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Keep America Beautiful Releases National Report Addressing Community Impacts of Blighted Properties

On May 27, Keep America Beautiful issued a press release announcing the release of a new report titled Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight: A National Literature Review on Addressing the Community Impacts of Blighted Properties. 

Keep America Beautiful Releases National Report Addressing Community Impacts of Blighted Properties
National Literature Review, “Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight,” is First Phase of New Long-term Initiative to Study, Measure and Combat Blight in Communities

STAMFORD, Conn., May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Keep America Beautiful, the leading national nonprofit that envisions a country where every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live, today announced the release of “Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight: A National Literature Review on Addressing the Community Impacts of Blighted Properties.” The report provides a contemporary snapshot of how researchers, experts and practitioners describe and understand the complex conditions that create blight and the many policy responses that communities are taking. The executive summary and full report of “Charting the Multiple Meanings of Blight” is available on the Keep America Beautiful website.

Prepared by researchers through the Vacant Properties Research Network (VPRN), a project of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, in collaboration with Econsult Solutions Inc., a Philadelphia-based consulting firm, the national report examines more than 300 academic articles as well as special policy and practitioner reports devoted to the concept of blight.

“The term ‘blight’ continues to evolve as communities confront different types of blighted properties from littered and vacant lots to foreclosed and abandoned homes,” said Jennifer Jehn, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful. “This research will contribute significantly to the understanding of blight, a critical environmental, economic and social issue Keep America Beautiful and our affiliates are strongly positioned to help address in urban, suburban and rural communities nationwide.

“The report will have an even broader impact because it will help us shape the development of measurement tools that will let us better assess and then prepare strategies to combat blight in all its forms at the community level,” concluded Jehn.

The primary authors outlined: 1) what recent articles and reports say about blight; 2) how policymakers and community-based organizations can leverage the report’s findings; and 3) how Keep America Beautiful and its network of community-based affiliates can build on this report to develop a blight cost calculator for community groups and local governments. The report concludes with 10 overarching recommendations for policymakers, future research, and potential actions by Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates.

“Blight is a complex legal and policy concept with a long history,” observed Metropolitan Institute Senior Fellow Joe Schilling, a report co-author. “This pioneering synthesis of the literature will help local officials and community-based organizations, such as Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates, fashion more holistic strategies to address the community impacts of blighted properties and facilitate neighborhood revitalization.”

Report co-author Lee Huang of Econsult Solutions Inc. agrees. “What we found in our work is that ‘blight’ looks like and means different things in different settings. Our review of the existing literature really underscores this point, and has yielded a very rich look at how various communities define and deal with blight.”

While considerable research has examined the history of blight in the United States, its role in national policy and the experience of communities living in blighted neighborhoods, little research has systematically examined the multiple meanings of blight across contexts. This project reviews and synthesizes knowledge about blight, broadly conceived, and draws together academic literature and practitioner reports to systematically assess:

  • The nature of blight;
  • The effects of blight;
  • The factors that have shaped its development; and
  • How understandings of blight have changed over time.

This literature review will benefit policymakers, particularly in understanding how different communities are addressing rising rates of vacancy and how property abandonment has come to be a common characteristic of contemporary blight. The research also provides new and beneficial knowledge for local communities by making the changing patterns of neighborhoods more transparent. Further, for underrepresented and disadvantaged groups and their advocates struggling with blighted neighborhoods, this research will underscore many of the factors affecting their condition.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With a national network of community-based affiliates, we work with millions of volunteers who take action in their communities to transform public spaces into beautiful places. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. For more information, visit kab.org, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

About Econsult Solutions Inc.
Econsult Solutions Inc. provides insights into economic problems, policy questions, and strategic thinking. Our work focuses on providing customized economic expert services in Real Estate, Transportation, Economic Development, and Public Policy and Finance. In addition, we provide Litigation Support services in over 40 industries, as well as customized Solutions to a variety of clients. Our staff members have outstanding professional and academic credentials, including active positions at the university level, wide experience at the highest levels of the public policy process and extensive consulting experience.

About the Vacant Property Research Network
The Vacant Property Research Network (VPRN), a research initiative of the Metropolitan Institute of Virginia Tech, conducts, translates and promotes applied policy research to facilitate new models for reclaiming vacant and abandoned properties as well as the alignment of regeneration policy initiatives and programs. Launched in October 2011 with support from the Ford Foundation, the VPRN provides a dynamic platform for problem solving, policy exchanges across cities, and applied research. The VPRN tracks innovative research and policy initiatives; hosts an online public research inventory; convenes practitioner-researcher roundtables; publishes translation briefs and case studies; and is led by its VPRN Advisory Board, which provides strategic guidance to the network, serves as a repository of research expertise, and is comprised of leading and emerging scholars together with practitioners from the vacant property and legacy cities field. For more information, visit vacantpropertyresearch.com.

CONTACTS
Mike Rosen / Larry Kaufman
Tel: 203.659.3008/203.659.3014
Email: mrosen@kab.org /lkaufman@kab.org  
Web site: www.kab.org

Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121114/DC12613LOGO

SOURCE Keep America Beautiful, Inc.

Please click here to view the press release online.

Please click here to view the Executive Summary.

Please click here to view the full report.

About Safeguard 
Safeguard Properties is the mortgage field services industry leader, preserving vacant and foreclosed properties across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and Guam. Founded in 1990 by Robert Klein and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Safeguard provides the highest quality service to our clients by leveraging innovative technologies and proactively developing industry best practices and quality control procedures. Consistent with Safeguard’s values and mission, we are an active supporter of hundreds of charitable efforts across the country. Annually, Safeguard gives back to communities in partnership with our employees, vendors and clients. We also are dedicated to working with community leaders and officials to eliminate blight and stabilize neighborhoods. Safeguard is dedicated to preserving today and protecting tomorrow.  Website: www.safeguardproperties.com.

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CEO

Alan Jaffa

Alan Jaffa is the Chief Executive Officer for Safeguard Properties, steering the company as the mortgage field services industry leader. He also serves on the board of advisors for SCG Partners, a middle-market private equity fund focused on diversifying and expanding Safeguard Properties’ business model into complimentary markets.

Alan joined Safeguard in 1995, learning the business from the ground up. He was promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2002, and was named CEO in May 2010. His hands-on experience has given him unique insights as a leader to innovate, improve and strengthen Safeguard’s processes to assure that the company adheres to the highest standards of quality and customer service.

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In 2008, Alan was recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business in its annual “40-Under-40” profile of young leaders. He also was named a NEO Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award finalist in 2013.

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Linda Erkkila

Linda Erkkila is the General Counsel and Executive Vice President for Safeguard Properties, with oversight of legal, human resources, training, and compliance. Linda’s broad scope of oversight covers regulatory issues that impact Safeguard’s operations, risk mitigation, strategic planning, human resources and training initiatives, compliance, insurance, litigation and claims management, and counsel related to mergers, acquisition and joint ventures.

Linda assures that Safeguard’s strategic initiatives align with its resources, leverage opportunities across the company, and contemplate compliance mandates. She has practiced law for 25 years and her experience, both as outside and in-house counsel, covers a wide range of corporate matters, including regulatory disclosure, corporate governance compliance, risk assessment, compensation and benefits, litigation management, and mergers and acquisitions.

Linda earned her JD at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She holds a degree in economics from Miami University and an MBA. Linda was previously named as both a “Woman of Influence” by HousingWire and as a “Leading Lady” by MReport.

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Michael Greenbaum

Michael Greenbaum is the Chief Operating Officer of Safeguard Properties, where he has played a pivotal role since joining the company in July 2010. Initially brought on as Vice President of REO, Mike’s exceptional leadership and strategic vision quickly propelled him to Vice President of Operations in 2013, and ultimately to COO in 2015. Over his 14-year tenure at Safeguard, Mike has been instrumental in driving change and fostering innovation within the Property Preservation sector, consistently delivering excellence and becoming a trusted partner to clients and investors.

A distinguished graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mike earned a degree in Quantitative Economics. Following his graduation, he served in the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Branch, where he specialized in supply chain management. Before his tenure at Safeguard, Mike honed his expertise by managing global supply chains for 13 years, leveraging his military and civilian experience to lead with precision and efficacy.

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Joe Iafigliola

Joe Iafigliola is the Chief Financial Officer for Safeguard Properties. Joe is responsible for the Control, Quality Assurance, Business Development, Marketing, Accounting, and Information Security departments. At the core of his responsibilities is the drive to ensure that Safeguard’s focus remains rooted in Customer Service = Resolution. Through his executive leadership role, he actively supports SGPNOW.com, an on-demand service geared towards real estate and property management professionals as well as individual home owners in need of inspection and property preservation services. Joe is also an integral force behind Compliance Connections, a branch of Safeguard Properties that allows code enforcement professionals to report violations at properties that can then be addressed by the Safeguard vendor network. Compliance Connections also researches and shares vacant property ordinance information with Safeguard clients.

Joe has an MBA from The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), and holds a bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University’s Honors Accounting program.

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Business Development

Carrie Tackett

Business Development Safeguard Properties