Addressing a National Crisis via CDBG: The Case of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program

Paul Joice
Jennifer Carpenter
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the official positions or policies of the Office of Policy Development and Research, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the U.S. Government.

The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) was established in 2008 to address the fallout of the foreclosure crisis and ensuing Great Recession. Like a number of other special appropriations in recent decades, NSP was designed to rely on the administrative chassis of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. This article discusses the origin and implementation of NSP and explores lessons about why and how policymakers use the CDBG platform to address specific needs.