Consider:

• The Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, RI achieves a 53% reduction in crime.
• The Druid Hills Neighborhood of Charlotte, NC achieves a 58% reduction in crime.
• The Phillips Neighborhood in Minneapolis, MN achieves a 90% reduction in drug-related crime

What do these three neighborhoods have in common that enabled them to achieve and sustain such extraordinary reductions in crime? Each has had an intentional, pro-active partnership between the local CDC and the local police department. And according to a new book that highlights these and other success stories from around the country, such results could be achieved throughout the country if more CDCs and more police departments would join together.

Building Our Way Out of Crime: The Transformative Power of Police-Community Developer Partnerships, by Bill Geller and Lisa Belsky, is one of the most exciting books to come along in some time as it demonstrates with hard data and compelling stories the amazing results that have been and can be achieved.  Geller and Belsky have worked for decades to foster such partnerships largely as part of LISC’s Community Safety Initiative (which is now run by Julia Ryan, a former MACDC staff person.)

By working together, CDCs and the police can deploy their respective tools and assets in a coordinated way to attack high crime areas. According to the forward written by Paul Grogan and Bill Bratton, “these collaborations work – they reduce crime; replace problem properties with quality, affordable housing; attract viable businesses in previously blighted commercial corridors; make more strategic and efficient use of public and private sector resources; and build public confidence in and cooperation with local government and private organizations.”  

How does this happen? Police help CDCs prioritize development opportunities and design new developments in ways that make it easier to prevent crime (e.g. “put eyes on the street.”) CDCs eliminate blighted properties that consume a disproportionate share of police resources. Together, the police and the CDCs advocate for public and private investment that neither could attract on their own. The key, according to Geller and Belsky is to make the relationship intentional and long term. It is not enough for CDCs and police to function in parallel – they must work together and they must stick together for the long haul.

The report also helps to disprove the notion that locating new affordable housing in lower income communities will somehow make those neighborhoods worse. Indeed, what this book demonstrates is that carefully planned and designed affordable housing can not only improve the economic well being of its residents, but the overall quality of life for everyone in the community. Such a strategy will ultimately benefit many more people than simply trying to help a few lucky residents move to higher income and lower crime communities.  We need to fight crime in these neighborhoods – not give in to it.

Many CDCs in Massachusetts have also seen the power of such partnerships, so much so that officers from the Boston Police Department recently testified at the State House in support of the Community Development Partnership Act.  Boston LISC is supporting these efforts through its Resilient Communities/Resilient Families program.

What this book shows is that those efforts can and must be expanded because Geller and Belsky have shown us that we can indeed build our way out of crime.

On February 9, 2012, the Federal Government and Attorneys General from 49 States reached an agreement with the five largest mortgage servicers for $25 billion in payments to resolve violations of state and federal law and to implement comprehensive new mortgage loan servicing standards.  The five servicers are Ally Financial, Inc. (formerly GMAC), Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

After much deliberation, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley decided to join the national settlement, so the Commonwealth will receive its $46.5 million share of payments to the states to be distributed by the States’ attorney generals to “foreclosure relief and housing programs, including housing counseling, legal assistance, foreclosure prevention hotlines, foreclosure mediation, and community blight remediation.”

Here’s why the Attorney General’s decision to join the national settlement is, on balance, a good decision for Massachusetts:

The foreclosure crisis shows no signs of abating. Foreclosure petitions were 67 percent higher in September than they were in May.  The Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s Foreclosure Monitor's assessment of real estate data and economic trends indicates that foreclosures in Massachusetts will increase, there are still thousands of properties in the foreclosure pipeline, and we will not likely see a full real estate recovery until 2014 or later.  In this context, getting help to homeowners now is vital.

Resources to address the foreclosure crisis are drying up.  In response to the crisis, Massachusetts has made resources available for foreclosure prevention and for the redevelopment of foreclosed properties.  The MA Division of Banks continues to make annual awards for foreclosure prevention counseling under Chapter 206 of the 2007 law that MACDC was instrumental in passing.  However, as the mortgage licensing fees that fund these grants have declined, so have the awards: from $2 million in 2008 to $1 million in 2011.  The primary funding source for redeveloping foreclosed properties, the federal Neighborhood Stabilization (NSP) Program, which has been used to purchase and rehabilitate over 1,300 units statewide, is completely spent.  We need the resources generated by this settlement and we need them now.

Massachusetts is more likely to gain from the national settlement than from going it alone.  Under the national settlement, in addition to the $46.5 million going directly to the state for various programs, Massachusetts homeowners will receive $224 million in loan modifications and other direct relief and $32.7 million in refinancing of underwater homes.  Borrowers who lost their homes and suffered servicer abuse will gain $14.7 million.  Furthermore, the five banks agreed to implement unprecedented changes in how they service mortgage loans, handle foreclosure, and ensure the accuracy of information. Not everyone likes the Agreement; some take the attorneys general to task for not holding out for a better settlement.  It’s true that Attorney General Coakley could have conceivably obtained more resources for MA by declining to join the national settlement, but this is by no means certain, and what is certain is that the resources would be longer in coming.  Plus, this settlement does not preclude federal and state pursuit of further criminal enforcement actions.  Given the options and uncertainties, I believe that the Attorney General made the right decision for Massachusetts.

To ensure that the resources best address the foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts, MACDC and its allies need to engage, advocate and negotiate with the Attorney General on behalf of the families and communities most impacted by the ongoing crisis.  We need to be aggressive in speaking out about the uses for the $46.5 million, when the money flows, and how it is spent.  Our task is just beginning.

We all know that our schedules fill up quickly with meetings, events, and appointments so I want to make sure that our readers put these five important dates into your calendars now - so you don't miss out!

March 5 & 6 - The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development will be hosting the second "Getting It Done II" conference in Chicago, Illinois. This conference will bring together practitioners from around the country who are pursuing comprehensiev community development efforts and will offer great workshops, speakers and networking opportunities. If you are serious about comprehensive community development, you need to be in Chicago for this event. 

May 3 - MACDC's 2012 Lobby Day promises to be one of the biggest and most important in years as we   will be making our final push to pass the Community Development Partnership Act (if it passes before May 3, we can celebrate together!)  Lobby Day is also a great opportunity for our members to show off their great work with display tables, meet with legislators, network with each other, and visit with other guests and friends who also attend. Everyone is welcome so please come to the State House.

June 21 is the day that the Mel King Institute will be celebrating its 3rd anniversary with a celebratory event in downtown Boston. The King Institute continues to grow each year and is quickly establishing itself as the "place to go" for community developers who want to gain new skills and knowledge.

July 31 is the last day of the legislative session. All major legislation, including the annual state budget, must be enacted by this date so this is the ultimate deadline for our campaign to pass the Community Development Partnership Act - otherwise we have to wait at least one more year or longer.

November 16 is the month that we plan to celebrate MACDC"s 30th Anniversary!  Founded in 1982, MACDC is the oldest and one of the biggest CDC associations in the country and this event will be a great opportunity reflect on our history, and more importantly, highlight our plans for the future.  We expect to release a new strategic plan at the event so plan to be there - once we settle on an actual date!

November 6 is election day when voters will elect a new President and a new Congress. Without a doubt this   will be the most important day of the year and given the expected avalanche of T.V. commercials for the U.S. Senate race I suspect that none of us will miss it!  Be sure to vote as if the future of your community and your country is at sake. Because it will be. 

By: Julianna Tschirhart
Program Coordinator, The Mel King Institute for Community Building

I have a confession to make: I am a data geek. I have been known to kill time by looking at the American Fact Finder website, exploring various zip codes in the New York Times Interactive Census Map, or planning hypothetical journeys on Google Maps. I find something fascinating about the link between numbers and geography, and it was comforting to know that I was in good company at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council’s Data Day last Friday, Jan. 27^th.

Data Day is an annual conference co-sponsored by MAPC, the Boston Indicators Project at The Boston Foundation, and Northeastern University. The conference objective is to “help organizations and municipalities expand their capacity to use technology and data in innovative ways to advance their community and organizational goals” (About Data Day). The conference topic this year was “Using Data to Drive Community Change,” and over the course of the day, it became clear to me that data are powerful tools to wield in our fight to build equitable communities. In a combination of panels and workshop-sessions, I learned of the various initiatives of participating sponsors to make data more accessible, easy-to-use, and impactful in an effort to achieve a more equitable Greater Boston and nation.

One example is the MetroBoston DataCommon, a partner program of MAPC and the Boston Indicators Project, which offers a platform to analyze data and make maps on a novice to expert level. Users can check out preexisting visuals in the Regional Map Gallery on topics from public safety to education, or create their own maps by selecting preexisting data sets or importing their own. Adding to this democratization of data for the public, MetroBoston DataCommon gives users the option to edit or add to the maps made by others. Allowing your visualization to be public enhances the collaborative nature of the data exchange promoted by the website.

Using data to tell the stories of our communities was a prominent theme at Data Day. “Numbers are narrative” remarked John Davidow, Executive Editor of WBUR during the morning panel on the connection between data and storytelling. Data used skillfully can lure in listeners, give evidence to support claims on social justice issues, and help connect people to one another. In conjunction with the democratic media available at all our fingertips—Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. —data become even more influential tools for community builders. With data and grassroots storytelling, people can create a buzz and get legislators and other important players to take note of their issues.

The world of journalism and community organizing is changing. Advances in technology are allowing us access to the data we need to achieve equity in our communities. When we have the capability to translate reliable data into a narrative, we can create a movement. Rather than be content to look at data as a data geek, simply in awe of the numbers, I urge everyone to take advantage of the data available to us and become ‘data poets’—utilizing numbers to tell your community’s unique story and bring about change!

For more on data and community organizing, consider the upcoming Mel King Institute training, Making Use of Local Census Data.

Follow the Mel King Institute on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.