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Code Enforcement System

Wheeling, WV’s code enforcement strategy contends with a graying city
Wheeling, WV’s code enforcement strategy contends with a graying city

Cross-posted from Next City, this article is part of the 2013 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference liveblog series. Check out all the in-depth content — even if you weren’t able to join us in Philadelphia from September 9-11, 2013, you’ll feel like you did! Every city wants to know the secret to effective, budget-friendly…

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“A lot of tiny pieces lost”
“A lot of tiny pieces lost”

Cross-posted from Next City, this article is part of the 2013 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference liveblog series. Check out all the in-depth content — even if you weren’t able to join us in Philadelphia from September 9-11, 2013, you’ll feel like you did! Zach Patten of Curbed Philly contributed to this story. The Reclaiming Vacant…

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Op-Ed: ‘Demolition’ is not a bad word — Just keep it strategic
Op-Ed: ‘Demolition’ is not a bad word — Just keep it strategic

Cross-posted from Next City, this article is part of the 2013 Reclaiming Vacant Properties Conference liveblog series. Check out all the in-depth content — even if you weren’t able to join us in Philadelphia from September 9-11, 2013, you’ll feel like you did! Vacant properties and otherwise blighted and deeply undervalued parcels are…

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Adding “oomph” to enforcement: a statewide coalition reshapes Louisiana’s blight fight
Adding “oomph” to enforcement: a statewide coalition reshapes Louisiana’s blight fight

What started out as a lunchtime conversation at a national conference back in 2010 culminated this past spring with state legislative reforms that dramatically strengthen blight prevention policies in Louisiana. Specifically, a power that was previously available only in New Orleans is now open to all municipalities and parishes: the…

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Detroit and four other Michigan cities to receive additional federal dollars for strategic demolition
Detroit and four other Michigan cities to receive additional federal dollars for strategic demolition

In an exciting development, the U.S. Treasury Department announced last week that Michigan may use up to $100 Million—or 20%—of its Hardest Hit Fund (HHF) allocation for strategic demolition of vacant properties. Part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the HHF was created in 2010 to stabilize housing markets…

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What is Code Enforcement?

Code enforcement from A to Z: when it works, when it doesn’t, and how local governments can make code enforcement systems more fair for all.

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The Problem with Calling Neighborhoods with Vacant Properties “Blighted” 

Picture a neighborhood with numerous run-down homes, vacant lots, and boarded-up buildings, grounds or structure overgrown with vegetation. What word comes to mind to describe those conditions?  For many, that word is “blight.”  Blight is a shorthand term many people use to refer to properties they perceive as problematic in…

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How Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Affect the Community

Vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated (VAD) properties—referred to by some as “blighted properties”—pose significant costs to public health, property values, local taxpayers, and more.

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From Harm to Home: Replicating Detroit’s Make it Home Program

The City of Detroit’s innovative Make it Home program harnesses the power of the traditionally harmful property tax foreclosure process and uses it to increase affordable homeownership, improve housing conditions, and stabilize neighborhoods.  

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What does equitable code enforcement look like? How Louisville is taking steps to use its code enforcement process to advance racial equity

With technical assistance support from Community Progress, Louisville is reforming their housing and building code enforcement with equity in mind.

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Approaches to Rural Property Vacancy in Law and Policy

This is an excerpt of Chapter 8 of Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession, jointly produced by the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It has been lightly edited and condensed for the web….

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A History of Ohio Land Banking 2009–2021: From Legislation to Operation

This is an excerpt of Chapter 7 of Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession, jointly produced by the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It has been lightly edited and condensed for the web….

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Developing and Implementing Property Remediation Strategies in Urban and Rural Communities in the Lehigh Valley: A Case Study of Bethlehem and Northampton County, Pennsylvania

This is an excerpt of Chapter 6 of Tackling Vacancy and Abandonment: Strategies and Impacts After the Great Recession, jointly produced by the Center for Community Progress, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It has been lightly edited and condensed for the web. In…

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Bay City Allocates $3 Million to Home Repair and Strategic Code Enforcement

Cities across the United States are receiving an unprecedented infusion of resources from the American Rescue Plan Act State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (ARPA SLFRF). Thanks to direct advocacy from Community Progress and our partners, the U.S. Treasury explicitly said communities can use ARPA SLFRF funds to address vacancy,…

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Communities Across the US Are Addressing Property Deterioration and Vacancy With ARPA

States, Tribes, counties, and municipalities around the country have been hard at work determining how to use their allocations from the American Rescue Plan Act’s $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund – which we often clumsily abbreviate as the ARPA SLFRF.   Every unit of government should have already received at least the first…

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