Information from Recent Events

December 14, 2007

Community Development Forum

Topic: Can community benefits agreements promote more equitable development?

Community benefits agreements (CBAs) raise hopes of enabling low- and moderate-income neighborhoods to share more equitably in the fruits of economic development projects. This Community Development Forum, which was sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, explored whether CBAs can deliver on their promises.

Presentations

• Community Benefits Agreements: Tools for Rebuilding Urban Economies. Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Director of Research and Communications, The Partnership for Working Families.
• Building Our Community Coalition: Addressing Needs in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Eugene Dix, Executive Director, African American Action Committee; and Tim Brausen, Co-Chair, NW Caucus, Isaiah.
• Community Organizing and Community Benefits Along the Hiawatha LRT Corridor: A Report from Longfellow. Ralph Wyman, Director and Organizer, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance; and Representative, Longfellow Community Council.
• A Community Benefits Agreement with a Land Grant University: From a History of Distrust to Partnership. Sherri Pugh-Sullivan, Executive Director, Northside Residents Redevelopment Council.
• Harrison Neighborhood Association's Community Benefits Agreement. Larry Hiscock, Director, Harrison Neighborhood Association.
• Community Benefits and Digital Inclusion Efforts. Catherine Settanni, Executive Director, The Digital Access Project.

Additional Information

• Community Benefits Agreements: Resource Links. Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Director of Research and Communications, The Partnership for Working Families.

October 4, 2007

Fixing the Foreclosure System: A workshop on modernizing the foreclosure process to ensure the best long-term outcomes for consumers and neighborhoods.

Agenda
Speaker Biographies
Workshop Summary

Plenary Session Presentations

• Loss Mitigation and Foreclosure — Lender Strategies. Donald Brewster, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Origen Financial, Inc.
• Differences Among State Foreclosure Laws. Ann Burkhart, Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
• State Foreclosure Laws: The Meaning of Difference. Prentiss Cox, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
• Introduction to the Minnesota Home Ownership Center. Karen Duggleby, Director of Research and Program Education, Minnesota Home Ownership Center
• An Overview of Foreclosure Activity in Minnesota and the Nation. Michael Grover, Community Affairs Project Director, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
• The Minnesota Model to Rein in Predatory Lending. Linda Higgins, Minnesota State Senator
• Foreclosure Process in Minnesota: Nonjudicial Foreclosure. Rachel Smith, Homeownership Coordinator, Dakota County Community Development Agency

Plenary Session Handout

• Foreclosure Prevention Funders Council Fact Sheet

Breakout Session Presentations

• Ideas for Reform. Prentiss Cox, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
• Strategies for Addressing Vacant and Abandoned Properties: TBI2. Bryan Esenberg, NeighborHomes Manager, Neighborhood Housing Services Redevelopment Corporation of Chicago
• Mortgage Data — Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Brian Houser, Vice President, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and Naomi Bierma, Assistant Vice President, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
• The Neighborhood Information System (NIS): An Effective Early Warning System of Philadelphia's Vacant and Abandoned Properties. Tara Jackson, Research Director, Philadelphia Neighborhood Information System, University of Pennsylvania
• Minneapolis Neighborhood Information System Early Warning System. Kellie Jones, Senior Project Coordinator, City of Minneapolis
• Minneapolis-St. Paul Regional Foreclosure Prevention Funders Council. Melissa Manderschied, Attorney, Kennedy & Graven
• The Trouble with Foreclosure Data. Colleen O'Brien, President, Housing Link
• Doing More with Parcel-Based Information Systems: Creating Neighborhood-Level Knowledge About Foreclosure to Customize Interventions and Plan for the Future of Low-Mod Homeownership. Emily Trenholm, Executive Director, Community Development Council of Greater Memphis

Breakout Session Handouts

• Foreclosure Crisis Issues. Jim Davnie, Minnesota State Representative
• Handouts provided by Frank Ford, Senior Vice President, Neighborhood Progress, Inc.
  • Foreclosure Early Warning and Intervention Pilot Project
  • Land Assembly for Neighborhood Development
  • Slavic Village Model Block Foreclosure Intervention/Early Warning Map
  • Strengthening Housing Markets Through Prevention and Reclamation of Abandoned Property
  • The Subprime Lending and Foreclosure Crisis
    

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