Technical Assistance Scholarships

Technical Assistance Scholarships (TAS) enable communities to pilot innovative programs and practices to address vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties that can become models for the broader field.

Through TAS, Community Progress provides customized technical assistance at no cost or a significant discount to:

Support communities most in need
Partner with visionary practitioners and local leaders committed to racial equity
Innovate in the broader community development and neighborhood revitalization field

Currently not accepting applications. Please check back and sign up for our newsletter to receive announcements about this scholarship program and other opportunities.

Technical Assistance Scholarship:
Land Banks and Brownfields

Through this scholarship opportunity, we will competitively select up to five eligible applicants, as funds allow, that are seeking to:

Create new land bank enabling legislation in their state,
Create a land bank pursuant to existing state enabling legislation, OR
Develop or improve an existing land bank’s approach to brownfields work.

This scholarship opportunity is possible thanks to grant funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is intended to support EPA brownfields grant recipients. Applicants who are current EPA brownfields grant recipients, sub-recipients, or Targeted Brownfields Assessment recipients will receive priority in the review process. Former EPA grant recipients and communities that applied but were not awarded EPA funding will also be considered on a case-by-case basis. Communities that have never applied for or been a recipient or sub-recipient of an EPA brownfields grant or Targeted Brownfields Assessment assistance are not eligible for this opportunity.

The Scholarship

Each successful applicant will receive up to 200 hours of customized technical assistance from a team of experts at Community Progress. The scholarship will fully underwrite these costs. No cash contribution will be required of selected scholarship recipients. We anticipate scholarship engagements for the next reciepients will start in January 2026 and be completed in six to nine months, depending on the nature and scope of the project.

Eligible Activities

Community Progress delivers technical assistance informed by and tailored to the unique needs of each community. Below is an illustrative, non-exhaustive list of eligible project activities:

Educating and engaging key decision-makers and community partners to build consensus and support for new state land bank enabling legislation or creation of a land bank pursuant to existing state enabling legislation;
Identifying local and/or state legal barriers to brownfield remediation and reuse by land banks, and providing guidance on how to introduce, champion, and win critical policy reforms;
Assisting with development and prioritization of a local brownfield inventory;
Supporting a land bank engaging in brownfields work for the first time or seeking to improve their approach to brownfields work;
Exploring the implementation of any of the practical considerations and emerging practices in our national publication, Emerging Practices & Practical Considerations for Land Banks & Brownfield Redevelopment.

Application Process

To encourage a broad range of communities to submit creative, innovative proposals, the application process is intended to be simple and short.

The application period for this project has closed. Those interested in applying to future scholarships are encouraged to check back next summer and to refer to Community Progress’ Land Banks and Brownfields Online Resource Center when developing their proposals. To learn more about the program guidelines and how to apply, please see below.

Selection Process

As part of the review process, Community Progress will invite applicants with competitive proposals to discuss their projects further with our team on a one-hour call. Following this conversation, Community Progress may ask applicants to include additional materials like letters of support from key partners or preliminary data to support the need for technical assistance work before making a final selection. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application.

Applications will be reviewed subject to the following criteria:

Applicant is a recipient, sub-recipient, or applicant for an EPA brownfields grant or Targeted Brownfields Assessment assistance;
The scope and scale of the brownfield inventory to be addressed (based on application responses and/or our team’s internal review of recent market data);
Prevalence of or interest in addressing commercial brownfield properties;
Interest in sustainable remediation and reuse strategies;
Willingness to involve residents most impacted by brownfield properties in the project;
Level of interest and commitment to the project from elected officials and community partners; and
Likelihood of project success or opportunity to learn critical insights that can benefit the national field of practice.

Technical Assistance Scholarship:
Code Enforcement

In January of 2025, Community Progress released the second round of code enforcement scholarships. The solicitation drew a record number of thoughtful applications from communities across the country.

Three applicants were competitively selected in March to receive customized, high-impact technical assistance at no cost, from a team of national experts at Community Progress. Scholarship recipients, and a brief description of their projects, are listed below:

Savannah, Georgia: Assess data collection and management practices and identify cost-effective reforms that enhance inter-departmental coordination and advance a strategic approach to increase code compliance rates.
Jackson, Mississippi: Identify the City’s major pain points in effectively tackling harmful, vacant properties, build local consensus on priorities, and develop a fundraising strategy for a long-term partnership.
Providence, Rhode Island: Better understand the problem of deteriorating, occupied rental properties, and recommend better solutions that will support tenants, landlords, and neighborhoods.

Engagements will conclude at the end of 2025. Resources developed in support of these communities will be available on our website.

More information about the technical assistance scholarship for code enforcement is below.

The Need for Code Enforcement Reform

Housing and building code enforcement’s primary function is to protect and strengthen public health and safety. It is also one of a government’s most important tools to stabilize and strengthen neighborhoods. Our experience working with hundreds of diverse communities across the country, however, has shown that the traditional approach to code enforcement is due for urgent review and reevaluation, particularly in neighborhoods with weak housing markets, high levels of poverty, and widespread vacancy.

Traditionally, most local governments rely on complaints to identify violations, and civil and criminal penalties to enforce local property maintenance ordinances. This reactive and punitive-centric approach may be effective in stable or strong real estate markets and when owners have the resources to make repairs. However, in weak real estate markets, this approach is often inequitable, inefficient, and ineffective. Many low-income homeowners lack the resources to make repairs, and most corporate landlords, knowing they can avoid prosecution, reject investments in routine maintenance to protect and maximize profit margins. And the metrics used by most code enforcement departments to track success—how many tickets were issued and how much in fines were levied—don’t align with the goals of compliance, public health and safety, and neighborhood vitality.

There is an urgent need, especially for those communities that struggle with VAD properties, to shift from traditional code enforcement to strategic code compliance—an approach that is far more equitable, effective, and efficient. Our first round of technical assistance scholarships in 2024 will help communities make this shift.

Past Scholarship Recipients

In February 2024, Community Progress launched the first round of our code enforcement technical assistance scholarships and competitively selected three communities. Scholarship recipients, and a brief description of their projects, are listed below:

Birmingham, Alabama: Newly passed state law gives the City of Birmingham the ability to add code enforcement fines and nuisance abatement costs as priority liens on vacant properties—a key policy tool of a strategic code compliance approach. Community Progress is helping Birmingham develop the internal systems and processes to strategically identify which code liens to efficiently and equitably foreclose on using a judicially supervised process that will protect property interests and produce insurable title.

Cleveland, Ohio: The City of Cleveland’s code enforcement department is embarking on a period of growth and hiring new officers to support the City’s implementation of its newly passed Residents First legislation. Community Progress is helping Cleveland develop a training curriculum that centers many of the principles of a strategic code compliance approach. The curriculum will support the onboarding of these new code enforcement officers and ensure the entire code team has a baseline knowledge of codes, processes, partners, and critical skills that are necessary to work with community members and property owners to reach compliance.

Lima, Ohio: The City of Lima has been actively working towards many of the strategies that align with a strategic code compliance approach. Still, Lima has a large inventory of vacant privately-owned properties that remain stuck. Community Progress is assessing their code enforcement approach across three types of VAD properties (vacant, owner-occupied, renter-occupied) to improve effectiveness, strengthen partnerships, and achieve equitable outcomes.

Resources developed in support of these communities will be posted here and to our publication page.

Questions?

For questions about Technical Assistance Scolarships, please contact Nora Daly, Associate Director of Technical Assistance, at [email protected].

Sign me up!