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Secure and Maintain Foreclosed Properties
Increase Code Enforcement's Effectiveness through Targeting and Streamlining

Code enforcement helps communities maintain or restore building integrity and property values while preventing nuisances, fires, criminal activity, pest infestations, and other impediments to public health and safety. Done well, it is an integral part of a community’s neighborhood stabilization strategy. As the "first responders" to foreclosed properties, code enforcement departments face increased case loads while municipal budgets are tightening (Schilling 2009). Code enforcement departments, which are usually under the authority of the local housing or buildings department, can respond to rising foreclosure-related needs by adopting more cost-effective strategies, such as targeting enforcement in high-impact areas and streamlining the enforcement process.

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Target code enforcement for increased impact

Streamline the enforcement process

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Increase code enforcement's effectiveness through targeting and streamlining

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Clarify property owners and maintenance responsibilities throughout the foreclosure process

Engage community groups and local officials to assist with monitoring and inspections

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Resolve code violations quickly and effectively to reduce neighborhood decline

Target code enforcement for increased impact

Code enforcement departments often operate in a reactive mode, focusing on responding to complaints. This approach can allow properties to become nuisances before the code enforcement department receives a complaint. Instead of relying primarily on a complaint-and-response strategy, code enforcement departments may wish to adopt a targeted approach that focuses on identifying and resolving violations early where the risks are the highest or where code enforcement can have the greatest impact.

Photo courtesy of Philadelphia Housing Authority

Local property information can help code enforcement departments identify at-risk properties in otherwise healthy neighborhoods and prevent community decline before it becomes pervasive. Communities without local property information systems can get a sense of their local needs using national data sources, such as the Market Strength/Foreclosure Risk Matrix available on this site, or can build data capacity for the long run through efforts such as the National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP).

By considering property risks in the context of the local housing market or local neighborhood development efforts, communities can increase code enforcement’s impact. For example, communities can start to shift perceptions about a neighborhood by targeting code enforcement in areas undergoing revitalization as part of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) or through other community development plans. A targeted effort that brings an entire block up to code will have a more noticeable, and likely longer lasting, impact than simply responding to complaints. Communities can also increase the impact of code enforcement by focusing on compliance in neighborhoods with few vacant properties and relatively healthy housing markets. When most of the properties in a community are regularly maintained, improving the condition of

a relatively small number of foreclosed or abandoned homes can have a big effect on the neighborhood’s safety and quality of life.

Learn more about ways to identify the right policies for the right neighborhoods in the "Develop a Coordinated Response Strategy" section of the Policy Guide.

Solutions in Action

Targeting Code Enforcement on Foreclosed Properties in Southfield, Michigan

Southfield, Michigan, a city in the Detroit area, is taking aggressive action to reduce the negative impact of foreclosed and abandoned properties. The Code Enforcement Department makes an effort to inspect foreclosed homes as soon as possible and board up doors and windows, if necessary. The City checks the foreclosure papers to identify the lender and holds the lender responsible for property maintenance. The Police Department also receives a list of foreclosed properties in order to increase patrols in the vicinity.

Targeting Vacant Properties Strategically in Baltimore, Maryland

An analysis of vacant properties and housing market strength in Baltimore found that around two-thirds of the city’s 16,000 vacant properties are in severely distressed areas that are unlikely to be revitalized in the near future. To have a noticeable impact and spur further revitalization, Baltimore Housing has decided to target its code enforcement efforts not on the areas with the worst problems but rather on transitional or relatively healthy neighborhoods with scattered vacant properties. Code enforcement will also partner with private developers doing major redevelopment projects in distressed areas to ensure that vacant properties in these communities are restored to code as part of a comprehensive community revitalization effort.

The city expects its new strategic approach to code enforcement to target 1,000 properties in transitional neighborhoods in its first year and increase the effectiveness of private development activity in 13 emerging markets within distressed areas.

The targeted approach to code enforcement is part of Baltimore’s comprehensive vacant properties initiative, Vacants to Value. Learn more in the Vacants to Value case study.

Streamline the enforcement process

As the number of foreclosed properties rises and local budgets tighten, it may become difficult for code enforcement officials to keep up with the necessary inspections, citations, and enforcement actions unless the department becomes more efficient. By streamlining the process of reporting code violations, issuing citations and violation notices, and referring cases for legal action, code enforcement departments can have a bigger impact without needing a bigger budget. The keys are using technology and revising costly and time-consuming procedures.

Technology can reduce lag time throughout the code enforcement process. Neighborhood residents can submit and track their own complaints online. Inspectors can enter reports from the field, automatically triggering a violation notice to be sent and follow-up to be scheduled. Using technology in this way not only presents opportunities to reduce costs and time delays, it also increases transparency in the enforcement process.

Code enforcement departments can also become more effective by identifying and removing inefficiencies in their current procedures. For departments in high foreclosure areas, tracking down the owners of vacant properties can take a significant amount of time. Adopting a vacant property registration requirement can free up resources to reach more properties. Enforcing violation notices can also be a source of inefficiencies. Departments that currently use the courts as their main method of getting results can find substantial savings by issuing tickets for most violations and reserving the legal team for repeat offenders and extreme non-compliance.

Solutions in Action

Code Enforcement Tickets in Baltimore, Maryland

Until 2010, Baltimore City’s code enforcement process involved using litigation any time a property owner failed to comply with a violation notice. Faced with 16,000 vacant properties citywide, Baltimore Housing needed to reduce the time involved in bringing properties back up to code. The city streamlined the enforcement process by implementing administrative citations, similar to parking tickets, for failure to comply with a violation notice. Property owners are now only taken to housing court if the violations have not been resolved after several months and two $900 citations.

The new process allows the city to aggressively enforce its housing codes without spending as much time and money having lawyers bring every case to court. They expect that the new process will cut the average enforcement time in half.

The new administrative citation process is just one of the strategies Baltimore City is using in its comprehensive vacant property program, Vacants to Value. Learn more in the Vacants to Value case study.