Model Programs

Working throughout the country allows the National Vacant Properties Campaign to hear about and see firsthand innovative programs that are solving critical vacant property problems. Some of them are listed below.

Please tell us about the programs working in your community.

• Neighborhoods in Bloom
  In 1998 Richmond, Virginia launched the NiB initiative as part of a coordinated effort in seven neighborhoods to restore livability and improve neighborhood stability, tackling everything from code enforcement to turning around decreasing homeownership rates. In the first three years of the initiative, the targeted neighborhoods experienced a 19 percent reduction in crime, and have seen an 11 percent increase in the number of occupied homes and apartments.  A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond documents the benefits of consolidating and targeting limited public resources for neighborhood revitalization.
  
  Read more about Neighborhoods in Bloom.
  
  Download the Federal Reserve report, The Impacts of Targeted Public and Nonprofit Investment on Neighborhood Development.
  
  Neighborhood Transformation Initiative
  In 2000 Philadelphia Mayor John Street announced a comprehensive, city-wide effort to counter decades of decline, making its neighborhoods cleaner and safer, ensuring quality housing, and helping to recapture jobs and tax revenue lost due to urban flight. NTI is founded on cooperation and innovation at all levels of government.
  
  Read more about NTI
  
  
• Philadelphia Green
  Philadelphia Green, a program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, manages neighborhood-based projects emphasizing the critical role of open space to the quality of life in urban communities. Working in partnership with neighborhood residents, community organizations, and city agencies, the program uses greening as a community building tool, linking greening to street improvements, new housing, commercial developments, and other community development projects.
  
  Read more about Philadelphia Green.
  
  
• Project 5000
  In 2002, Mayor O'Malley launched Project 5000, an inventive and ambitious effort to return 5,000 vacant and abandoned properties to productive use. Project 5000 was a new approach, combining aggressive tax sale foreclosures with traditional condemnations and property transfers. It called on local law firms, title companies, businesses and realtors for expedient and discounted services. By January of 2005, Baltimore Housing had gained title to all 5,000 properties and increased the number of annual property acquisitions tenfold. Aggressive acquisition and disposition efforts continue. To date, 5,758 properties have been acquired through Project 5000 and, more importantly, 1,700 have already been conveyed, sold, or programmed for redevelopment.
  
  Read more about Project 5000.
  
  
• Cleveland Municipal Housing Court
  Within Ohio, only a handful of cities have a specialized division of their state trial courts devoted exclusively to housing and code enforcement cases, and Cleveland has one of the best. Rather than hearing standard criminal and civil cases, housing courts can devote their exclusive attention to complex cases involving substandard housing and abandoned buildings brought by the city prosecutor. Cleveland’s Housing Court includes ten housing specialists and inspectors who work, at the judge’s direction, with responsible property owners to correct the violations on their properties.  Beyond the activity within the courtroom, Housing Court Judge Ray Pianka, a former Cleveland city council member and former executive director of a CDC, works closely with community groups, professional organizations, civic and political leaders, on a wide range of housing and community development initiatives.

To learn about other model practices, visit the Strategies & Technical Tools page.