NEW TOOLS WILL HELP POLICYMAKERS AND PRACTITIONERS ADDRESS FORECLOSURE CRISIS AND OTHER PRESSING HOUSING NEEDS

Foreclosure-Response.org – an Online Portal for Data and Information on Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization – HousingPolicy.org Discussion Forum, and New Research Briefs Provide States and Localities with Tools to Address the Nation’s Housing Challenges

WASHINGTON (February 17, 2009) – Washington, DC (February 17, 2009) – This week the National Housing Conference (NHC) and its research affiliate the Center for Housing Policy, will be releasing a host of new “solutions focused” tools and resources for practitioners and policymakers as part of the organizations’ Housing Solutions Week 2009 from February 17-20. Specifically, the week’s activities include the release of the first three research briefs in a new series entitled Insights from Housing Policy Research, which focuses on the impacts of affordable housing on property values and children’s well-being, and the preservation of affordable rental housing. In addition, in partnership with KnowledgePlex, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the Urban Institute, the Center for Housing Policy will launch Foreclosure-Response.org, a new online guide to foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization, to help communities address pressing housing needs. And finally, the Center will also launch the new HousingPolicy.org Discussion Forum, an online tool that will help users quickly and easily share ideas, innovations, and questions about housing policy. The Forum will be available through both HousingPolicy.org – the Center’s online guide to state and local housing solutions – and its new sister site, Foreclosure-Response.org.

“Our goal in preparing these resources was to provide policymakers and practitioners at the state and local levels with the tools they need to develop effective solutions to pressing housing challenges,” said Jeffrey Lubell, executive director of the Center for Housing Policy. “Foreclosure-Response.org will help communities prevent foreclosures and target their neighborhood stabilization efforts. The Forum and research briefs will help communities address other key topics including rental housing preservation and shared equity homeownership.”

Insights from Housing Policy Research

Today, the Center of Housing Policy is releasing the first three Research Briefs in a new series entitled Insights from Housing Policy Research. Produced with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the series highlights the findings and policy implications of housing policy research supported by the Foundation, and other related research.

The first new brief, entitled, “Don’t Put it Here!” Do Subsidized Housing Developments Cause Nearby Property Values to Decline?, synthesizes the results of research on the important question of how affordable housing impacts nearby property values, with a special focus on recent research by Ingrid Ellen, associate professor of public policy and urban planning and co-director of NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. Taken as a whole, the research shows that affordable housing does not usually adversely impact the value of neighboring properties and may actually improve values in some cases. Key factors that are associated with stable or increased property values include an attractive design that blends with the surrounding neighborhood and strong property management.

Entitled Taking Stock: The Role of “Preservation Inventories” in Preserving Affordable Rental Housing, the second brief examines how data analysis is helping states and localities – including Cook County, Illinois; Florida; New York City; New Jersey; and Washington, DC – to preserve the stock of affordable rental housing. “Preservation inventories” collect available data on the existing affordable rental housing stock, making it easier for communities to identify properties at risk of loss as a result of physical deterioration or the expiration of affordability limits.

The third brief, entitled The Well-Being of Low-Income Children: Does Affordable Housing Matter?, profiles the research program of Sandra J. Newman, professor of policy studies at Johns Hopkins University, chair of the Graduate Program in Public Policy, and director of the Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, examining how affordable housing affects children and families. As discussed in the brief, a recent Newman research project found that children in unaffordable housing markets may not fare any worse than children living in affordable housing markets. This is perhaps because they benefit from living in communities that have better schools and neighborhood amenities. However, Newman stresses that more research is needed to better understand these findings.

Foreclosure-Response.org

Foreclosure-Response.org is an online guide to foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization developed and maintained by the Center for Housing Policy, KnowledgePlex, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the Urban Institute. The Web site has four main sections that provide easily accessible information on a broad range of state and local policy solutions, as well as tools to create customized data reports and maps, and an online discussion forum.

Getting Started answers basic and not-so-basic questions about foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization such as "What types of loans are most at risk of foreclosure?" and "Who is responsible for maintaining foreclosed properties?" The Policy Guide is the place to look for high-impact solutions that can help states and localities prevent and respond to foreclosures. The Maps & Data section allows users to create maps identifying which areas have a high priority need for foreclosure prevention or neighborhood stabilization assistance, as well as the relative strength of the housing market in these areas.

Foreclosure-Response.org also offers the HousingPolicy.org Discussion Forum, enabling participants to join the Forum's discussion groups on Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Stabilization and ask questions, share stories of challenges and successes, and learn from the experiences of their peers.

Foreclosure-Response.org was developed with the support of Fannie Mae and the Ford Foundation. Grants from the following funders to individual members of the Foreclosure-Response.org partnership were also helpful in supporting the development of the site architecture and portions of the Web site’s content: the Annie E. Casey Foundation; Countrywide Financial Corporation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and the Open Society Institute.

A KnowledgePlex Chat introducing Foreclosure-Response.org will be held on Wednesday, February 18. To learn more Click Here.

Discussion Forum

The new Discussion Forum is an online tool available on both HousingPolicy.org and its sister site Foreclosure-Response.org that enables affordable housing practitioners and policymakers to quickly and easily share ideas, innovations, and questions about housing policy with their colleagues around the country.

The Forum is intended to be a place to pose questions, exchange ideas, and learn from the experience and expertise of others. Organized around a variety of timely and important specific housing policy topics, the Forum will host ongoing discussions that are open to everyone and may be accessed and added to at any time.

Initial discussion groups on the Forum include: Foreclosure Prevention, Neighborhood Stabilization, Rental Housing Preservation, Inclusionary Zoning, and Shared Equity Homeownership. Within each discussion group, participants can add or respond to comments or queries, which are called "threads." Each thread addresses a different question or topic, making it easier to follow a specific conversation and reply to other users' questions and responses.

The Web site was funded through the ongoing support for HousingPolicy.org provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

A KnowledgePlex Chat introducing the HousingPolicy.org Discussion Forum will be held on Thursday, February 19. To learn more Click Here.