Michigan LISC Flint Office provided capacity building grant to support the Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA) in building and operationalizing the Flint Property Portal. The grant was used to pay for contracted services from Loveland Technologies to work in close collaboration with the GCLBA and the City of Flint to build the portal. The Property Portal makes it easier for Flint residents to find out more information about homes in their neighborhood. "There's a host of different data points," said Genesee County Land Bank Executive Director Michele Wildman. Data points include who owns the property, what ward it's in, zoning districts and who's in charge of maintenance. "All of our decisions are data based and we know sometimes that the conditions in neighborhoods can literally change overnight. Sometimes we may not be reacting to the most currently available information," she said. And that's when homeowners can step in and provide feedback on the website about the condition of specific properties. "We're really looking for people to use this as a tool to say this property is open, it needs to be boarded, it needs to be secured," she said. That information, Wildman says, is a win win. "It will really help us both in our daily operations as well as in leveraging new funding to come into the community," she said. Click to read the full story.