A New Future for Our Old Places Liz Hersh, Executive Director, Housing Alliance of PA

1. National and Historic Context 2. What Land Banks do - and don’t do 3. The Money Question 4. Where they fit in

To change the market dynamics of blight  Land Banks were started to address properties where tax liens exceeded property value  Now being used in Michigan, New York, Georgia, Ohio, St. Louis, Louisville, Kansas  The latest and best thinking about how to address blighted, abandoned, tax foreclosed properties and get them back onto market

To address the high cost of blight:  Cuyahoga County: 2.1% to 9.4% loss of value of properties near vacant &/or tax delinquent &/or foreclosed property  Philadelphia: 6.5% average property value reduction citywide with some neighborhoods close to 20% reductions  Neighborhood blocks with higher concentrations of unmanaged vacant lots had 18% lower house prices

To Harness the Positive Economics of Blight Remediation Flint: $3.5M of demolition produced $112M in improved surrounding property values Philly: Cleaning and greening of vacant lots increase adjacent property values by 30%. Imagine what it could mean here…

 Locally created and controlled single purpose entity to amass, inventory, manage and market vacant, blighted, abandoned and foreclosed properties.  Designed to make it faster, easier and cheaper for interested and responsible new owner to acquire these properties with clear, insurable title, and get them back into productive re-use.

 A land bank is a governmental entity that focuses on the conversion of vacant, abandoned, tax-delinquent and foreclosed properties into productive use.  In PA, it is a public authority created to efficiently acquire, hold, manage, develop and return vacant and abandoned properties to productive use.

Land banks are a means to an end:  Demolition of problem properties  New affordable or market rates homes  Community gardens or urban farms  Side yards  New development  What’s your vision?

 Communities of 10,000 people or more  Created by ordinance  Board with odd number people – community representation is important  Can be staffed by city/redevelopment staff  Compliance with local codes, maintain  Acquires, inventories, manages and “disposes” of property for reuse  Actively markets properties

Can acquire property in a variety of ways:  Donation  Purchase  Tax Sale  NOT Eminent Domain  Gifts  From tax claim bureau  From municipality

Special Powers  Able to clear title through expedited quiet title action  Able to recoup 50% of new tax revenue in first five years of property reuse  Able to extinguish liens  Able to “trump bid” at judicial or free and clear sale

 Expand upon the powers of the Redevelopment Authorities  One leg of the three-legged stool:  Code enforcement, land recycling, investment  Trump bid at tax sale with strings attached (in a good way)  Organizing effort across silos

 Build and expand upon Redevelopment Authority powers  Coordination of local effort  Stewardship to manage the inventory  Earlier intervention in tax foreclosure system  Can hold properties without a redevelopment plan and tax exempt  Gain site control, create new markets  Opportunity for self-financing

Financing and Funding:  Grants and loans  Bond authority  Proceeds from sale  5 year, 50% recapture  Gaming, Impact Fee Dollars  Income from investments  Other?