Taubman College Etienne Examines the Impact of the Recession on the CDC
Community development corporations (CDC) are a cornerstone of neighborhood improvement in legacy cities. Yet they face challenges that threaten their financial sustainability, challenges that grew exponentially with the Great Recession. In an article posted on August 15, 2016, in the online journal Housing Policy Debate, Harley Etienne, assistant professor of urban and regional planning, analyzed the revenue and survival of CDC in three cities: Baltimore, Maryland; Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan. The study was co-authored by Dale E. Thomson, associate professor of political science, University of Michigan-Dearborn. Etienne and Thomson found that the CDC in each city was adversely affected by the downturn of the economy in the years before and after the market collapse in 2008 and thus its ability to effect neighborhood improvement was impaired. By comparing and contrasting findings in each of the three legacy cities, their study highlights factors that can help the CDC industry establish a sustainable model to counteract market forces.
