I² Projects

  • Nonprofit strategic and business planning
  • Urban planning and policy analysis
  • Housing and community development finance

Nonprofit strategic and business planning

Eric Hangen, AICP, the president of I² Community Development Consulting, has helped numerous nonprofits to meet the challenges of strategic and business planning, including:

  • I² is currently working with three Community Development Corporations in Rhode Island to help them explore the potential for strategic alliances in program areas including real estate development and asset management.
  • I² facilitated an operational planning process for the Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO), a community development corporation in New York's Hudson Valley, that charted overall organizational growth and set strategic directions for four business lines including real estate development, property management, homeownership services, and tenant assistance.
Eric's consulting work in preparing our operating plan was outstanding. Eric was able to really understand what we were trying to accomplish and was extremely efficient interfacing with our entire senior staff and capturing our core business challenges. He was able to blend his industry knowledge and experience with a thorough grasp of RUPCO and Ulster County. Eric was easy to work with and the resulting operating plan that he produced has helped us to chart our future direction and truly set the stage for our business lines to succeed!
- Kevin O'Connor, Executive Director, RUPCO

Urban planning and policy analysis

I² prepared a Statewide Housing Needs Assessment for Rhode Island under contract to the Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation. The study, which captured the front page of the Providence Journal when released in 2004, portrayed the dimensions of the affordable housing crisis in Rhode Island and its impact on economic development and workforce issues.

I² is currently engaged to assess affordable housing impacts and potential mitigation strategies related to the expansion of TF Green Airport in Rhode Island. We are serving as a subcontractor on a consulting team preparing a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

I² worked with the Jack Jensen Development Company to prepare a revitalization plan for downtown Bath, New York in 2004. The plan drew on workshops involving hundreds of Bath residents to identify real estate and infrastructure investments, social and human services programming, and economic development strategies to improve the quality of life in this historic village of 5,000 people.

I² has also prepared and delivered trainings in resident-led neighborhood revitalization strategies at the NeighborWorks® America Community Leadership Institutes and NeighborWorks® Training Institutes. Courses in 1- and 2-day formats help community residents to build their leadership skills, work effectively with other stakeholders and decision makers in the community, and understand how they can play a leading role in the revitalization planning process.

Your professionalism, commitment, and passion for the work is clearly evident and matched only by the depth of your knowledge of the subject matter. Participants in your sessions consistently praise your style as "engaging" and "enthusiastic". Most important, they consistently indicate that the session material is pertinent to their work in the communities where they work... It is a pleasure working with you! Thanks again for all you do.
-Reemberto Rodriguez, Training Manager, Community Building & Organizing NeighborWorks® America

Housing and community development finance

I² is helping NeighborWorks America® to evaluate the potential expansion of Home Value Protection, a house price insurance product offered in Syracuse, New York. Eric Hangen led the development of the initial business plan for this product, helping to raise a $5 million capital grant and annual operating grants in excess of $50,000. The program itself has received attention in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Money Magazine, and NPR's "Marketplace."

The Connecticut Housing Investment Fund (CHIF) retained I2 in 2004, in collaboration with Eileen Flanagan Community Development Consultants, to prepare two feasibility studies in 2004. The first study was an analysis of CHIF's Neighborhood Rebuilder Appraisal Gap Financing Program; the second study was a review of the viability of adding a new loan product to finance the acquisition and rehabilitation of multifamily buildings to CHIF's existing list of loan products.

CHIF was extremely pleased with each of the analyses prepared on both studies. As one CHIF board member remarked after receiving the final reports,

"CHIF certainly got its money's worth!"
-Cynthia Russell, Executive Director, CHIF

I² is working with Brophy and Reilly, LLC, to consult to the Enterprise Foundation and Living Cities on the development of Housing Equity Finance (HEF). HEF is an innovative shared appreciation homeownership financing product that will dramatically increase housing affordability for low- to middle-income homebuyers.