Government is Overenforcing Its Housing Codes in An Effort To Gentrify Neighborhoods.
Scenario: A significant portion of housing stock falling into disrepair. Landlords maximizing profits by maintaining the minimal habitability that tenants will bear.
Scenario: A city neighborhood occupied by low-income or minority residents faces rapid redevelopment and gentrification.
The community determines that that the city and agency responsible for housing code enforcement will cooperate in efforts to ensure that the dilapidated buildings will either be repaired or put in the hands of responsible owners.
The tenants and the community ask the city to send out its housing inspectors to assess various fines and penalties against the owners of the buildings.
Some owners make the necessary repairs, but others continue their usual course of business, assuming that the local government will make no real efforts to collect the fines and penalties.
The city takes significant enforcement action against the recalcitrant landlords, including criminal prosecution.
The city negotiates resolutions of its pending actions against the landlords, which include disposition of the building in a manner that the tenants and community seek.
The city uses its housing code enforcement to "clear" dilapidated buildings through condemnation or other mechanisms.
The community uses the media, grassroots mobilization, and legal mechanisms to halt the city's use of housing codes to cause significant evictions.
The community works with government to redirect its housing code enforcement to move buildings into tenants or community ownership.
