The Impact of Housing Rehabilitation on Local Neighborhoods: the Case of St. Joseph’s Carpenter Society

We thank Richard W. Lang for his valuable comments and suggestions. The paper also benefited from helpful discussions with The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System. Introduction Across the nation, nonprofit organizations located in poor and declining neighborhoods are promoting homeownership in the hopes that their efforts will stave off further decline and contribute to neighborhood stability. A common homeownership strategy among nonprofits is to acquire boarded-up or deteriorated houses at a low price, rehabilitate them, and then offer homeownership education and counseling to help new buyers purchase these homes at an affordable price. 1 For the most part, the impact of these nonprofit organizations can be seen simply by walking through the neighborhoods they serve: Their handiwork is evident in single rehabilitated homes or in huge swaths of land where blocks have been rebuilt (see Figure for examples of SJCS's work). As housing revitalization programs continue, however, nonprofit organizations like SJCS want to show quantitatively that neighborhood revitalization works – that the funds devoted to an area stabilize neighborhoods or, even more, that they initiate a surge of upward progress. Thus, this study assesses the quantitative impact that SJCS has on its target neighborhood. However, we are mindful of the obstacles involved in assessing the efforts of small community organizations. These difficulties are generally not associated with evaluating the neighborhood impact of larger community development efforts. A primary limitation is the availability of relevant data. This typically stems from the inability of small community organizations to fund the necessary task of data collection. Hence, this study will help illustrate what might be done to assess the efforts of a small community development organization. BEFORE AFTER 1 Throughout this study, any reference to Camden refers to the city of Camden unless stated otherwise .