Investing in Community Land Trusts: A Conversation With CLT Funders, by Shelterforce editor Miriam Axel-Lute, is drawn from interviews with 15 CLT funders from 13 foundations, discussing why they have decided to embrace the CLT model.

Sustainable Newark, by the Regional Plan Association, finds that Newark, N.J., is “well positioned to leverage sustainability for urban revitalization,”by way of new energy technologies in older buildings, storm water management in its parks and wetlands, and leveraging its diversified economy, with a changing but still well-positioned industrial base, for green manufacturing and “eco-industry.”

Rebuilding Communities in Economic Distress: Local Strategies to Sustain Homeownership, Reclaim Vacant Properties, and Promote Community-Based Employment, by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, highlights innovative approaches to stabilizing communities, often with limited resources. The report presents a list of best practices from across the nation to avoid foreclosure, sustain homeownership, reclaim vacant and abandoned properties, and enhance local employment.

Mortgage Lending in the Great Recession: HMDA 2009, by New York University’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, finds that in 2009, lending to low- and moderate-income homebuyers increased, as did the number of new mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration and Veteran’s Administration, while mortgage refinancing increased substantially.

REO and Vacant Property Strategies for Neighborhood Stabilization, a joint publication of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and Cleveland and the Federal Reserve Board, includes research and commentary from nonprofit and municipal practitioners; Federal Reserve, academic, and policy researchers; and private sector partners on REO markets and how they operate, keeping properties occupied despite delinquencies, and stabilizing neighborhoods after foreclosures. Contributing authors include: Alan Mallach, an NHI senior fellow writing for the Brookings Institution; Dan Immergluck of the Georgia Institute of Technology; Carolina K. Reid of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; Craig Nickerson of the National Community Stabilization Trust; and Harold Simon, NHI executive director.

Enhancing New Markets Tax Credit Pipeline Flow, a new working paper by Kevin Leichner of the Community Development Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, finds that during the Great Recession, New Markets Tax Credits are performing better than other investments. The paper also provides recommendations for strengthening the program going forward.

Meeting the Challenge of Distressed Property Investors in America’s Neighborhoods, by Alan Mallach for the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Cities from New Haven to Phoenix are grappling with a new reality where investors are buying large numbers of distressed properties. While responsible landlords can help provide much-needed rental housing, irresponsible owners often trigger seriously destabilizing effects on their properties’ blocks and neighborhoods. Mallach, who is also a senior fellow at the National Housing Institute, offers concrete suggestions for how local governments, CDCs, and others can encourage responsible investor and landlord behavior. (“See also “The Great American Fire Sale, by Mallach, in SF #163.)

Strengthening Democracy, Increasing Opportunities: Impacts of Advocacy, Organizing and Civic Engagement in the Northwest Region, by Gita Gulati-Partee and Lisa Ranghelli for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, looks at how 20 nonprofits and their allies helped improved their communities and amplified the voices of vulnerable residents in the democratic process through advocacy and community organizing efforts. These nonprofits generated a $150 return for every foundation grant dollar invested in their policy engagement efforts.

Homeownership Today and Tomorrow: Building Assets While Preserving Affordability, by Shelterforce editor Miriam Axel-Lute, for the Cornerstone Partnership, a program of NCB Capital Impact. Governments spend billions of dollars every year on programs designed to promote wider access to homeownership for low- and moderate-income families, but these programs help one family and then their subsidy is lost. With case studies, this report explores the implications of new research that shows that permanently affordable homeownership through shared-equity programs is not only more efficient use of public funds, but also a safer way for low-income families to build equity.