Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently signed a law allowing cities to reclaim and redevelop blighted homes across New York that have fallen into foreclosure. Local governments may now force lenders to either complete the foreclosure process or discharge the loan so they can deal with the property.
It’s a welcome move.
So-called “zombie properties” are homes deteriorating from neglect as they linger in foreclosure limbo, often for years. They attract disorder and crime, while trash accumulates and squatters prowl — harming communities.
There are at least 2,000 abandoned properties in foreclosure in the Big Apple and many more statewide. Left to fester, these signs of blight and disorder suggest to observers that no one cares. Crime soon moves in.
New York’s attempt to resurrect these zombie homes across the state shows that neighbors and leaders do care. Which is why they should go a further step by investing in their upkeep and fixing their literal “broken windows” until they come to life as homes again.
New evidence shows that abating blighted and vacant properties can dramatically curb crime. Urban criminal activity is concentrated in certain zones. About half of all complaints or incidents of gun violence are found in just 5 percent of blocks in the typical city. Can we address that 5 percent? Yes.
A report recently published by the Manhattan Institute, from University of Pennsylvania’s John MacDonald and Columbia’s Charles Branas, shows how cleaning and greening a handful of blighted lots lead to large drops in an area’s shootings, armed assaults and nuisance crimes, and without displacing such criminal behavior to elsewhere in a city. For neighborhoods below the poverty line, the effect was even greater: a 29 percent reduction in gun assaults and a 28 percent fall in crimes such as illegal dumping and public drinking.
This past summer, I walked the streets of Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, a dangerous area once dubbed the “Walmart of heroin,” with Prof. MacDonald. We saw streets pockmarked with decaying homes and litter; the only faces to be seen belonged to corner drug dealers and a body sunken into a weedy lot.
Just one block over, the city’s LandCare program was busy maintaining lots and affixing doors to empty homes. There, we heard from neighbors who finally felt safe walking outside.
MacDonald’s study of Philly’s LandCare program showed that $1 invested in cleaning and greening vacant lots saved society $333 in costs from gun violence, not to mention priceless lives. Turning an empty lot into a “pocket park” costs at most $1,300, and then another $150 a year to clean and mow.
Even smaller sums could give a boarded up house an actual door and working windows; such “doors and windows” treatment in Philadelphia led to a 16 percent drop in nuisance crimes, 20 percent fewer assaults and a 39 percent reduction in gun assaults in a single year.
Tax rolls improve when these homes and lots are no longer in disrepair or lacking in residents, making it even easier for communities to afford the street maintenance and schools that are essential for opportunity.
Investing in programs like LandCare generally involves small sums provided by the city, paired with funding by nonprofit donors to community organizations, providing real economic opportunity to landscape contractors and neighbors in disadvantaged areas.
In 2012, New York state’s foreclosure list reached 101,000 properties long. Communities of all sizes suffered from the zombie homes left in the wake of the financial crisis. Many residents simply abandoned homes that for years were neither fully foreclosed on nor entirely debt-free. A crisis mounted.
In 2016, when there were still 30,000 zombie homes across New York, Cuomo signed legislation pressuring banks and mortgage holders into maintaining and securing these properties; a year later, the state had taken action against just 69 properties and issued zero penalties to financial institutions.
So, on the eve of a new decade, New York state is trying again to kill zombie homes. This time, lawmakers in Albany are simply giving communities the tools they need to deal with abandoned and decaying properties — to deal a blow to decay and disorder. What MacDonald and Branas’ study of Philadelphia shows is that paired with simple, targeted efforts to fix up blighted blocks, such efforts can not only make places cleaner and city budgets healthier but streets dramatically safer.
This piece originally appeared at the New York Post
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Michael Hendrix is the director of state & local policy at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post