Hardest Hit Fund Areas, with Expansion

The Hardest Hit Fund was first designated in 2010 to provide financial assistance to 18 states that were particularly impacted by the housing crisis that began in 2007. Michigan received nearly $500 million from this fund, which was initially intended to provide assistance to homeowners who were either unemployed or significantly underwater with their mortgage. However, given the high levels of blight in Detroit and other Michigan cities, some of the Hardest Hit Fund money was released to be used for structure demolition.

With the first phase of the program the City of Detroit received approximately $52 million, with the money to be spent by Spring 2015 in six target areas. The intent of the program was to conduct demolitions in more stable neighborhoods to ensure a higher impact of the limited funds that were available. However, these areas did not contain enough eligible properties for demolition in the time frame allotted for the money to be spent, so the Detroit Land Bank Authority expanded the Hardest Hit Fund program to include a number of other areas across Detroit. Through November 2014, the Hardest Hit Fund program has demolished nearly 2,400 structures in these targeted areas.  This layer was acquired as part of Phase 2 of the Motor City Mapping project.

An Excel sheet containing field description metadata is available for download.  Follow the links in this description for more information on the Hardest Hit Fund program at both the national level and the local level.