.460 Bloomfield Avenue, Suite 211

Montclair, NJ 07042-3552

T. (973)509-2888

F. (973)509-8005

http://www.nhi.org/

Local Initiatives Support CorporationThe Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is thenation's leading community development supportorganization. Since 1980, it has provided grants, loans and business expertise to more than 2,400 communitydevelopment corporations (CDCs) across the nation. Bysupporting and strengthening these non-profit, resident-ledlocal organizations, LISC helps renew the communities wherelower income people live, work, and raise families.501 7th Avenue

New York, NY, 10018

T. (212) 455-9800

F. (212) 682-5929.

http://www.lisc.org/

The Enterprise FoundationThe Enterprise Foundation helps America’s low-incomefamilies with their struggle out of poverty by providingdecent homes, access to steady employment, quality childcare and safer streets. Working with a network of 2,500community organizations nationwide and through its 17offices, The Enterprise Foundation has leveraged close to$6 billion in investments and donations to help buildalmost 175,000 affordable homes.10227 Wincopin Circle, Suite 500,

Columbia, MD 21044

T. (410) 964-1230

F. (410) 964-1918

http://www.enterprisefoundation.org/

Community Development Partnerships’ NetworkThe Community Development Partnerships’ Network(CDPN) is a national organization that supports andpromotes community partnerships working to buildthriving neighborhoods. These public-private partnershipsare a combination of business leaders, local governmentsand community members. CDPN's goal is to support thesepartnerships and to replicate their successes in other partsof the U.S. To that end, we facilitate peer learning, performor support innovative research and provide access toinformation and technical support.1009 Grant Street, Ste. 201

Denver, CO 80203

T. (303) 468-8750

F. (303) 477-9986

http://www.cdpn.org/

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