LCIA Blight Committee Report                             12/8/2010                                               

2010 Fall Survey

The LCIA Blight Committee’s periodic property survey is designed to identify those properties which are occupied, those which are under construction or being restored and those properties which continue to blight Lakeview. The Fall 2010 Property Survey Results are in and continue to be spectacularly encouraging. Occupied properties are up another 227 or 6% over properties reported occupied in May 2010. 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 4,641 or 2/3 of all the properties in Lakeview.

Further, “homes with no progress” since Katrina are reported at 382...down by another 145, an improvement of 28% since May 2010.

Unfortunately there were still 436 out of compliance “Problem Properties” in Lakeview at the time of the survey. However, that number is down by 159 (27%) from the 595 problem properties reported in the Spring 2010 and down by a whopping 347 (44%) from last year’s Fall Survey. Of the 436 problem properties, 199 properties are out of compliance buildings and 237 are vacant lots and slabs with weeds and/or debris. 63 of these properties are state owned Road Home properties.

These results continue to show the very steady recovery of post Katrina Lakeview. See Recovery Trends.

The Fall 2010 Survey was again conducted by Lakeview volunteers and we want to thank all those who worked hard to again complete the survey in a timely manner.  

City Code Enforcement Activity

Blight hearings continued through the summer and fall of 2010. Many new cases and a significant number of reset cases were heard. The city enlisted volunteer hearing officers to continue with blight hearings in spite of budget difficulties. This presented some challenges to the process. However, we do expect a significant improvement in case volume and case outcomes as the city re-energizes this effort under the administration’s new fight blight strategy. 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 nola.gov.

Blight Cleanup by City

We are happy to report that the city has finally activated its two programs for cleaning up properties where owners have been through the hearing process, fined but refuse to clean up their property. Under the Interim Nuisance Abatement Program (INAP), the City can cleanup nuisance pools and overgrown yards at owner’s expense. To date the city has cleaned up at least 14 properties in Lakeview. Under the Strategic Demolition Program the city can demolish certain dilapidated properties also at owner’s expense. We know of one property which has been demolished in Lakeview under this program. We continue to work with Code Enforcement people to identify other blighted and overgrown properties which qualify for cleanup under these programs.

Trailers in Lakeview
     
Although the April 30th 2009 deadline for trailer removal has come and gone, Lakeview still has 8 FEMA trailers and at least 1 personal trailer 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 has been slow. Recently the mayor has announced that all FEMA trailers will be gone by the end of 2010. We understand that letters are going out to property owners advising them that the trailers will be picked up by the end of the year and that they should plan for alternative housing. We shall see.   

Working for Improvements in 2010

During March and April members of our committee communicated our need for improvements in the City’s blight fight efforts to recently elected council members and to the mayor elect’s Transition Task Force on Blight and Housing. The Task Force 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 applauded these recommendations. On August 5, we were able to meet in person with administration officials to again express our frustrations and need for improvements.

Through town hall meetings and other venues, the administration collected additional  input from all over the city and in early October the mayor announced his Blight and Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy. The strategy is very ambitious and if effectively implemented, we believe it will greatly improve the city’s efforts to reduce blight throughout the city.

Strategy features include:

---Consolidation of all code enforcement efforts into a Code Enforcement and Hearings Bureau.
---Significant strengthening the “Sheriff’s Blight Lien Sale” process so that chronically blighted properties with unpaid blight liens can be sold at auction.
---Public airing of the city’s progress and performance at “BlightStat Meetings”.

At these BlightStat meetings city managers present progress against predetermined targets to top city officials. The public then has an opportunity to ask questions and make comments. Progress measures include:
-Response Times to Blighted Property Complaints.
-Code Enforcement Property Inspections.
-Code Enforcement Hearings and Results.
-Demolitions, Grass Cuttings and Dumping Sites Cleared.
-Sheriff Sales.
-NORA Property Dispositions.

The LCIA Blight Committee supports the city’s new blight strategy and its implementation. Members of the Committee attend all BlightStat meetings and offer valuable feedback to the city on their efforts.

Option 1 Road Home Properties

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 believe that the state is in the process of following up on all Option 1 Road Home property owners whose 3 year time period to rebuild has expired. We support the state’s effort to require specific performance to either rebuild or return the grant money.

Lastly, we continue to remind city officials that at some point soon, we need to turn our attention to gutted chronically vacant properties which are technically in compliance with city blight codes. Eventually these properties will either need to be restored or need to be demolished. Currently there are still about 180 (down significantly in the last 6 months) such properties in Lakeview and the city has not as yet focused on them.

Comments on this report and/or suggestions should be emailed to: blightcommittee@lakeviewcivic.org