The Center for Community Progress has released a new report titles “Reevaluating Code Enforcement: A New Approach to Addressing Problem Properties” advocating for shifting from traditional code enforcement to the more strategic approach of code compliance.
Per the Center’s website:
Under a strategic code compliance approach, local governments would:
- View code compliance as a key neighborhood stabilization tool and essential service that protects and strengthens community health and safety;
- Adequately fund code compliance efforts;
- Embed partnerships and collaboration in code compliance efforts;
- Align the municipality’s human resources policies, practices, and work culture with this new framework.
To shift to such an approach, local governments should:
- Use parcel, market, and social data to inform proactive actions and strategic allocation of resources;
- Adopt policies and practices informed by data that recognize properties and owners can and should be treated differently;
- Track and evaluate outcomes and make adjustments as needed—with a commitment to transparency and communication;
- Break out of the silos and collaborate across departments and sectors;
- Make broad changes within the department and local government to support a culture of code compliance; and,
- Make equity both a core principle and a desired outcome.
To view the report, please click here.
A recent feature in Strong Towns discusses how Kalamazoo is utilizing Pre-Permitted Housing Plans to address blight.
Following an innovative expansion upon a neighboring community’s concept of pre-approved plans they embarked on a proof of concept, partnering with a local nonprofit, Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services (KNHS).
In discussing the success of the program, the article discusses various factors including being proactive and hands-on, have strong community engagement, along with being aware of some challenges.
To view the article, please click here.
Below please find a recent post by the Niskanen Center, a nonprofit public policy organization named the “The Most Interesting Think Tank in America” by TIME Magazine in 2023.
Key Takeaways:
- In cities crime is highly concentrated and entrenched in a few small areas.
- Strategies to reduce crime that focus on community changes have strong theoretical and empirical support.
- The best place-based interventions reduce serious crimes by making areas less attractive to criminal behavior rather than relying on arrests or social services.
- Cleaning up blighted physical disorder in communities is key to effective crime prevention.
- Place-based interventions should be viewed as complements to effective and constitutional policing.
- Governments should provide matching grants and other incentives to encourage communities to make improvements that reduce crime
To view the article, please click here.
A related article from August 2022 by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) can be viewed by clicking here
Bernadette Hohl, a senior research investigator with the Penn Injury Science Center and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Injury Prevention Program partnered with the University of Michigan Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center to analyze communities hardest hit by illegal dumping and how they might prevent it.
Illegal dumping has become an escalating menace, casting a shadow of environmental decay and public health hazards over communities globally. A recent article explores the detrimental impact of this act, shedding light on how it exacerbates blight, poses serious health risks and underscores the pressing need for effective strategies to curb illegal dumping and its pervasive effects.
To view the article, please click here.
Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash
One local Mayor is questioning his community’s current eviction policy that may discriminate against renters, while homeowners exhibiting similar problems do not get the same treatment.
As communities struggle with finding the proper balance in addressing nuisance properties, perhaps this adds yet another wrinkle.
To view the article, please click here.