Did Treasury Waste Its Bailout Funds on Fighting Blight?

In cities across the U.S., foreclosure loomed as an existential threat in the wake of the Great Recession. In some cities, the threat was already a reality. In Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and other cities, properties abandoned by their owners unmoored neighborhoods and undermined housing markets. Even as the economy began its recovery, blight continued to escalate as a crisis in cities reeling from collapse.

The Hardest Hit Fund is one of the federal government’s main tools for stabilizing neighborhoods in decline. Since the program’s launch in 2010, the U.S. Department of the Treasury has disbursed $9.6 billion to housing markets in 18 states and the District of Columbia to try to prevent conditions from worsening. Part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Hardest Hit Fund announced its fifth and final disbursement, an allocation of $1 billion, back in April.