Applicants must align proposed sessions with at least one and no more than two of the topic areas below. The possible subjects listed under each topic simply provide examples and are not intended to be a comprehensive list of all possible subjects within each topic area.

Arts, Placemaking, and Culture

Possible Subject Matter:

• Partnering with artists and arts organizations on vacant property reuse
• Using arts, placemaking, and culture to address neighborhood challenges resulting from public health, housing, and economic crisis
• Supporting economic development through placemaking or the arts
• Equitable, resident-driven development through creative placemaking
• Embedding arts and culture in larger community revitalization initiatives
• Vacant commercial properties

Code Enforcement and Rental Properties

Possible Subject Matter:

• Moving from reactive to proactive code enforcement of vacant and deteriorating properties
• Cost recovery
• Rental licensing and registration
• Maintaining high quality housing stock to prevent vacancy

Disaster Recovery and Resilience

Possible Subject Matter:

• Proactive/preventative or reactive policies or programs to prepare for increased property vacancy and deterioration in the wake of natural or man-made disasters
• Making the case for vacant properties strategies within climate change adaptation and resilience plans

Economic and Workforce Development

Possible Subject Matter:

• Strategies to unlock the economic potential in vacant properties (particularly in low-value property markets)
• Initiatives to support wealth- and asset-building for residents
• Leveraging vacant buildings and lots to support job creation
• Vacant commercial and industrial property reuse.

Housing Stabilization

Possible Subject Matter:

• Home repair and rehabilitation financing or grant programs to address property deterioration
• Property deconstruction or demolition strategies
• Addressing contractor base to support rehabilitation and repair
• Rehabilitation of vacant properties for quality affordable housing
• Wealth preservation through housing market stabilization
• Heirs’ property
• Access to capital for homebuyers
• Alternative ownership models

Institutional and Private Sector Partnerships

Possible Subject Matter:

• Partnering with anchor institutions and philanthropic entities
• Opportunity Zones
• Attracting mission-oriented developers
• Revitalizing business districts
• Revitalizing commercial properties

Land Banks and Land Banking

Possible Subject Matter:

• Management, transparency, and oversight
• Funding mechanisms
• Successful partnerships
• Innovative acquisition, disposition, rehabilitation and maintenance programs
• Community engagement

Mortgage and Tax Foreclosure

Possible Subject Matter:

• Delinquent tax enforcement systems and innovations to address vacant and deteriorated properties
• Sale of property tax liens
• Preventing mortgage foreclosure
• Equitable reuse of REO properties
• Complying to changing legal environments

Planning, Data, and Evaluation

Possible Subject Matter:

• Property data systems and cross-department collaboration on data
• Understanding markets and market-informed approaches
• Comprehensive planning for vacant properties and revitalization
• Measuring progress
• Evaluating success

Public Safety and Public Health

Possible Subject Matter:

• Partnerships with local law enforcement
• Crime reduction tactics related to vacancy and abandonment
• Partnerships with local hospitals and other public health organizations
• Improving public health by addressing vacancy and abandonment

Building Rehab and Reuse

Possible Subject Matter:

• Creative financing mechanisms for rehab or reuse of residential, commercial, or industrial properties
• Rehab programs that focus on improving building performance and resiliency
• Historic preservation strategies
• Access to capital for rehab

Vacant Land Stewardship

Possible Subject Matter:

• Alternative reuse options like green infrastructure or energy production
• Positioning vacant land to address climate change
• Innovative finance models
• Community wealth-building through vacant land reuse
• Effective maintenance strategies
• Funding and ownership structures for long-term alternative use
• Acquisition and disposition strategies

State and Federal Policy and Programs

Possible Subject Matter:

• Navigating federal or state funding opportunities like ARPA, CDBG-DR, FEMA, USDA
• Making the case for funding
• Partnering effectively
• Advocacy models for local, state, or federal policy reform

For more information about format and topics, review the full request for session proposals here.