Most community builders seek to acquire buildings that can be used in community revitalization efforts. Community developers generally find an insufficient supply of affordable housing stock, or stock that is unsafe and uninhabitable. To increase the stock of revitalized and affordable units, many affordable housing developers try to acquire vacant properties that are government-owned or available through government programs. Others seek charitable funds to permit the purchase of buildings on the private market. These strategies, however, do not necessarily eliminate blight and substandard housing.

Change the Intent

Where housing code enforcement is spurring gentrification, communities must work to capture the benefits of enforcement for the community good.

The failure of some owners to maintain their buildings can result in deteriorated structures where tenants remain, lacking other options.

When housing code enforcement is used to address these conditions, it can play a role in gentrification. When local jurisdictions step in to require that landlords address substandard conditions, their actions can cause wholesale eviction of current tenants while rehabilitation takes place, or can result in improvement and rent increases beyond the means of current residents.

Housing code enforcement can also be triggered to transfer building ownership from an exploitative owner to a responsible nonprofit developer, tenant association, or community group - both improving the neighborhood and increasing the stock of quality affordable housing.

Historic Use of Code Enforcement

Most local governments have use housing codes to ensure safe and habitable affordable housing within their jurisdictions. Only recently has housing code enforcement been invoked by tenants and community organizations to increase tenant and community ownership of multi-family dwellings.

The predominantly Latino and Vietnamese tenants of several buildings in Washington, D.C. are using the District's housing code enforcement efforts to ensure tenant and nonprofit developer ownership of the buildings and an end to exploitation by the owner.
Local government is using housing code enforcement to increase the affordable housing stock in Charleston, South Carolina, where city officials condemned vacant properties and then renovated them as part of a new affordable home with ownership program.
San Jose oriented its housing code enforcement in a community building context through its mission statement: "Code Enforcement works with the Neighborhood Services Department in improving the physical quality of these neighborhoods and initiating ongoing strategies to empower the residents."

Know the Context

A community should examine its jurisdiction's use of housing code enforcement as a predictor of the jurisdiction's likelihood of cooperating in future use of the tool to support a community-driven effort to revitalize.

The history of local government's enforcement of its housing codes is critical to understanding the dangers inherent in its use in particular jurisdictions. In many cities, the pattern of housing code enforcement is familiar: years of under-enforcement of housing codes in low-income and minority communities result in unsafe buildings, followed by aggressive enforcement when new investments are made in those communities. Community residents often correlate the arrival of the government inspectors with the approach of for-profit developers and the economic forces that will drive them out.

A jurisdiction's current code enforcement efforts can guide community response. If the city is in the under-enforcement period, the community may be able to use enforcement to encourage tenant-beneficial repairs. If the city is overenforcing, the community may have to work to redirect the city's goals with a focus on community revitalization.

Advantages of Using the Tool

Full Participation Required

Without voluntary or forced cooperation of all of the necessary elements of the local government, the community runs the very real danger of not only the benefit of housing code enforcement going elsewhere, but also of the community being significantly harmed by the code enforcement process.

The tool wields powerful coercive mechanisms and delivers powerful partners. Communities have ways of getting negligent property owners to the negotiating table. Housing code enforcement can include criminal prosecution. Such a threat can compel action, and leverage benefits for the community.

Ensuring Community Benefit

Housing code enforcement can benefit the community when:

Local government specifically negotiates improvements linked to long-term affordability.
Tenants associations negotiate transfer of ownership and develop long-term preservation as affordable housing for themselves and their successors.
A broad spectrum of tenant and community groups develops a common perspective on using housing code enforcement to achieve results.