A federal appeals court struck down a 2017 Maryland statute that “allowed for certain groups, including Prince George’s County residents, county or public school employees, federal employees and veterans, to bid on tax-delinquent properties atREAD MORE
‘Vacant properties are a curse’
Following a request from Roanoke Rapids (NC) councilman Carl Ferebee to survey properties, Planning and Development Director David Wise provided a comprehensive rundown of the consequences of vacant properties, including Crime Arson and “accidental fire”READ MORE
Baltimore’s New “Clean Corps Initiative”
The “Clean Corps Initiative” has been announced by Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott. “Under this initiative, Mayor Scott is investing $14.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to partner with community and citywide organizationsREAD MORE
Normalizing Forbearance
Foreclosure often results in abandonment of the property, which often leads to blight. Foreclosure avoidance therefore mitigates the potential for blight! Could forbearance avoid foreclosure? A new report from the Urban Institute advocates for makingREAD MORE
AC&C “Proposed update to Community Reinvestment Act could support neighborhood recovery”
During the height of the foreclosure crisis a proposal was drafted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, MuniReg president Michael Halpern was a proponent of this concept even prior to the release of the proposal. In his unique positionREAD MORE
Ohio Versus “Wall Street Landlords”
State Sen. Louis Blessing (R-Colerain Township) has introduced two pieces of legislation to address “corporate slumlords”. OH SB 354 “would bar landlords or property owners with unresolved code violations or unpaid fines from bidding onREAD MORE
Zombie Foreclosures Still Exist!
Definitely a more frequent occurrence during the foreclosure crisis, however examples like this still exists. Homeowner becomes delinquent on the mortgage, bank initiates foreclosure, homeowners vacates/abandons the property and assumes bank takes possession. However banksREAD MORE
Processes for handling blight – local responses
In an earlier post, we featured an article from Western Wayne News (WWN) discussing “VPROs”. That article is part of a series on addressing blight. In the next article, WWN provides a high-level view of howREAD MORE
“Revitalize or Die” – Value of a “VPRO”
A recent article featured the “Revitalize or Die” blog of Jeff Siegler including comments about the value of a vacant property registry. In addition to discussing the components of a registry, the article quotes SieglerREAD MORE
Leveraging Resources – College Students
One South Carolina County is utilizing a local resource to address vacant and abandoned properties – Wofford College ethnography and data science students. READ MORE
Taking Matters into One’s Own Hands
Many municipalities utilize various reporting methods to address blight. Now in Baltimore, one housing advocate who also happens to be a systems and software engineer, seeing the need for better data created a new appREAD MORE
Government ALONE is not the answer
“The current and very dedicated Code Enforcement team is simply overwhelmed…………..” “Government is not the answer.” Two quotes from a recent article speak volumes. The first one we agree with! The second one, well thatREAD MORE