As far back as 2016, the State of Connecticut identified a significant issue with deficient concrete resulting in crumbling basements and foundations.
The crisis prompted the state to create an official web page dedicated to the problem and several pieces of legislation were introduced. Additionally a grass roots organization, the Connecticut Coalition Against Crumbling Basements, was created.
In a recent report, NBC Connecticut discusses a recent meeting where affected homeowners were advised to abandon their homes
For additional information please click on following link:
Crumbling Foundations Causing Foreclosed Dreams
Help is on the way though in the form of grants, captive insurance and a low-interest loan program;
Journal Inquirer: Crumbling concrete grants now available
Captive Internal: First crumbling foundation repaired with help of Connecticut captive
Washington, DC – Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH) and Congressman David McKinley (R-WV) introduced the Clean Up Our Neighborhoods Act of 2019 (H.R. 2390). This legislation would authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to States to eliminate residential and commercial blight and assist in neighborhood revitalization. Eligible activities would include boarding vacant properties, demolishing or renovating blighted structures, clearing and maintaining vacant land, and stabilizing activities that provide open green space for public access and redevelopment. States must match 15 percent of the grant amount.
“There are currently 1.3 million vacant homes in America, including thousands in Midwest communities like Youngstown, Akron, Detroit, and Flint. Our ultimate goal must be to completely eliminate blight from our neighborhoods and this bill is a big step in that direction. The cost of abandoned buildings and vacant lots cannot be overstated. Abandoned structures account for $777 million in fire-related property losses each year, not to mention thousands of dollars in decreased property values for neighboring homeowners,” said Congressman Ryan. “Neighborhood blight can also lead to negative public health and social outcomes. Abandoned structures can become physical spaces for criminal activity, drug use, and gun violence. Studies link blighted properties to higher rates of childhood lead poisoning, chronic illness, mental distress, and premature mortality. A nation as wealthy as ours cannot be content to see some communities thrive, while others are scarred by fear, hopelessness, and neglect. It’s time to put the resources of the federal government to work addressing this large-scale problem.”
“Abandoned buildings and vacant lots are an eyesore, negatively impact economic development, and the quality of life in our communities,” Congressman McKinley said. “This bill will provide more resources to empower rural and urban communities alike to mitigate these unsightly areas, which will improve our neighborhoods and give a boost to revitalization efforts.”
You can read the full text of the bill here.
As a follow up to my March Blog posting where I discussed the continuing issue of wasted time, money and effort in identifying owners or mortgage servicers of vacant and abandoned properties please see this recent article.
Following is quote by a local councilwoman is quoted as “They did send out (warning) letters and a lot of those letters were returned because the only address that they had for some of them were the actual vacant properties,” said council member Rev. Sylvia King.”
There are better answers than mailing letters to abandoned properties. MuniReg has some of them!!
A recent article from NJBiz discusses a conditional veto from Gov. Phil Murphy on legislation that would have required the Department of Community Affairs to create an online database and interactive map of residential properties under foreclosure.
Interesting to note;
- New Jersey already has a significant amount of local VPR legislation.
- It is clear that there is room for a greater understanding of the issue. In the context of fighting blight, vacancy/abandonment causes blight not foreclosure.
To view the article, please click here.
As the loudest and strongest advocate for “clearboarding” my late father-in-law Robert Klein would be proud of Mobile’s approach to addressing blight. Replacing plywood boards with plexiglass/polycarbonate is a simple but powerful solution. See for yourself…………
To view local media coverage of the press conference, please click on the following links:
NBC15: City of Mobile to use Plexiglass to fight blight
AlabamaUCLA.tv: City of Mobile buying properties fight blight
In January 2018 Albuquerque’s Vacant & Abandoned Houses Task Force issued their findings and recommendations to council.
In April 2019, the City received a report from the Center for Community Progress who was retained by the City “to evaluate the feasibility of land banking to address vacant, abandoned and substandard properties in Albuquerque”.
To view the report, please click here
Following is a press release from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, discussing how the most recent foreclosure crisis negatively impacted voter turnout.
Foreclosure Crisis Eroded Milwaukee Voter Turnout
The foreclosure crisis that accompanied the Great Recession had an unexpected consequence in Milwaukee County: It exacerbated political inequity.
A study conducted by researchers at UW-Milwaukee and Marquette University found that county homeowners facing foreclosure or those who had lost their homes during the economic downturn were less likely to go to the polls in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
These local results echo a national trend documented by other studies that indicate economic adversity negatively impacts people’s voting behavior.
In fact, the study not only found a decline in voting at the level of individual homeowners, but also evidence that it occurred in whole neighborhoods that were hard hit by foreclosures, said Paru Shah, UWM associate professor of political science, and Amber Wichowsky, an associate professor at Marquette.
Regardless of race, income
The two researchers also found that foreclosures depressed voter turnout regardless of race or income level, and it was unrelated to affected homeowners’ likelihood of voting in previous elections.
“This means that elected officials were not hearing from constituents most directly affected by the foreclosure crisis, effectively quashing a very real issue for most voters,” said Shah.
While other studies have investigated the effect of unemployment on political participation, this study was one of the first to measure the effect of foreclosure on voting.
Using public voter information matched to a database on individual foreclosures countywide, Shah and Wichowsky determined that foreclosure or the threat of it decreased political motivation.
“Rather than being a mobilizing force, the study’s results pointed to this idea that people facing insecurities didn’t have the efficacy to go to the polls,” said Wichowsky.
Further Study
The study has left several avenues open for further study.
For one, the association between foreclosure and suppressed voting in communities was less clear cut than for individual homeowners. Shah and Wichowsky’s results showed that neighborhood housing blight depressed turnout mostly in middle-class neighborhoods. The authors believe a more refined analysis is needed on how factors related to housing insecurity drive community impacts and contribute to political inequality.
Of course, sometimes economic adversity is politicized in ways that boost voting participation. More research is needed to determine the efficacy of grassroots mobilization. One example of that is the community organizing around the foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood, an area with some of the region’s highest rates of black homeownership.
Spearheaded by Common Ground, an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the efforts have resulted in hefty investment in the neighborhood to help rehabilitate foreclosed properties and provide housing.
A local community in Pennsylvania has tapped in to a great resource, local students from Harrisburg Area Community College and Blue Mountain High School. The initiative to help the borough of Mahanoy City determine exactly how many properties are in good condition or blighted, provided them with valuable information along with providing young students a real life civics lesson.
To view the article from, PAHomePage.com please click on the following link;
A New Generation Fights Blight
A recent article in the Chicago Tribune featured the successes of Aurora’s (IL) Vacant and Foreclosed Property License program started in August 2016.
Aurora’s utilization of the data includes inter-department collaboration. There are still more opportunities to leverage the information.
To access the article, please click on the following link: