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Assessment of the Vision/Mission Our collective assessment is that the HPC has a very noble goal of promoting and preserving the historic integrity of the city. While we think the mission is great, we feel that this limits the HPC to an enforcement or regulatory role in the city. We feel like there is a need to change the perception that the HPC hindering productive efforts in the community, rather than promoting renewal and renovation, as they do. The HPC has already done amazing work in the area of promoting the historic integrity of the city through its local historic district (LHD) tours. They have also put tremendous effort into the Restore Michiana Workshop Series, a lecture and workshop series for homeowners, contractors and the general public. With this initiative, they have made great strides in showing that their mission is also to provide people with the skills to make a positive contribution to the city. We want to push this even further and develop an enhanced HPC mission: to promote, preserve, AND improve the historic integrity of South Bend. Assisting in the actual restoration and preservation of abandoned and vacant homes needs to be a new priority for the HPC. We propose the HPC should drive this enhanced mission forward by directly addressing the most pressing issue the city faces today: the issue of abandoned and vacant houses. South Bend's Pressing Problem The current economic situation of South Bend - resulting from a loss of jobs, population decrease, and the national housing crisis - has led to a problem with vacant and abandoned properties. With too many houses for the South Bend population to fill, many houses are vacant (no one has lived in the house for over 90 days) or, even worse, abandoned (the house is vacant and has a code violation(s) that has not been addressed for more than 30 days). Vacant and abandoned properties lower neighborhood real estate values, are prone to intruders, have potentially dangerous structures, and are an ineffective use of land and resources. A recent Task Force organized by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Jim Kelly of the ND Law School assessed the situation and revised code enforcement policy to accommodate the problem of vacant and abandoned properties. Code Enforcement has called for the demolition of a number of abandoned houses, primarily those that are severely dilapidated in reinvestment areas (areas with a weak real estate market). However, abandoned houses in revitalization areas (areas with stronger real estate market) can be made available and renovated through other programs and projects. The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC), with the mission to promote, preserve, and improve the historic integrity of South Bend, has a strong interest in the renovation and preservation of houses in historic districts. The HPC has already made great strides in this direction with the skills and educational workshops in historic preservation. We think a logical next step will be to leverage this knowledge and experience and apply it