A collaboration between National League of Cities and the Stanford Legal Design Lab has created an updated Landlord Engagement Lab Toolkit.
“This toolkit includes a series of resources developed for city leaders interested in building or refining their strategies for engaging landlords. These resources offer important insight into key elements of a successful landlord engagement strategy.”
“Engaging mom-and-pop landlords is key to longer-term eviction prevention efforts, housing stability, and supporting both vulnerable renters and landlords.”
Toolkit discusses;
- Developing a Mom-and-Pop Landlord Engagement Strategy to Prevent Evictions
- Identifying mom-and-pop landlords to build relationship and support eviction prevention
- Incentivizing landlords to advance eviction prevention
- Designing and implementing local eviction prevention policies and programs
- Evaluating eviction prevention policies and programs
- Communicating with mom-and-pop landlords
To access the Toolkit, please click here.
State Senator Brian Kavanagh, Chair of the Senate Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development, announced that the Senate Housing Committee convened its first meeting of the new legislative session and advanced several significant bills including S1634B.
This bill “relates to penalties for failure to comply with maintenance and reporting of vacant and abandoned properties, and reporting and release of information; provides for the sharing of information between municipalities; provides for enforcement for failure to report on abandoned and vacant properties.”
To view the press release, please click here.
To view the current bill text, please click here.
A recent editorial discusses a ruling by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer in favor of a neighborhood association in its nuisance suit with a prominent local investor.
The article advocates for neighbors of other nuisance properties (specific to this developer) to “consult with lawyers” following this ruling.
To view the article, please click here.
A Center for Community Progress report discusses a study that found land bank ownership was associated with net declines in both the density of all crime and serious violent crimes over time. Study compared the violent crime density around vacant lots owned by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA) with crime around privately owned vacant lots.
For more information, please click on the following link:
New Study Shows Land Bank Ownership of Vacant Lots Can Reduce Violent Crime
In the fall of 2023, the Center for Community Progress released a blog posting discussing the difficulties with tax lien sales and suggesting a better alternative, already implemented in a couple of New York communites.
For more information, please click on the following link:
What is a tax lien sale and why is it a bad way of dealing with vacant properties?