brought together housing advocates, lenders, academics, and key government officials to discuss foreclosure issues and develop solutions. in some cases, alliances have been formed right on the spot to create and implement programs to keep people in their homes. we have also partnered with the u. s. departments of labor and treasury and with the hope now unemployment taskforce to help unemployed homeowners avoid losing their homes. this collaboration led to the creation of an online tool that allows homeowners and servicers to document unemployment insurance benefits as income in order to qualify for federally sponsored mortgage modification programs. each federal reserve bank has an online foreclosure resource center with information on foreclosure - related resources, including an enhanced foreclosure mitigation toolkit, which provides detailed steps and information for localities seeking to develop foreclosure prevention activities. the toolkit also includes a new foreclosure recovery resource guide, which helps consumers recover from the foreclosure process. a number of federal reserve research projects also have been initiated as part of the more program. they include studies focusing on foreclosure prevention, financial education, and adverse neighborhood effects resulting from foreclosures. you will hear more about that research over the next two days. community development researchers across the federal reserve system launched a study in 2009 of the planning and early implementation stages of the federal neighborhood stabilization program ( nsp ). researchers interviewed more than 90 recipients of the department of housing and urban development ’ s nsp funds in the fall of 2009. these interviews and other data gathered during this study provide the first nationwide examination of the effect of the nsp and served as the basis for a number of federal reserve system reports currently in progress. under the auspices of the more initiative, the federal reserve sponsored conferences such as this one, and the summit held last month on real estate owned and vacant property strategies for neighborhood stabilization. participants at that meeting examined the community effects of foreclosed and vacant properties with the goals of helping practitioners better understand barriers to stabilizing neighborhoods, sharing practices that show promise, and discussing regional differences. as part of that summit, the federal reserve released 17 papers analyzing trends, challenges, and possible solutions for addressing foreclosures see federal reserve system, mortgage outreach and research efforts ( more ) initiative ( 2010 ), addressing the impact of the foreclosure crisis : federal reserve mortgage outreach and research efforts ( chicago : federal reserve bank of chicago ).

and promoting neighborhood stabilization. a few of the emerging solutions highlighted at the event were : a national “ first - look ” property program, which gives nonprofits and municipalities the right of first refusal on repossessed properties to facilitate neighborhood stabilization ; new methods of municipal code enforcement ; and innovative land - banking strategies. we will be using these ideas and others to inform our community development efforts over the coming year. to ensure that we have access to more detailed data on mortgage and credit markets, the federal reserve system has created the risk assessment, data analysis, and research, or radar, data warehouse. this new platform will help inform our monetary policy, bank supervision and regulation, and community development. over the next two days, i understand that you will be hearing about policy - oriented research on the u. s. housing and mortgage markets – an area of first - order importance to policymakers. you will have the opportunity to discuss the current situation and the outlook for mortgage foreclosures, consider their consequences for neighborhoods, and evaluate efforts to mitigate foreclosures. also, you will learn results from various studies that have examined mortgage modifications and factors that have led to defaults. finally, you will consider the future of housing finance. all the papers on the conference program are of direct interest to policymakers and should lead to better - informed policy. i hope we can draw upon this information and the success of the more program to explore new and creative ways to address the foreclosure crisis. at the fed, we will continue to encourage further research, participate in discussions, and coordinate work among groups striving for sustainable homeownership and the recovery of housing markets.