Blight Issue Coalition Partners:

After School Partnership
Beacon of Hope
Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region
Broadmoor Improvement Association
Carrollton/Riverbend Neighborhood Association
Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans
Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee
Common Good
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana
Idea Village
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Neighborhoods Partnership Network
Neighborhood Development Foundation
New Orleans Chamber of Commerce
New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative
New Orleans Vacant Property Initiative
Neighborhood Housing Services
Urban League of Greater New Orleans
Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates
Young Leadership Council

 

 
Issue 2 - Blight PDF Print E-mail

Even before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ blighted properties far exceeded reasonable tolerance. Today, New Orleans leads the nation in blighted properties with over 60,000 blighted structures.

Blighted properties present a significant obstacle to economic growth. They broadcast a lack of respect and responsibility by property owners and the inability of our local government to manage the problem to resolution.

Citizens insist on the restoration of blighted properties to improve the quality of life for all citizens and build confidence that our community can be an attractive place to live and work. Accordingly, city officials must:
 

Leadership Mandates 

Strategic Plan. Within the first 60 days of office, formulate and begin implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan for blight eradication that incorporates code enforcement best practices, short and long term goals, and objective benchmarks city officials and employees shall be required to achieve. Publish the strategic plan and maintain it as publicly accessible. Designate a member of the mayor’s cabinet as accountable for the efficient execution of the strategic plan.
 
Public Policy. Establish and promulgate as public policy an aggressive code enforcement stance against blight with the clear expectation of citizen compliance and accountability, and consequences for noncompliance, including the collection of fines and code lien auctions. 
 
 
 
Integration of Enforcement Departments. Integrate and streamline property inspection and enforcement departments and administrative hearing procedures so all categories of property violations, i.e. public health, housing, environmental, public nuisance, and fire, can be cited and enforced within one process.
 
Inspection and Enforcement Capacity. Increase inspection and enforcement capacity with regard to the number of inspectors, hearing facilitators, and hearing officers to ensure that, consistent with an aggressive strategic plan, code enforcement can receive and process significantly more cases.
 
Fines and Self-Funding. Impose and efficiently collect fines, penalties, and hearing costs and fees for code violations and deposit them into the “New Orleans Neighborhood Revitalization Fund,” which is a revolving fund authorized by Section 28-54 of the City Code. Build a self-funded code enforcement department, increase the financial resources and capacity, and eliminate improper reliance on federal grant (HUD) monies currently used, in large part, to fund code enforcement.
 
Neighborhood-Based Code Enforcement. Designate a Neighborhood Coordinator within code enforcement to enable neighborhood-based code enforcement through systematic and ongoing collaboration with neighborhood organizations. Facilitate neighborhood monitoring of enforcement actions against high-priority properties. Require the Neighborhood Coordinator to furnish a quarterly report on the status and progress of enforcement actions within the respective neighborhoods.
 
GIS System. Use the citywide GIS (Geographic Information System) to map and track progress of code enforcement and other anti-blight programs. Coordinate and overlay geographic information from other departments, specifically including the police department and assessors office, and thereby ensure the efficient and accurate cross-departmental exchange of information on high-priority properties. Open this information to citizens to encourage awareness and monitoring.
 
Law Enforcement Integration. Integrate law enforcement into anti-blight strategy to prioritize enforcement against crime-prone blighted properties. Facilitate enforcement with police participation, where necessary.
 
Agency Collaboration. Require systematic and ongoing collaboration between code enforcement and the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) to create efficiencies and eliminate redundancies (particularly in property acquisition). Harmonize code enforcement strategies with NORA’s redevelopment, land assembly and disposition objectives. 
 
Rehabilitation Incentives. Establish incentives for citizen/developer purchase of blighted properties including, for example, a code enforcement fast-track for those properties identified for private-party purchase; the city’s waiver of existing liens that serve as obstacles to market interest in code lien auctions; and code lien auctions of blighted properties with an extremely low reserve for qualified buyers in recognition of the longer-term benefits of returning blighted properties to commerce.