2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

Using Data for Neighborhood Improvement 159
ner, the Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action at
the University of Memphis. The center staff had access to administrative
data on foreclosures, but they and neighborhood leaders recognized
that information alone was unlikely to be enough to make a compelling
case for intervention. Accordingly, community residents collected additional
descriptive information on the characteristics of problem properties.
These additional data enabled the community to present clearer
evidence on how foreclosures were contributing to neighborhood blight.
However, many blighted properties were not in foreclosure, so administrative
foreclosure data were insufficient to prioritize city inspections.
Hickory Hill leaders then used the additional data they had assembled,
working with local government to better target limited city enforcement
resources and to put pressure on owners of chronic problem properties
to make improvements. The center was later asked to extend this work
and prepare a citywide problem property audit (Buchanan et al. 2010).
In another example, the Hilltop Alliance, representing several neighborhoods
in South Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, asked the University Center
for Social and Urban Research to conduct a fairly comprehensive
analysis of the foreclosure problem in their area and to recommend both
preventative and remedial actions. The research documented trends in
foreclosure and property sales that were useful in considering responses.
For example, it showed that 68 percent of foreclosures were filed by just
10 lenders, only one of which was based in Pittsburgh; also, that a surprisingly
high share (38 percent) of properties involved in foreclosure
sales had been purchased by investors (rather than intended owner–
occupants). The University Center recommended that the Alliance
promote housing counseling to homeowners and serve as a broker to
transfer properties to responsible new owners or a land bank (University
Center for Social and Urban Research 2011).
A more demanding level of assembly and analysis is required, however,
when communities and city agencies use data to make decisions
concerning individual properties within neighborhoods. The need for
such a data-driven approach has been recognized for many years, but
awareness broadened with the implementation of one of the federal
government’s first responses to the foreclosure crisis: the Neighborhood
Stabilization Program, enacted in 2008 (Joice 2011). This program’s
funding could be used by localities for a variety of actions affecting
properties, including acquisition, rehabilitation, and demolition. The
US Department of Housing and Community Development based the