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

Technical Assistance Scholarship: Code Enforcement

Community Progress is now accepting applications for our second round of code enforcement scholarships!

Through this program, we are looking to partner with communities willing to critically evaluate the broken status quo and implement innovative policies and practices that lead to more just and equitable outcomes for residents most impacted by VAD properties.

Interested applicants are encouraged to read Community Progress’ publication, Reevaluating Code Enforcement: A New Approach to Problem Properties, for ideas and inspiration on how to shift from a traditional code enforcement approach to a strategic code compliance approach. A strategic code compliance framework is more effective and efficient, but also supports broader community development goals like resiliency, housing security, neighborhood safety, and racial justice.

To learn more about the program guidelines and how to apply, please see below. All applications are due by Friday, January 24, 2025, 5:00 PM EST.

Apply Here

The Scholarship

Each successful applicant will be awarded approximately 200 hours of customized technical assistance from a team of experts at Community Progress. The value of these services is approximately $50,000. The scholarship will fully underwrite these costs. No cash contribution will be required of selected scholarship recipients. The projects will be carried out between March and September 2025.

Eligible Applicants

Local governments that serve jurisdictions with populations between 25,000 and 500,000 are eligible to apply. Multiple, smaller jurisdictions that are taking a coordinated approach and reach the population level collectively are also eligible and may apply. Strong preference will be given to communities with significant levels of VAD properties.

Eligible Activities

This round of TAS has an exclusive focus on helping local governments reevaluate their housing and building code enforcement systems to address VAD properties. Such activities may include:

Exploring the implementation of any of the recommended core policies in our national publication, Reevaluating Code Enforcement: A New Approach to Problem Properties;
Educating and engaging key decision-makers, community partners, and code enforcement staff to build consensus and support for a shift from traditional code enforcement to strategic code compliance;
Conducting a review of current code enforcement practices and policies through the lens of racial equity and justice, and identifying reforms that yield more equitable outcomes
Helping departments gather and analyze data and outcomes of current practices, and rethinking data practices and metrics that align with the primary goals of compliance and equity
Designing new programs, partnerships or educational resources that represent a shift from a punitive to a compliance-oriented approach
Creating or reforming rental licensing and inspections ordinances and programs
Cultivating partnerships to increase funding and support for property repairs
Identifying local and/or state legal barriers, and providing guidance on how to introduce, champion, and win critical policy reforms.

Community Progress delivers technical assistance informed by and tailored to the unique needs of each community. Thus, the above list is illustrative, not exhaustive. We encourage creative project ideas that reflect the specific needs and circumstances of your community—applicants should propose what would be most helpful in advancing this needed shift from traditional code enforcement to strategic code compliance as it relates to VAD properties.

Learn more about the communities and their projects that were selected in round one in the Past Scholarship Recipients dropdown, below.

Selection Process

Applicants with competitive proposals will be invited to discuss their project further with the Community Progress 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.

Applications will be reviewed subject to the following criteria:

Scope and scale of VAD properties (based on application responses and/or our team’s internal review of most recent census and market data)
Evidence of neighborhood disparities or market and demographic indicators that suggest widespread disinvestment (based on application responses and/or our team’s internal review of most recent census and market data)
Demonstrated commitment to improving policies and/or practices in support of more equitable outcomes
Level of interest and commitment to the project from elected officials and community partners
Willingness to involve residents most impacted by VAD properties in the project
Likelihood of project success or opportunity to learn critical insights that can benefit the national field of practice

For questions, please email Tarik Abdelazim, Vice President of Technical Assistance, at [email protected].

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.