Healthy Neighborhoods 

Image: In a healthy place, residents are confident about the future of the neighborhood, and outsiders think the neighborhood is a good place to live and work, even though all of them may not choose to live there for any number of reasons.

Market: Demand in the residential real estate market needs to exceed supply in order to maintain the growing housing values that support reinvestment; housing prices should be rising at rates better than the regional median; residential time on market for listings should be shorter than the regional median; inmovers are always at least as good or better for the neighborhood as outmovers; and there is little to no speculation because of persistently high entry prices – at the same time, quality housing opportunities for people of modest means are maintained.

Physical Conditions: Properties are the continual recipient of reinvestment; “in-between” properties (neither obviously public nor private) are in a high state of repair; public property enhances the value of adjoining private property; it makes social and economic sense to invest “above” or in front of the market.

Neighborhood Management: Neighbors manage change and threats; problems that arise are solved quickly; public institutions are held accountable and are accountable; properties communicate a high degree of care; behaviors outside the “norm” that are a detriment to reinforcing confidence in the neighborhood are quickly curtailed. 

Healthy Neighborhoods Outcomes and Strategies for Neighbors.pdf 

  “Every neighborhood faces constantly changing competition in attracting and retaining good neighbors. In a competitive context, it isn’t enough for a neighborhood to be a good place to live; the neighborhood must be able to attract residents even as its competitors change every year.”
          — David Boehlke

“Confidence is the currency all neighborhoods trade on."
          — Charles Buki

Our work is organized around a specific theory of neighborhood change, more and more commonly known as a Healthy Neighborhoods approach. The Healthy Neighborhoods approach is most closely associated with neighborhood strategist David Boehlke, who has made creating healthy neighborhoods his life’s work. Others refer to this theory as a “market” approach to neighborhood revitalization, or a process to create “neighborhoods of choice”. There are a few key biases to this approach: 

1.  A “healthy neighborhood” is defined as a place where it makes economic sense for people to invest time, money and energy; and where neighbors successfully manage day-to-day issues.
   
2. In this approach, the focus is on helping people to participate in the real estate market rather than just protecting them from it.
   
3. Particularly in soft markets, the strategies are mostly about cultivating demand for homes and rental units in a neighborhood that has little – or has the wrong kind – rather than producing supply. However, a key value is to create a place that is attractive and affordable to a variety of income groups. In hot markets, strategies may be more focused on creating supply.
   
4. Production of affordable housing in this approach, when applied to place-based revitalization, is used as a tool for revitalization rather than an outcome unto itself.
   
5. Progress is measured by tracking quality of life indicators and neighborhood confidence rather than units produced and people served: outcomes rather than outputs.
   
6. This approach values the residential real estate market as a key barometer of neighborhood health, and believes that home value represents the capitalization of all neighborhood assets. As such, strategies focus on this area.
   
7. This approach values intensive, meaningful and ongoing discussion and relationship building with neighbors. It supports the idea of neighbors defining outcomes while practitioners offer insight into strategies and tools to get there. It makes the work of an organization about achieving the outcomes desired by neighbors rather than delivering programs on behalf of funders.

We evaluate neighborhood health in four areas, and design strategies to achieve outcomes in each: