The Center for Community Progress helps people turn vacant spaces into vibrant places.

Since 2010, Community Progress has provided urban, suburban, and rural communities battling systemic vacancy with the policies, tools, and resources needed to address the full cycle of property revitalization.

We are the only national nonprofit dedicated to tackling vacant properties and drive change by uncovering and disrupting the unjust systems that perpetuate entrenched vacancy and property deterioration.

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A woman speaks to a group about a pair of vacant buildings with creatively painted boards on them

Our Vision and Mission

We envision a future where all people live in strong, healthy, just communities where widespread vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties no longer exist. Our mission is to foster strong, equitable communities where vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties are transformed into assets for neighbors and neighborhoods.

Our Areas of Expertise

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The community experience of widespread property vacancy caused by people, policies, and processes.

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Repurposing and maintaining vacant lots in service of community needs.

Resident-led work to improve neighborhoods through arts, culture, and intentional community development.

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Public entities with unique governmental powers focused on putting vacant properties to productive use.

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Equitable, efficient, and effective practices focused on fixing the problem, not punishing the property owner.

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Reforming tax systems to prioritize equity and swiftly get abandoned properties back into responsible ownership.

Our Commitment to Equity

As leaders in our field, it is our responsibility to uncover and disrupt the systems that perpetuate inequity—in the communities we serve and within our organization. Systemic racism is a root cause of vacant, abandoned, deteriorated properties and an immense barrier to achieving our mission. Therefore, we must ingrain the pursuit of racial equity in our programs, partnerships, and people. We do this by embedding racial equity into our programming; dedicating time and resources toward implementing an annual Equity Action Plan; and providing racial equity training and education opportunities to staff and board.

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Get Help For Your Community

The Center for Community Progress provides customized, expert guidance to state and local governments to assess the state of vacancy in your community and recommend policy and practice solutions for equitable neighborhood revitalization.