The first order of business for the newly formed Blight Authority of Memphis (BAM) board will likely be authorizing the group to apply for the Tennessee Housing Development Agency's (THDA) $7 million blight elimination program. "That could be a short-term strategy while we're figuring out what our more long-term focus will be," says Sheila Jordan Cunningham, an attorney with Neighborhood Preservation Inc., a nonprofit providing initial funding for BAM. The THDA program, announced in August,...
