2000115-Strengthening-Communities-with-Neighborhood-Data

212 Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data
Community organizers within the CDC can also generate lists of
homeowners having financial difficulty with their mortgage or taxes and
reach out to them through a door-knocking effort. When a property
is in tax foreclosure and vacant, the CDC can work with the county to
fast-track the foreclosure through the county’s Board of Revision, which
allows the property to be moved into the hands of a fiscally responsible
owner such as the land bank or the CDC more quickly. Identifying these
properties in a timely manner allows action to be taken more swiftly,
which in turn decreases the amount of time a property sits in disrepair
and increases neighborhood blight.
Another user of the NEO CANDO–NST web app is the Reimagining
Cleveland project, which received NSP2 funding to make use of the
numerous vacant side lots throughout the city. This project allowed
homeowners living next to a vacant lot the opportunity to acquire it for
a community garden, a child’s play area, or just to expand their yards. 4
Using the NST web app, Reimagining Cleveland was able to identify,
among over 30,000 vacant parcels, those parcels that met the eligibility
criteria of the NSP2 program. Eligible lots had to be located in areas targeted
by NSP2 or SII or in other areas where targeted investments had
taken place. Eligible homeowners could not be tax delinquent, have any
code violations, or be in foreclosure. Having the NST web app allowed
program administrators to quickly identify candidates for this side lot
program and reach out to them to gauge interest. The versatile web app
also collected and tracked homeowner applications for these side lots.
Real Estate–Owned Property Disposition
NEO CANDO–NST web app data have also been used to investigate real
estate–owned (REO) disposition practices. In one well-known example,
data from NEO CANDO were included in a lawsuit filed against
Wells Fargo and Deutsche Banks in 2008. 5 Using the data system, NST
identified these banks as holding a large number of Cleveland’s REO
properties. Digging deeper into these transactions, the team found that
many REO properties were tax-delinquent and that the two banks were
transferring them in bulk to investors without having paid the taxes. On
top of that, once transferred, many of these properties were in such bad
shape they had to be demolished. Basically, the banks were buying and
selling properties that were unfit for consumption.