Posted by:
Steve Dubb
Anchor institutions seen as key partners in community development
Published by the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Retooling HUD for a Catalytic Federal Government: A Report to Secretary Shaun Donovan—a collective effort of over 100 urban policy practitioners and academic researchers—develops in ten chapters a new vision of urban development that seeks to put the “UD back in HUD” (that is Urban Development back in “Housing & Urban Development").
C-W.org’s Steve Dubb, Ted Howard, and Gar Alperovitz participated in the anchor institution task force, led by Ira Harkavy of the University of Pennsylvania’s Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships. The anchor institution task force was one of ten that compiled the overall report, with each task force responsible for one chapter. The anchor institution task force’s chapter, titled Anchor Institutions as Partners in Building Successful Communities and Local Economies, outlines a program for HUD to leverage the considerable human, economic, cultural, and intellectual resources of nonprofit universities and hospitals to support economic development in their home communities. Key recommendations include:
1) Creating a new position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Higher Education & Anchor Institutions to work in concert with an academic director counterpart
2) Charging the Deputy Assistant Secretary to:
a) Redesign and expand Office of University Partnership (OUP) programs (Community Outreach Partnership Centers, etc.)
b) Develop an Anchor Institutions Program Division to leverage anchor purchasing, employment, investment, and real estate for community & economic development
c) Organize a White House Summit on Eds & Meds and Civic Responsibility
3) Develop an Urban Grant University program to support universities and community colleges that make a long-term commitment to real-world urban problem solving
4) Support the expansion of University-Assisted Community Schools & School-Centered Community Development
5) Staff HUD’s Office of University Partnerships programs at regional and local offices
6) Create an Independent Advisory Council and a Consultation Team for the Office of University Partnerships
7) Institute Secretary’s Awards to recognize outstanding partnerships as well as urban problem-solving research
Paul Brophy, Penn Visiting Professor of City Planning and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institute, and Rachel Godsil, Eleanor Bontecou Professor of Law, Seton Hall University, headed the effort, organizing a group of over 100 experts to develop proposals on how best to re-position HUD - the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development - to meet today’s needs.
The issues covered by the task forces are compiled in 10 chapters, each listing several short- and long-term recommendations. The chapters are: (1) Preventing Foreclosure; (2) Improving the Private Multi-Family Housing Programs; (3) The “Hard to House”: Creating Housing Opportunities for those in Greatest Need; (4) Improving Communities Impacted by Foreclosure; (5) Strengthening America’s Neighborhoods; (6) New Strategies for a Metropolitan America: Extending HUD’s Urban and Regional Mission; (7) City-Focused Economic Development Agenda for the Federal Government and HUD; (8) Anchor Institutions as Partners in Building Successful Communities and Local Economies; (9) Facilitating Green Housing; and (10) Catalyzing Change at HUD: Building a More Effective Department.