Posted on October 3, 2011

Housing Partnership Network Receives $2.75 Million From Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation has announced a $2.75 million grant to the Boston-based Housing Partnership Network in support of the Innovations in Neighborhood Stabilization and Foreclosure Prevention Initiative.

The initiative will provide leading community-based housing organizations with funding for neighborhood revitalization projects that can yield important lessons and be replicated in communities across the country. Through the initiative, ten neighborhood initiatives managed by twelve HPN member organizations will receive a total of $2 million over two years. Two of the grants have a national focus, while the others target specific communities that have been strongly affected by mortgage delinquency and foreclosure.

The foundation also awarded $750,000 to HPN to provide technical assistance and convene key thought leaders, policy makers, business partners, and HPN members to share lessons learned from the initiative and shape new policy responses designed to stabilize neighborhoods over the long term.

Grant recipients include the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, Inc., which is working to scale-up its capacity to stabilize twenty neighborhoods in the metro Atlanta region through the acquisition, rehabilitation, and repopulation of vacant foreclosed homes; the Cleveland Housing Network, which is working to boost neighborhood stabilization efforts by testing new markets and models for helping priority neighborhoods recover from the foreclosure crisis; and Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, which aims to implement a new model for advising homeowners through a network of resolution specialists who will work in partnership with homeowners, lenders, and servicers to modify mortgages through a national distressed note purchase initiative.

"Making our communities more livable is essential to helping underserved populations get on a path to long-term stability," said Citi Foundation president and CEO Pam Flaherty. "HPN and its member organizations have deep roots in communities around the country, and the Citi Foundation is proud to provide resources that will help these groups to further bolster and enhance at-risk neighborhoods."