Turning the Corner Project Overview: Monitoring Neighborhood Change to Prevent Displacement in Five Cities

Report by Kathryn L.S. Pettit, Mychal Cohen, Diane K. Levy
April 25, 2019

Urban Institute   (NNIP Coordinator)

Turning the Corner: Monitoring Neighborhood Change to Prevent Displacement piloted a research model in five cities to monitor neighborhood change, drive informed government action, and support displacement prevention and inclusive revitalization.  Local participating sites included Buffalo, New York; Detroit, Michigan; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Phoenix, Arizona; and the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul), Minnesota. 

This report provides an overview of the project and then summarizes each site’s activities and insights. Local project teams selected two to four focus neighborhoods where rising housing prices were increasing the risk of displacement among longer-term residents or already were displacing residents. They used quantitative and qualitative data to examine aspects of change in these neighborhoods; explore types of displacement, such as residential, cultural, and commercial; and consider practical applications of research to urgent program and policy questions.

The Turning the Corner project was guided by the Urban Institute’s National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) and the Federal Reserve-Philanthropy Initiative, a collaboration between the Restoring Prosperity in Older Industrial Cities Working Group of the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities and several Federal Reserve district banks.  For more information, visit NNIP’s Turning the Corner project website.