Mitigation interventions work to stem the spread of vacant properties through municipal and state level legal avenues. The most commonly used strategies are property stabilization through maintenance code enforcement and the tax sale process (Accordino & Johnson, 2000).
The code enforcement process is used for properties that present a health and safety hazard based on their dilapidated condition. The tax sale process, on the other hand, is used for properties that have been tax delinquent for some length of time and are acquired by municipal authorities through the tax foreclosure process.
The code enforcement process is used to apply punitive sanctions to property owners whose properties present a threat to public safety or are a nuisance that effects the quality and appearance of the area. Municipal building inspection and code enforcement bureaus monitor properties and cite owners for violations of the building code. Unfortunately, because of the extent of blighted and abandoned properties in older urban areas, the code enforcement process is reactive and does not keep up with demand (J. R. Cohen, 2001). The focus tends to be on property stabilization, through boarding up, to stunt the deterioration process, prevent infestation, and to deter illegal occupancy and use of the property (Accordino & Johnson, 2000). Tax sales, also a reactive approach, often require properties to be tax delinquent for lengths of a year or more before they can be addressed. As properties await disposition, they deteriorate and the court process is a significant expense for the municipality. Critics of the process have suggested a more proactive, community focused approach to addressing the vacant property problem.
In an example from Cleveland, a city that has suffered deeply from population loss and property abandonment, a creative program streamlined code enforcement by partnering with community development corporations to maintain a list of vacant properties, follow up on administrative issues (including attending housing court when necessary), and assist property owners in correcting code violations. The partnership considerably increased building inspection responsiveness and effectiveness by helping to manage some of the administrative duties and lighten the load on the overwhelmed inspectors (Frater, Gilson, & O'Leary, 2009). They also took on a preventative role and stopped properties from further deterioration by offering resources and incentives to property owners who needed to correct code violations.
Land banking, the process of strategically obtaining and holding properties for future use, is another proactive approach to property abandonment that holds promise as a way to stave off
deterioration and criminal activity in vacant homes (N.V.P.C., 2005). In older industrial cities that have experienced considerable population loss, the population is disproportionate to the available housing stock, which suggests that it is unlikely that all of the vacant homes will be in demand in the near future. This allows community groups to act as property managers for ongoing maintenance while they determine the best plan for the property, be that razing the property or rehabilitating it for re-use. This could help alleviate some of the more salient problems associated with vacant and abandoned properties including crime, exposure to toxins, decay, and decreasing property values.
2.5 ADAPTIVE INTERVENTIONS
Recognizing that market forces, policy, and a number of other large scale structural factors impact housing vacancy rates; the following section will assume that though the vacant property problem can be mediated through consideration of the policy suggestions in the previous section it is unlikely to be fully mitigated. Neighborhood interventions that promote cohesion and collective efficacy, including the development of community groups and advocacy efforts, are a promising direction and an area where youth can be actively engaged.
Collective efficacy, social cohesion, and social support are thought to have the potential to mediate the negative effects of physical neighborhood disorder (Coulton et al., 1996; Cutrona, Russell, Hessling, Brown, & Murry, 2000; Geis & Ross, 1998; Perkins et al., 1992; Sampson &
Groves, 1989). In order to help alleviate the problems associated with vacant and abandoned
associations could be a promising pathway toward positive individual and community level outcomes (Garvin et al., 2012; Schilling, 2009). Resident participation in neighborhood associations has been associated with greater feelings of self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and sense of community (Ohmer, 2007). The literature suggests the development of neighborhood and block associations, based on their ability to promote social cohesion and undertake
beautification activities, as a potential intervention (Perkins et al., 1992). Further, Perkins and colleagues (1992) suggest that, “community leaders and organizers might consider block clean-up activities as potentially delivering much more than merely a tidy street”, but potentially affecting the well being of block residents in a number of ways (p. 32).
Neighborhood groups have the ability to affect the vacant and abandoned property problem in several ways. Their first and most direct point of intervention is through their ability to intervene in instances of disorder through community clean ups and maintenance of property.
Secondly, they foster collective efficacy through resident engagement. Collective efficacy predicts lower observed disorder even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, land use patterns, and perceived disorder (Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999).
In addition to developing a sense of collective efficacy, research suggests that block groups and other neighborhood associations can work to organize residents to effect
neighborhood change around vacant properties. Perceptions of disorder are influenced by neighborhood composition, both racially and economically, so community groups must go beyond beautification and clean up efforts to promote community well being on a long term basis (Franzini et al., 2009). Resident groups can advocate for policies that improve
neighborhood conditions on a structural level, thus affecting the vacant property problem. On a macro scale, groups could organize around policies that impede neighborhood revitalization and
economic development (Franzini et al., 2009). There is promise in advocating for legal provisions that transfer ownership of abandoned properties to local government after a certain time period (Accordino & Johnson, 2000; McDonell, 2007). These types of activities could lead to a sense of community ownership that could, in turn, lead to informal social control that
mediates the effect of vacant and abandoned properties (Perkins et al., 1992).