Data Driven Systems: Model Practices & Policies for Strategic Code Enforcement (original) (raw)

2016, SSRN Electronic Journal

As more American cities launch citywide blight elimination campaigns, reform outdated policies, and rebuild dysfunctional nuisance abatement programs, they are literally counting on data. Working together, local governments and community-based organizations are sending residents and staff out into neighborhoods with mobile devices to conduct comprehensive inventories of property conditions and neighborhood characteristics. With leadership from nonprofits, local foundations, and universities, a few pioneering cities-such as Cleveland and Detroit-have established robust real property information systems, essentially clearinghouses that merge real property condition data with local data on title, ownership interests and transfers, mortgage and tax foreclosures, code enforcement cases, water utility shutoffs, and undeliverable postal addresses. Taken together, these data serve as primary indicators for existing or future property vacancy or abandonment. Although more communities know more today about the existing number, location, and condition of vacant properties within their jurisdictions, many local governments still have significant capacity and technology gaps, especially within code enforcement agencies that uphold state laws and local ordinances related to property maintenance, unsafe structures, demolitions, and substandard housing. This brief examines the latest strategies, tools, and techniques for using real property data to help communities facilitate neighborhood revitalization through a strategic, data-driven approach to code enforcement policies, programs, and tactics. The Vacant Property Research Network's research and policy brief series bridges the traditional divide between research and practice by explaining the methods behind recent research along with the context and findings so that practitioners and community leaders can better understand what the research says, what the research does not say, and how it might be relevant to their respective vacant property initiatives. By understanding how current research may or may not apply to local efforts, we believe practitioners and policymakers will be better equipped to make better decisions, improve policy and program implementation, and ultimately facilitate the regeneration of their communities. This effort was made possible with the support of the Ford Foundation.