Prioritizing Community Resources with Planning

The City of Cleveland secured more than $23.5Mn in funding assistance from phase two of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP2) administered by the US Housing and Urban Development Department under the Obama administration. With 19,000 vacant homes and nearly 3,500 acres of vacant land, eligible uses of the funds aligned well with the community’s needs, but prioritization was critical to ensuring the funds were leveraged to maximum benefit. Cleveland Neighborhood Progress was tapped by the City to lead a resident- and stakeholder-driven planning process that facilitated more than 100 meetings in sixteen separate communities to identify a five-to-ten-year project in each that could utilize NSP2 funds as a launch their vision while stabilize their community and develop areas of strength.

CNP worked alongside five advisory partners and enrolled twelve planning liaisons (graduate students) to coordinate each target area plan. Over the course of six months, TAP liaisons worked with designated staff and community stakeholders to catalogue and analyze existing conditions and facilitate community aspirations into plans that aligned with HUD-eligible activities (home demolition, rehabilitation, sideyard expansion, and vacant land stabilization). This process resulted in the quick assembly of sixteen target area plans that are both aspirational and practical, including parcel-by-parcel implementation strategies.

The sample TAP can be seen HERE
Project completed with Cleveland Neighborhood Progress