Living Cities pledges $500m to inner cities

Real Estate Weekly, August 28, 2002

Living Cities, a partnership of leading foundations, financial institutions and the federal government, today pledged to double its investment over the next 10 years -- to $500 million -- to continue promoting inner-city revitalization. This announcement builds on the partnership's decade of experience in improving inner-cities, supporting some 300 community organizations and spurring more than $2 billion in added funding for affordable housing and commercial business development.

Living Cities (formerly known as the National Community Development Initiative) has invested $254 million since 1991 to strengthen the management and capabilities of community development corporations (CDCs) in 23 U.S. cities. Living Cities' funds have led to the construction and rehabilitation of nearly 20,000 homes and rental apartments for low- to moderate-income families. They also helped finance CDC construction of close to 2 million square feet of commercial space and community facilities in low-income communities, including supermarkets, shopping malls and small business ventures, as well as child-care and job-training centers, public parks and police substations.

"Over the past decade, we've seen CDCs play a significant role in fostering development in urban neighborhoods where few others invest," said Gordon Conway, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and a co-chair of Living Cities. "We are now determined to take what we have learned and deepen our contribution in this decade." The partnership's decision is a 10-year commitment. The group will provide $119 million in new funding up to 2004, and intends to invest some $500 million by 2011.

The Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that has evaluated the work of Living Cities/NCDI and CDCs, calls the 1990s "an institutional revolution" for community development, with support for CDCs becoming more predictable, stable and effective. The Institute has also found that in 19 of the 23 cities where Living Cities invests, CDCs have contributed tangibly to the improvement of poor neighborhoods, including cities such as Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

However, cities and inner-city neighborhoods continue to face challenges, with U.S. Census figures showing that central cities have twice the poverty rates of their suburban counterparts -- roughly 16% versus 8% in 2000. This challenge and Living Cities' progress to date led the partners to commit to a second decade.

Living Cities' priority over the next 10 years will be to continue supporting the work of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) and The Enterprise Foundation, the two largest national nonprofit organizations in the community development field. They will pursue policies to promote neighborhood development in a more integrated fashion, incorporating housing, economic development, schools, child care and other areas. LISC and Enterprise will also help CDCs build strategic alliances and better use information technology in their work.

The Living Cities partnership also plans to examine more intensively public-policy issues, leveraging its knowledge and expertise to articulate policies and approaches that can foster inner-city improvement. A significant component will include efforts to highlight the assets of inner-city neighborhoods and their market potential.