Local governments need citizen engagement to transform distressed neighborhoods.

• Position: News & Numbers - Brief article

A new research report published by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) explores the role of local governments and citizen engagement in transforming distressed neighborhoods.

The lack of affordable housing, combined with the ongoing challenges associated with older, obsolete, and rundown housing, have resulted in distressed neighborhoods that offer little opportunity for residents, according to ICMA.

Public housing and subsidized rentals are a way of life for many families in cities throughout much of the United States, and traditional approaches to neighborhood and community planning have not produced the desired results. The study, Evaluating the Role of Local Government and Project Stakeholder Engagement in Choice Neighborhoods Transformation Planning and Implementation, summarizes ICMA's three-year study of Salisbury, North Carolina; Suffolk, Virginia; and Norfolk, Virginia, and their use of grant funds from the U.S. Department of...