Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis: Action Oriented Research in Three Cities

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership is a network of local civic groups and university institutes in 32 cities that operate neighborhood-level data systems. This report documents the results of a project that challenged three of these groups to apply their data creatively to enhance local responses to the foreclosure crisis in a one year time frame. All had an impact. The Atlanta group developed neighborhood data on foreclosure trends region-wide and presented it at several major convenings that motivated stakeholders for the first time to work toward a coordinated regional approach to response planning. In Chicago, the group linked the client database of a major housing counseling organization to records on foreclosure outcomes and helped the agency examine outcomes for the households they counseled. The Washington D.C. team also analyzed a mix of neighborhood indicators area-wide (e.g., foreclosure risk, market strength, and access to transportation) and worked with the Council of Governments to use the analysis as a basis for targeting resources more effectively in Neighborhood Stabilization Planning.