Community Progress regularly posts to this blog on a range of related topics to help communities across the country turn vacant spaces into vibrant places. Please check back regularly, and sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest news directly in your inbox.

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How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect the Community
March 24, 2023
How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect the Community

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties—referred to by some as “blighted properties”—pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more. Failure to address problem properties, just like ignoring a leaking faucet, costs more in the long run and causes more harm over time. Understanding the true and…

Read More...
New Report on Ten Years of Land Banking in New York Offers Compelling Metrics of Success, Useful Lessons, and a Lot of Inspiration
March 16, 2023
New Report on Ten Years of Land Banking in New York Offers Compelling Metrics of Success, Useful Lessons, and a Lot of Inspiration

By Tarik Abdelazim, Director, National Technical Assistance, Center for Community Progress Before I came to Community Progress, I spent eight years in public service in my hometown, Binghamton, New York. As the Director of Planning, Housing, and Community Development from 2010-13, I watched the tax foreclosure process and subsequent tax…

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Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement Could Be the Missing Piece in Fighting Vacant Properties
February 21, 2023
Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement Could Be the Missing Piece in Fighting Vacant Properties

Every year, property owners across the country receive property tax bills. Most people pay, because the consequences of not paying your property taxes seem cut and dry: Fail to pay and you may lose your property.  But what happens when a private property owner walks away from a declining investment…

Read More...
The Community-led Effort to Address Vacant and Abandoned Properties in St. Louis County, Missouri
February 13, 2023
The Community-led Effort to Address Vacant and Abandoned Properties in St. Louis County, Missouri

Two years ago, Missouri State House Representative Kevin Windham began asking questions to try to understand why there were so many vacant and abandoned properties in the communities he represented in suburban St. Louis County, Missouri. Who owned these properties? Why were they concentrated in majority Black neighborhoods? Why didn’t…

Read More...
Leaders in Land Banking: A Conversation with Adam Zaranko at the Albany County Land Bank
January 26, 2023
Leaders in Land Banking: A Conversation with Adam Zaranko at the Albany County Land Bank

We spoke with the Albany County Land Bank Corporation’s Executive Director Adam Zaranko about affordable housing initiatives, the importance of diversified partnerships, and what’s coming up for the land bank in 2023.  The Albany County Land Bank recently launched an innovative program to turn vacant properties into affordable housing opportunities….

Read More...
From Harm to Home: Replicating Detroit’s Make it Home Program
December 13, 2022
From Harm to Home: Replicating Detroit’s Make it Home Program

The City of Detroit’s innovative Make it Home program harnesses the power of a traditionally harmful system—the property tax foreclosure process—and uses it to increase affordable homeownership, improve housing conditions, and stabilize neighborhoods.   When landlords fail to pay their property taxes and face foreclosure, tenants are usually forced to move….

Read More...
What does equitable code enforcement look like? How Louisville is taking steps to use its code enforcement process to advance racial equity
November 30, 2022
What does equitable code enforcement look like? How Louisville is taking steps to use its code enforcement process to advance racial equity

With technical assistance support from Community Progress, Louisville is reforming their housing and building code enforcement with equity in mind.

Read More...
A Message from President and CEO Akilah Watkins
September 14, 2022
A Message from President and CEO Akilah Watkins

Dear friends and supporters of the Center for Community Progress, With great sadness and great gratitude, I announce that I will be departing from the Center for Community Progress at the end of 2022, to assume the role of President and CEO of Independent Sector. Over these last five years…

Read More...
Resident Engagement in Vacant Lot Greening: Empowering Communities for Neighborhood Revitalization
September 1, 2022
Resident Engagement in Vacant Lot Greening: Empowering Communities for Neighborhood Revitalization

This is an excerpt of Chapter 11 of Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession, jointly produced by the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It has been lightly edited and condensed for the web….

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Over Forty National, Local, and Land Bank Stakeholders Join Community Progress in Asking Bank Regulators to Strengthen the CRA
August 30, 2022
Over Forty National, Local, and Land Bank Stakeholders Join Community Progress in Asking Bank Regulators to Strengthen the CRA

On August 5th, 2022, Community Progress and forty-three supporting organizations across the country submitted a public comment calling for the modernized Community Reinvestment Act to center racial equity and embed land banking strategies. You can read our comment here. Passed in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) is one of…

Read More...
How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect the Community

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties—referred to by some as “blighted properties”—pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more. Failure to address problem properties, just like ignoring a leaking faucet, costs more in the long run and causes more harm over time. Understanding the true and…

Read More...
New Report on Ten Years of Land Banking in New York Offers Compelling Metrics of Success, Useful Lessons, and a Lot of Inspiration

By Tarik Abdelazim, Director, National Technical Assistance, Center for Community Progress Before I came to Community Progress, I spent eight years in public service in my hometown, Binghamton, New York. As the Director of Planning, Housing, and Community Development from 2010-13, I watched the tax foreclosure process and subsequent tax…

Read More...
Delinquent Property Tax Enforcement Could Be the Missing Piece in Fighting Vacant Properties

Every year, property owners across the country receive property tax bills. Most people pay, because the consequences of not paying your property taxes seem cut and dry: Fail to pay and you may lose your property.  But what happens when a private property owner walks away from a declining investment…

Read More...
The Community-led Effort to Address Vacant and Abandoned Properties in St. Louis County, Missouri

Two years ago, Missouri State House Representative Kevin Windham began asking questions to try to understand why there were so many vacant and abandoned properties in the communities he represented in suburban St. Louis County, Missouri. Who owned these properties? Why were they concentrated in majority Black neighborhoods? Why didn’t…

Read More...
Leaders in Land Banking: A Conversation with Adam Zaranko at the Albany County Land Bank

We spoke with the Albany County Land Bank Corporation’s Executive Director Adam Zaranko about affordable housing initiatives, the importance of diversified partnerships, and what’s coming up for the land bank in 2023.  The Albany County Land Bank recently launched an innovative program to turn vacant properties into affordable housing opportunities….

Read More...
From Harm to Home: Replicating Detroit’s Make it Home Program

The City of Detroit’s innovative Make it Home program harnesses the power of a traditionally harmful system—the property tax foreclosure process—and uses it to increase affordable homeownership, improve housing conditions, and stabilize neighborhoods.   When landlords fail to pay their property taxes and face foreclosure, tenants are usually forced to move….

Read More...
What does equitable code enforcement look like? How Louisville is taking steps to use its code enforcement process to advance racial equity

With technical assistance support from Community Progress, Louisville is reforming their housing and building code enforcement with equity in mind.

Read More...
A Message from President and CEO Akilah Watkins

Dear friends and supporters of the Center for Community Progress, With great sadness and great gratitude, I announce that I will be departing from the Center for Community Progress at the end of 2022, to assume the role of President and CEO of Independent Sector. Over these last five years…

Read More...
Resident Engagement in Vacant Lot Greening: Empowering Communities for Neighborhood Revitalization

This is an excerpt of Chapter 11 of Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession, jointly produced by the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It has been lightly edited and condensed for the web….

Read More...
Over Forty National, Local, and Land Bank Stakeholders Join Community Progress in Asking Bank Regulators to Strengthen the CRA

On August 5th, 2022, Community Progress and forty-three supporting organizations across the country submitted a public comment calling for the modernized Community Reinvestment Act to center racial equity and embed land banking strategies. You can read our comment here. Passed in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (“CRA”) is one of…

Read More...