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 inREAD MORE
Landlord Engagement Lab Toolkit
A collaboration between National League of Cities and the Stanford Legal Design Lab has created an updated Landlord Engagement Lab Toolkit. “This toolkit includes a series of resources developed for city leaders interested in buildingREAD MORE
New York State Keeps the Focus on Zombie Properties
State Senator Brian Kavanagh, Chair of the Senate Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development, announced that the Senate Housing Committee convened its first meeting of the new legislative session and advanced several significant billsREAD MORE
St Louis Post Dispatch Op-Ed: Taking Matters into One’s Own Hands “Ruling on McKee nuisance property should prompt more neighbors to sue”
A recent editorial discusses a ruling by St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer in favor of a neighborhood association in its nuisance suit with a prominent local investor. The article advocates for neighbors ofREAD MORE
Land Bank Ownership’s Impact on Violent Crime Reduction
A Center for Community Progress report discusses a study that found land bank ownership was associated with net declines in both the density of all crime and serious violent crimes over time. Study compared theREAD MORE
Tax Lien Sales or Tax Deed Sales
In the fall of 2023, the Center for Community Progress released a blog posting discussing the difficulties with tax lien sales and suggesting a better alternative, already implemented in a couple of New York communites.READ MORE
Florida Bill Going After Squatters
Following a story that received national exposure, State Representative Kevin Steele has introduced House Bill 621 in order to “close a legal loophole” protecting landlords from squatters and “adverse possession” “Steele’s bill would not onlyREAD MORE
Blight Reduction to Address Gun Violence
We have previously provided studies (see below) demonstrating the connection between abandoned properties/blight and crime, specifically gun violence. Now a year after the most recent report, Philadelphia is implementing a pilot program that appears toREAD MORE
Uncooperative Judge – Share This Perspective
In a November 2022 blog post we discussed that though property owners have rights that must be protected, the rights of the neighbors to be protected from the negative consequences of vacant or blighted propertiesREAD MORE
Local Property Rights Play a Crucial Role
In a recent column, nationally recognized columnist, speaker and publisher John Newby (Building Main Street, not Wall Steet) focuses on the value of effective property regulation and enforcement, to mitigate blight and its effect onREAD MORE
Hidden landlords: renters’ woes soar as property owners hide their identities
When the headline says it all! A recent article from The Guardian discusses how LLCs are utilized to hide ownership information and the status of the “LLC Transparency Act” a bill proposing disclosure of all LLC owners,READ MORE
Tax Foreclosure Challenges
Over the course of one week, three articles from across the country outlined specific challenges in utilizing tax foreclosures to address blight in their respective communities. Akron, OH: Five years after Ohio’s first coordinated foreclosureREAD MORE