The Spring
2010 Property Survey Results are
in and continue to be most encouraging.
Occupied properties are up
another 270 or
7% over properties reported occupied in
October 2009. Another
373 properties
are reported under
repair or are hosting new
construction. This
brings the total number of properties
either occupied or being rebuilt to
4,451 roughly
2/3 of all the properties in Lakeview.
Further, “homes
with no progress” since Katrina are reported at
527...down by 204, an improvement of 28%
since October 2009.
Unfortunately there were still 595 out
of compliance “Problem
Properties”
in Lakeview at the time of the survey.
However, that number is down by 188 (24%) from
the 783
problem properties reported in the Fall
of 2009 and
down by 435 (42%)
from last year’s Spring Survey. Of
the 595 problem properties, 283
properties include out of compliance
buildings and 312 are vacant lots and
slabs with weeds and/or debris. 63
of these properties are state owned Road
Home properties.
The Spring 2010 Survey was conducted by Lakeview volunteers
in April and
May. I
personally want to thank all those
who worked hard to
complete the survey
in a timely manner.
City Code
Enforcement Activity
Blight hearings so far this year have
emphasized resets
although some new cases have been heard. However,
we do expect
a significant new
wave of inspections and hearings this
summer as
the city re-energizes its efforts under
the new administration. As you know,
blight hearings are
very important because they often
result in property owners cleaning up
their properties. A significant number
of these hearings
result in fines and court costs for the
owner. Blight
Committee members continue to
participate in these
hearings to
make statements and offer photos
attesting to the current condition of
the property. Hearing
schedules and results are posted on the
city’s web page at cityofno.com.
Blight Cleanup by City
As reported previously, there are
currently two potential sources of
cleanup funding: $3 million for yard and
pool care under the Interim Nuisance
Abatement Program (INAP) and a Strategic
Demolition Fund of $9.1million. We have
been working with Code Enforcement
people to identify blighted and
overgrown properties which qualify for
cleanup under these programs. We
are also working with city officials to
expedite getting the contracts for these
efforts signed so that city cleanups
can begin. Hopefully
this work will begin soon.
Trailers in Lakeview
Although the April 30th 2009
deadline for trailer removal has come and
gone, Lakeview still has 9 FEMA
trailers (two
trailers were picked up by FEMA in May
and June) and a few personal trailers
which have not as yet been removed.
Although the Committee
has been vigorously discussing
this issue with City
and FEMA officials for
many, many months, progress continues to
be slow.
Working for Improvements
in 2010
During March and April members of our
committee have communicated our need for
improvements in
the City’s blight fight efforts to
recently elected council members and the mayor elect’s Transition
Task Force on Blight and Housing.
In these communications we have
expressed our desire to make code
enforcement hearings more
effective by:
1) Introducing uniform
penalty guidelines which would assure
that code violators pay court costs and
fines if they have been justly summoned
to court.
2) Significantly
strengthening the “Sheriff’s Blight
Lien Sale” process
so that chronically blighted properties
with unpaid blight liens can be sold at
auction. Currently there
are 3 Lakeview properties
active in this painfully slow process.
3) Establishing
a citizen’s committee to periodically provide
feedback to Code Enforcement and
Hearing Officer management on
how blight hearings are going from the
citizens’ point of view.
We have also sent a letter endorsing a
proposal by code enforcement management
to consolidate and strengthen all code
enforcement efforts including the
hearing officer function and the city’s
demolition efforts.
Our communications have pleaded for the
City administration to seriously work
with FEMA and the trailer occupants to
rid Lakeview of the remaining temporary
housing. If temporary housing is still
necessary in some cases, alternatives to
yard trailers can and must be found. A
Blight Committee member made this plea
again at the April public meeting of the Blight
and Housing Transition
Task Force.
We have also explained that
at some point soon, we need to turn our
attention to gutted
but abandoned, chronically
vacant properties which either need to
be restored or need to
be demolished.
Currently there are still
over 500 (down by over 200 in the last 6
months) abandoned, chronically
vacant properties in Lakeview and Code
Enforcement has not
as yet focused on them.
Analysis has shown that there are many
recipients of Road Home money who
promised to rebuild their house but
instead have abandoned their property.
In many such cases, the property owners
have been fined for blight code
violations and still have taken no
action to cleanup. We
have urged the city to weigh
in on strict enforcement of the Road
Home Covenant.
The Mayor’s Transition Task
Force on
Blight published
its recommendations in
April and has picked up on many of our
pleadings for improvements in the city’s
efforts to fight blight. We
applaud these recommendations. However
at the time of this writing, we have not
been able to detect any significant signs
of implementation. We sincerely hope we
see some soon.
Comments on this report and/or suggestions
should be emailed to: blightcommittee@lakeviewcivic.org
