Reinventing Transit: American Communities Finding Smarter, Cleaner, Faster Transportation Solutions, released by the Environmental Defense Fund, showcases 11 case studies of existing, innovative public transit across the country.

An Engine of Opportunity: A User’s Guide to Advocate for Transportation Equity in the 2009 Recovery Act, a joint release from PolicyLink and Transportation Equity Network, written by Radhika Fox and Solana Rice, aims to identify who benefits from the $50 billion allocated for infrastructural improvements in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and who decides how those monies are used.

The Challenge of Foreclosed Properties, a study released by Enterprise, written by Amanda Sheldon, Phillip Bush, Aaron Kearsley, and Anne Gass, examines the rapid increase in foreclosure rates, and offers an analysis of the $3.92 billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program and how state and local plans implement the HUD allocation. The report concludes that NSP funds are being directed toward innovative and effective programs, though states that longer-term analysis will ultimately offer a final grade on NSP efficacy.

Property Disposition: Exploring Different Approaches for Preserving Affordable Housing Opportunities, released in March by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This report describes how banks and their partners in the community are working to dispose of foreclosed properties in creative ways that will preserve affordable housing opportunities and stabilize communities. The report reviews initiatives and strategies for building partnerships between banks and nonprofit organizations, for-profit affordable housing developers, government entities, and others.

Decade of Neglect Has Weakened Federal Low-Income Housing Programs, by Douglas Rice and Barbara Sard, and released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities*, addresses the large and growing number of low-income renters facing unaffordable housing costs. The report points to how recent funding shortfalls and policy changes have hurt federal housing programs, and outlines a series of steps to make housing more affordable for low-income families.

Beltway Burden: The Combined Cost of Housing and Transportation in the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, from the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center, in partnership with the 8Center for Housing Policy* and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, measures the combined housing and transportation costs for 22 areas within the Washington region, and finds that increases in transportation costs start offsetting housing savings when families locate roughly 15 to 17 miles from employment centers.

Post-Foreclosure Community Stabilization Strategies: Case Studies and Early Lessons, prepared for NeighborWorks America by Anne Gass, presents 14 case studies concerning community development corporations, that, either by themselves, through intermediaries, or through regional public-private partnerships, have participated in the sort of large scale solutions that, the study argues, will be required to restore neighborhood housing markets to equilibrium.

Revisiting CRA: Perspectives on the Future of the Community Reinvestment Act, a joint publication of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and San Francisco, is a series of articles and essays offering different perspectives on the past and future of the CRA in an effort to provide facts, and highlight possible reforms.