I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 790 
To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make 
grants and offer technical assistance to local governments and others 
to design and implement innovative policies, programs, and projects that 
address widespread property vacancy and abandonment, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 17, 2011 
Mr. RYAN of Ohio (for himself, Mr. HIGGINS, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. PRICE of 
North Carolina, Mr. KILDEE, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. LINDA T. 
SA´NCHEZ of California, Mr. TURNER, and Ms. MOORE) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment to make grants and offer technical assistance to 
local governments and others to design and implement 
innovative policies, programs, and projects that address 
widespread property vacancy and abandonment, and for 
other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Regenera-
tion, Sustainability, and Innovation Act of 2011’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that— 
(1) many older industrial cities have experi-
enced significant population loss due to large-scale 
employment losses—especially well-paying jobs in 
basic industry and manufacturing; 
(2) beginning in the 1940s, Federal policies es-
tablished by the Federal Housing Administration 
and the Department of Transportation promoted 
suburban flight, which also caused population and 
income loss in many older cities; 
(3) by 1970, these trends were clearly evident 
in decennial data produced by the United States 
Census Bureau; 
(4) population loss and economic decline in 
such cities has caused widespread housing vacancy 
and abandonment, resulting in a landscape of gap- 
toothed streets where many homes have been demol-
ished, vast numbers of unattractive, dilapidated 
properties that pose a threat to public safety, and 
underused, crumbling public infrastructure, that cit-
ies cannot afford to maintain; 
(5) by 2000, such conditions had spread beyond 
the central cities to adjacent suburbs in many met-
ropolitan areas; 
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(6) as these trends continued after 2000, condi-
tions were exacerbated by the subprime lending cri-
sis, which led to unprecedented rates of mortgage 
foreclosures resulting in even more abandonments in 
many of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in the 
most distressed cities and suburbs; 
(7) unmanaged vacant property and land causes 
community abandonment, crime, further depopula-
tion, and despair; 
(8) unmanaged vacant property and land can 
also have a detrimental impact on adjacent residen-
tial property values, while the creation of green 
space and infrastructure on vacant land, even on an 
interim basis, can increase property values; 
(9) experience has demonstrated that land 
banking, undertaken by public entities and accom-
panied by other innovative strategies, is a rationale 
and efficient way for local governments to assert 
public control and management over vacant and 
abandoned property in order to stabilize neighbor-
hoods and real estate markets, rationalize land use, 
provide new public amenities, including open space 
and green infrastructure, and renew, strengthen, 
and reposition for the future communities that have 
experienced significant population loss; 
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(10) beginning in 1999, the State of Michigan 
reformed its property tax foreclosure processes and 
enacted new land banking legislation which opened 
the door for communities to reclaim, reinvest in, and 
rebuild their neighborhoods by creating a highly suc-
cessful land banking model that has proven effective 
in removing dilapidated structures, redeveloping 
abandoned properties, creating new open space, and 
increasing property values in communities hard-hit 
by employment and population losses such as the 
City of Flint and Genesee County, where thousands 
of parcels have been returned to productive use or 
set aside as green, open space; and 
(11) the Federal Government can assist State 
and local governments by providing financial support 
to establish and maintain land banks, including, 
where appropriate, multi-jurisdictional land banks, 
and to develop innovative strategies to convert such 
land to productive use or for long-term strategic 
public purposes. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to provide Federal assistance, through 
grants and the provision of technical assistance, to 
establish land banks in communities and metropoli-
tan areas that have experienced significant popu-
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lation loss due to large-scale employment losses 
which have resulted in widespread abandonment of 
real property; 
(2) to encourage innovation, experimentation, 
and environmentally sustainable practices through 
collaborative efforts to reuse and rehabilitate land 
bank property in ways that will provide long-term 
benefits to the public; 
(3) to encourage the creation of green infra-
structure; 
(4) to encourage the creation of new employ-
ment opportunities, especially in areas related to en-
vironmental sustainability and green infrastructure 
directly related to the implementation of regenera-
tion plans assisted under this Act; and 
(5) to encourage the strategic use of other Fed-
eral, State, local, private, and nonprofit resources 
not provided under this Act to stabilize and improve 
neighborhoods not presently experiencing widespread 
vacancy and abandonment, but whose stability is or 
may be threatened if current demographic or em-
ployment trends continue. 
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SEC. 3. DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM FOR INNOVATIVE VA-
CANT PROPERTY RECLAMATION AND URBAN 
INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL STRATEGIES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Housing and 
Urban Development shall carry out a demonstration pro-
gram under this section to encourage and test innovative 
vacant property reclamation and urban infrastructure re-
newal strategies in older industrial cities, suburbs of such 
cities, and metropolitan areas having a history of severe 
population and employment loss, blight, and decay caused 
by vacant properties. 
(b) ELIGIBILITY OF UNITS OF GENERAL LOCAL GOV-
ERNMENT.—A unit of general local government, or a con-
sortia of such units, shall be eligible for selection for par-
ticipation in the demonstration program under this section 
only if the unit or consortium meets one of the following 
two requirements: 
(1) SUBSTANTIAL POPULATION LOSS.—The ap-
plicant unit of general local government, or the most 
populous unit of general local government of the ap-
plicant consortium, has experienced at least 15 per-
cent population loss since 1970, as measured by the 
most recent decennial census. 
(2) CONCENTRATED
HOUSING
VACANCY
AND 
ABANDONMENT.—The applicant unit of general local 
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government, or the most populous unit of general 
local government of applicant consortium— 
(A) has experienced prolonged population, 
income, and employment loss resulting in sub-
stantial levels of housing vacancy and abandon-
ment; and 
(B) such housing vacancies and abandon-
ments are concentrated in more than one neigh-
borhood or geographic area within a jurisdiction 
or jurisdictions. 
(c) MULTIYEAR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.— 
(1) AUTHORITY.—In carrying out the dem-
onstration program under this section, the Secretary 
shall enter into multiyear cooperative agreements 
with units of general local government, or consortia 
consisting of units of general local government, se-
lected for participation pursuant to subsection (h) in 
the demonstration program under this section, to de-
sign and implement regeneration plans to address 
problems associated with vacant and abandoned 
properties. 
(2) TERMS.—A cooperative agreement entered 
into under this subsection— 
(A) shall have a term of not less than 3 
years; 
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(B) shall provide for the Secretary to make 
grants under subsection (d) to the unit of gen-
eral local government or consortium; 
(C) shall provide for interaction between 
the Department of Housing and Urban Devel-
opment and the unit of general local govern-
ment or consortium to implement a regenera-
tion plan; and 
(D) may reference the responsibilities of 
third parties, such as State governments, uni-
versities, and non-profit organizations, and in 
such instances, each such entity shall enter into 
a memorandum of understanding with the unit 
of general local government or consortium. 
(3) DETERMINATION OF EFFECT ON HISTORIC 
PROPERTIES.—Notwithstanding that a unit of gen-
eral local government, or consortium of such units, 
has been selected for participation in the demonstra-
tion program under this section, the Secretary may 
not enter into a cooperative agreement under this 
subsection until the Secretary has complied with the 
requirements under section 106 of the National His-
toric Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470f) and the reg-
ulations issued under such section (36 C.F.R. part 
800) to take into account the effects, on historic 
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properties, of the regeneration plan of the partici-
pant approved by the Secretary under subsection (h) 
of this section. 
(d) GRANTS.—To the extent amounts for grants 
under this section are made available in advance in appro-
priation Acts, the Secretary shall make a grant under this 
section to each unit of general local government, or con-
sortia of such units, selected to participate in the dem-
onstration program under this section, for each fiscal year 
covered by the multiyear cooperative agreement entered 
into by the unit or consortium pursuant to subsection (c). 
(e) ELIGIBLE USES.—Amounts from grants provided 
under this section may be used for any of the following 
purposes: 
(1) VACANT PROPERTY AND PROGRAM CAPAC-
ITY ACTIVITIES.—For the following vacant property 
and program capacity activities: 
(A) Establishment or expansion of local or 
regional land banks. 
(B) Establishment of recovered building 
materials reuse and recycling infrastructure, fa-
cilities, and technical support. 
(C) Establishment of local government 
purchasing requirements for deconstruction to 
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