In an unprecedented move, major lenders, nonprofit housing organizations, and government enterprises have joined forces to reclaim neighborhoods devastated by high concentrations of foreclosed and abandoned property. The National Community Stabilization Trust, a nonprofit organization formed last year, is working to help re-knit the fabric of neighborhoods torn apart by foreclosure, property disinvestment, plummeting housing prices, and low resident confidence. The Stabilization Trust says this is being accomplished by providing local government and housing providers with two critical services that are currently missing to effectively stabilize neighborhoods: access to foreclosed properties and to flexible financing to renovate these properties. The founding sponsors of the Stabilization Trust include Enterprise Community Partners, Housing Partnership Network, Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), the National Urban League, National Council of La Raza, and NeighborWorks America. Funding from these organizations and from philanthropic leaders, such as the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Institute, and Heron Foundation, has helped capitalize the nationwide operation. Many of the country’s major financial institutions are working with the Stabilization Trust to convey foreclosed property, including Bank of America, Citi, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GMAC, JP Morgan Chase, Nationstar, Saxon, and Wells Fargo, among others. Mary Coffin, EVP of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Servicing, and a 2008 Five Star Lifetime Achievement recipient, commented, “Wells Fargo strongly believes in collaborative efforts to rebuild local housing markets. We want to turn houses back into homes, and the streamlined Stabilization Trust approach is helping us increase the volume of property transfers to community housing leaders.” The Stabilization Trust facilitates the turnover of foreclosed property from financial institutions to locally

designated community housing providers, who will renovate the housing for new homeowners and renters. The effort will help advance the use of HUD’s $6 billion in Neighborhood Stabilization Program grants, intended for exactly this purpose. Under the Stabilization Trust’s popular First Look program, cities and counties can get access to foreclosed homes before they are made available to the general market. “Communities need a straight-forward and streamlined way to acquire foreclosed and abandoned homes,” said Craig Nickerson, president of the National Community Stabilization Trust. “The Stabilization Trust’s First Look program puts the local housing providers in the driver’s seat, able to strategically decide which properties are most important to their neighborhood revitalization plans.” More than 100 hard hit communities in 35 states across the country have already signed up for this free service from the Stabilization Trust. The organization is now making its services available to localities nationwide and putting thousands of properties in the hands of local housing providers. The Stabilization Trust is also providing access to financing to help local communities supplement their HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding with private capital. By using a $50 million low-interest line of credit from the Ford Foundation, the Stabilization Trust will be able to increase access to private capital for property acquisition, renovation, and short-term rental housing. Over the next year, the Stabilization Trust hopes to leverage over $1 billion in additional lending capital. Last winter and spring, the Stabilization Trust’s approach was piloted in a handful of test markets, including Minneapolis and St. Paul. “A core component of our fight against foreclosures in Minneapolis has been the involvement of the National Community Stabilization Trust,” Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said. “With their help, we are revitalizing foreclosed homes, putting them into the hands of stable homeowners, and overcoming the challenges caused by the current housing crisis.” Tom Bledsoe, board chair of the National Community Stabilization Trust and CEO of the Housing Partnership Network, added, “Bringing together nonprofits, government, and the private sector, we have built a powerful public-private partnership to revitalize communities and homes undermined by mortgage defaults and foreclosure.”