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26 J. Affordable Hous. & Cmty. Dev. L. 63 (2017-2018)
Contracting for Complexity: Collective Impact Agreements in Community Economic Development

handle is hein.journals/jrlaff26 and id is 75 raw text is: Contracting for Complexity: Collective Impact Agreements in Community Economic Development Patience A. Crowder The full impact of the 2008 recession will not be known for years; how- ever, its debilitating effect on state and local governments is clear. While the Great Recession materialized differently in different states, state and local governments suffering from financial anemia decimated their com- munity and economic development programs. Compounded by cuts in spending at the federal level, shrinking philanthropic resources and prop- erty tax revenue, and dormant housing and construction industries, state and local governments froze or reduced spending on redevelopment proj- ects and economic development programs. In an extreme case, California shuttered its redevelopment agencies. In many instances, private indus- tries behaved similarly. Along with the consequences of the foreclosure crises, these shifts or cessations in spending led to devastating effects on the funding of small business development programs, the availability and new construction of affordable housing, and the operation of job and workforce training programs-all traditional arenas for community eco- nomic development (CED) projects. Some state and local governments, however, are beginning to creep out of shell shock to respond to the crisis in innovative ways, and they are not isolated in their efforts because many community advocates are boldly leading the way. Most importantly, how- ever, these advocates are doing so in ways that seek to cure the inequities that have historically run through public programs. As the economy be- gins to stabilize, the arousing of such programs necessitates a renewed vigilance against inequity through the implementation of novel mecha- nisms designed to alleviate poverty. While there are myriad ways to ap- proach these outcomes, this presentation focuses on a transactional law approach to poverty alleviation by exploring the potential of collective im- pact, particularly collective impact agreements, to facilitate economic de- velopment throughout metropolitan regions. Our metropolitan regions are places that house extreme social and eco- nomic disparities. The 2008 recession aggravated the existing disparities between central cities and suburbs, and one of its legacies is the deep expansion of poverty beyond the boundaries of urban central cities- increasing the number of suburban poor by as much as 50 percent by some estimates. This changing geography of poverty has triggered a Patience A. Crowder (pcrowder@law.du.edu) is Associate Professor of Law & Di- rector, Community Economic Development Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. 63

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