Tammy Johnson

Armageddon has Arrived for Blight in New Orleans

January 12, 2012 by Charlie London

by Charlie London
Blightstat #30
January 12, 2012

The thirtieth BlightStat meeting (that the public was invited to) was held today. This was the first meeting since the change from bi-weekly meetings to monthly meetings on the second Thursday of each month. Visit the link below for a calendar showing all of the BlightStat meetings for 2012.
https://fsjna.org/steps-to-stomp-out-blight/

Click here to view a PDF of the City’s
January 12, 2012 BlightStat presentation.

Oliver Wise, the Director of Performance and Accountability for New Orleans generally moderates the meetings but is out on paternity leave due to the birth of his daughter on January 5th. Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Wise!

Mr. Jeff Hebert began the meeting with announcements, the most notable being that Code for America is to arrive in February.

Ms. Denise Ross continued the meeting indicating that once again New Orleans has been blessed with help from the “best and brightest”. You may remember that New Orleans was the recipient of a “Smarter Cities Grant” from IBM last year. Ms. Ross said Code for America will analyze the City’s information systems and learn how New Orleans’ neighborhoods track blight. Code for America will bring this information back to San Francisco to build applications to further the blight effort in New Orleans. Ms. Ross said the City’s goal is to deliver value to its citizens. An aggressive implementation target for the Code for America applications has been set for December, 2012.

Ms. Ross gushed with the information that twenty cities applied for the Code for America help and New Orleans was one of five to get it. And, because New Orleans has such an aggressive BlightStat program, there will be four “fellows” from Code for America arriving to help us.
The other winning cities will only receive three “fellows”.

On Code for America’s website, the situation is described as follows:
“The City of New Orleans wants to partner with Code for America to support and further legitimize the invaluable role neighborhood stakeholders continue to play in community revitalization. By developing a light-weight application to allow community stakeholders to submit bulk information to the city about their neighborhood, view existing relevant city data, and receive status for each of the on-going issues in their neighborhood, they will be better able to advocate and support their neighborhoods.”

The meeting continued with each department’s director commenting on the powerpoint slide that affected their department:

INSPECTIONS
532 inspections for period ending Dec 31. 20% above inspections goal. Inspections backlog remains and age of inspections has increased slightly but the backlog is down overall. The goal is to have all inspections done within 30 days of assignment.

HEARINGS
Ms. Illarmo reviewe the hearings slide which indicated that the backlog has been reduced by 340 cases. The backlog continues to be aggressively addressed. The goal remains unmet but Mr. Kopplin indicated it is clear that the City is in a turn-around period. The number of cases held continues to rise while the backlog continues to be reduced. Ms. Tammy Johnson indicated that fewer fines will be waived and that blight liens will be enforced. Judgements will be recorded.

Ms. Illarmo indicated that 666 blight hearings per month is the goal.
It’s armageddon for blight in New Orleans!

DEMOLITIONS
Ms. Basco said 11 FEMA demolitions and 8 strategic demolitions were done over the last month. SHPO, NCDC, and HDLC approvals slow the process. Councilmembers have requested that properties be sold at Sheriff Sales rather than demolished. Unfortunately, most of the properties that are so bad that they need to be demolished don’t ordinarily sell at a Sheriff Sale. Mr. Hebert indicated about 1500 buildings were demolished last year. (2200 units)

Mr. Kray reminded the audience that demolitions are listed at data.nola.gov. The “Demolition & Salvage by Program” slide indicated there is much work being done in New Orleans East. This is great especially if blight is cleared along the I-10 corridor as it is the first area people see in New Orleans as they travel from the east on I-10.

Mr. Will McGowan indicated that 11 demolitions were done over the last month with 14 demolitions done so far in January. There are 32 “selective salvage” properties in the works. FEMA funded demolitions will eventually end. Mr. Kopplin warned that the City needs to have a backup plan when the funding ends.

Mr. Lessinger indicated the 9th Ward lot clearing program continues.

Ms. Basco indicated only 1 FEMA trailer remains.

Ms. Sylvain-Lear indicated the Sanitation Department continues to fight illegal dumping. Over 3,000 illegally dumped tires have been removed. Sanitation Rangers continue to check manifests at tire shops to make sure that tires are being disposed of properly. Mr. Kopplin indicated that the work Sanitation Rangers do with the Quality of Life Officers is the backbone of the blight fight. Ms. Sylvain-Lear asked that neighborhoods continue to report bandit signs as they are beginning to pop up again but instead of major thoroughfares are deep within neighborhoods. Call 311 or write to [email protected]

Mr. Kopplin announced Quality of Life Stat will begin January 26th.

SHERIFF SALES
Mr. Granderson indicated lien foreclosures continue. Filing fees have increased in 2012.
Sheriff Sales coming up are Jan 19 | Jan 26 | Feb 2 | Feb 9. Sheriff Sales are done each Thursday at noon in the lobby of the Civil District Court building which are generally bank foreclosures. The Tuesday sales are blight removal sales. Mr. Granderson mentioned data.nola.gov and indicated that information on Sheriff sales is up to date as of yesterday.

LLT/NORA inventory remains constant with 24 closings for the month of December.

Mr. Square indicated the new and improved 311 call system will be launched March 26th. Code Enforcement is the number one call to 311.

It is clear that enforcement of laws related to blighted properties will be more aggressive in 2012. The Mayor’s directive to have 10,000 blighted properties eradicated in three years remains on track.

BlightStat 31 will be held on February 9, 2012. The meetings are on the 8th floor of City Hall in the Homeland Security Conference Room.

BlightStat Moving to Monthly Meetings

December 15, 2011 by Charlie London

by Charlie London

BlightStat 29 | December 15, 2011

Beginning in 2012, the BlightStat meetings will be held once each month instead of bi-weekly. This was the 29th BlightStat meeting to which the public was invited.

Click here to view a PDF of the City of New Orleans’
December 15, 2011 BlightStat Meeting

Thursday, January 12, 2012 will be the next meeting date. Then the second Thursday of each month thereafter.

Inspections
514 over the last two weeks. Ms. Basco indicated the backlog has increased slightly but the inspectors are working diligently in their assigned districts.

Inspection sweeps were done throughout the city with several being done during the recent “Fight the Blight” day held in each council district.

Mr. Wise reviewed the map of inspections with Ms. Basco.

Mr. Kopplin asked about the progress of the “occupied property” strategy. Ms. Basco said she is working on it. Occupied houses are not currently cited for blight.

Hearings
The backlog has been reduced significantly. Mr. Square indicated the majority of 311 calls are for code enforcement. Mr. Kopplin indicated that a target needs to be set for getting rid of the backlog. Mr. Kopplin suggested the February, 2012 meeting would be a good date to shoot for but would like closure on the backlog.

The greatest number of hearings were held this bi-weekly period with 413 hearings completed.

Demolitions
Mr. Carrere indicated 7 strategic demolitions with 3 being done during the recent “Fight the Blight” day, one of which was a 24 unit apartment building.

Cold weather drives vagrants into unoccupied buildings which often results in fires.

FEMA demolished 15 structures and 20 units.

44 properties removed from FEMA demolitions due to compliance.

Mr. Wise indicated that the strategic demolitions program has finite resources so the city needs to maximize the benefit for the resources available.

Interim Nuisance Abatement Program
Mr. Ferrouillet indicated 15 properties were cut during the “Fight the Blight” day. Contract for lot cutting is being re-bid and should be done by March, 2012.

9th Ward Lot Clearing
Mr. Lessinger indicated that 775 lots have been cut so far. Mr. Wise indicated that issues that affect people is the main focus of fighting blight. Blight affects public safety and quality of life.

Five FEMA trailers still remain.

Illegal Dumping
Ms. Lear indicated the Sanitation Department is still focusing in the 9th Ward and New Orleans East. Almonaster and Michoud are hot spots for tire dumping.

Sheriff Sales
Mr. Gray indicated that the highest amount ever was collected from the recent Sheriff Sale bringing the total to 1.2 million for the year.
Ms. Breaux indicated her team met with the owners of 609 Jackson Avenue about what action they are going to take to rid the city of this blighted property. (former medical facility) Ms. Breaux’s team is still working with the owner to get the owner to demolish the property or sell it.

Mr. Gray indicated 125 properties will be sold at a Sherrif Sale on January 10th. He also indicated sales are done every Thursday.

Mr. Wise indicated about 35% of the properties that go to Sheriff Sale are actually sold.

Mr. Kopplin indicated that economic development and blight strategy go hand in hand.

Mr. Lessinger discussed strategies for improving the number of properties sold at Sheriff Sales.

Auction updates for code lien foreclosures are posted on http://data.nola.gov/

Ms. Wilkerson said that 85 NORA closings were done over the past two weeks. Ms. Wilkerson will be leaving early in 2012 when the NORA program gets discontinued.

Mr. Kopplin indicated his goal is to have as many hearings as possible to get properties in compliance and to reduce the number of properties that end up in the backlog due to title research, contacting heirs, etc.

Mr. Kopplin indicated that the City Council authorized two additional Sanitation Rangers to help fight the dumping problem.

***
NEW ORLEANS | Thu Dec 15, 2011 1:39pm EST
Next up for New Orleans’ recovery: fighting blight
By Mark Guarino
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – A city policy involving demolitions, inspections, community meetings and Saturday morning elbow grease is reviving New Orleans neighborhoods at a faster rate than most expected after Hurricane Katrina put 80 percent of the city underwater six years ago.

“This is a total groundbreaker for the city,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer of the nonprofit Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

“There’s never been this intensive an effort previously to combat blight.”

Even before the levees broke, New Orleans struggled with many of the classic elements that produce vacant homes and empty lots: systematic population loss, a troubled economy and crime.

Then Katrina accelerated blight. Some 110,000 New Orleans residents did not return to their homes in the five years since the storm, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In October 2010, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, then just six months in office, launched a blight initiative he said was designed to turn around 10,000 properties by 2014.

By the end of this year, city officials say, nearly 4,000 properties will fit that bill, lowering the city’s total number of blighted properties to less than 42,000, according to data from the United States Postal Service, which tracks such figures as vacant homes where mail is not collected.

“What happened is we got better at what we’re supposed to be doing and that, by getting more aggressive, property owners know we’re coming and know we mean consequences so they start to self-correct,” Landrieu told Reuters.

FEDERAL BILLIONS

In the early post-Katrina years, billions of federal recovery dollars helped the city buy abandoned properties and either demolish them or sell them to neighbors, as well as encourage residents to return and rehabilitate their homes.

Then came Jeff Hebert, the city’s inaugural director of blight policy and neighborhood revitalization.

He has sped up property inspections, held regular community meetings and implemented little changes like redirecting workers in a jobs program to mowing overgrown lots in devastated neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward, which hadn’t seen a lawnmower blade in years.

Herbert also helped the city steer away from tax sales of foreclosed properties, which can drag on for three years, to sheriff’s sales, which award new property owners a clear title immediately upon purchase.

“That may be our single biggest policy shift,” Hebert told Reuters. “Our goal is not necessarily to demolish houses but the end goal is to get houses back into commerce.”

Landrieu said the new measures are designed to address his administration’s three priorities: crime, jobs and schools.

“Blight is the thread that depends on whether or not we have success in those areas,” he said. “It’s a major threat to public safety and quality of life.”

Despite the city’s efforts, about 25 percent of New Orleans housing remained vacant in 2010, according to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.

Title issues, contractor fraud and rebuilding costs are saddling recovery, and some residents say the city isn’t acting fast enough to prevent neighborhoods from falling behind.

EIGHT FEET OF WATER

Take Rose Johnson. Her neat, two-story home in the city’s Broadmoor neighborhood took nearly 8 feet of water and she spent $130,000 to return it back to its original splendor.

Her neighbor did not. In the years that passed since the storm, the vacant Italianate home next to Johnson’s receded, as if reclaimed by the earth.

Pink exterior plaster is crumbled at the ground and this month, the stairs caved in. Johnson, 65, took it upon herself to mow the grass and hired an exterminator to set baits around her house so the rats next door wouldn’t infest her own.

She said she called the city several times but has seen no progress. “It’s a mess. I want them to tear it down,” she said of city officials. “It’s not fit to live in.”

Demolition creates its own challenges. Some community organizers complain the city leaves the foundation behind on houses it demolishes, preventing lots from reverting to green space and creating another version of blight. The city has demolished over 2,100 blighted properties so far this year.

“Demolitions are a mixed bag,” Plyer said. “If you do a lot of demolition then you have a dumping problem. People come and dump tires and debris and trash.”

Population recovery is one reason New Orleans appears to be advancing on blight. Even though the New Orleans population is 21 percent less than before the storm, the population more than doubled between 2006 and 2010, to 343,800.

Katrina helped mobilize the city’s public-private web of civic and neighborhood organizations and city departments, says Margery Austin Turner, vice president for research of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit policy analysis group based in Washington, D.C.

“I don’t think you would have seen that kind of capacity in New Orleans prior to Katrina,” she told Reuters.

Evidence of that is a section of Broadmoor where a development corporation set up by the neighborhood association in 2006 is rehabbing homes it purchased with $5 million from the Clinton Global Initiative. On one Friday in late November, 200 volunteers built a new playground for the nearby school.

“Our residents have skin in this game,” said David Winkler-Schmit, communications director for the association. “We know what we need.”

BlightStat 28

December 1, 2011 by Charlie London

Photo and article by Charlie London

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A PDF of the
CITY’s December 1, 2011 BlightStat presentation.

The 28th BlightStat meeting to which the public was invited began with city department representatives introducing themselves.

Mr. Keith Ferrouillet, Mr. Allen Square, Mr. Jeff Hebert , Mr. Oliver Wise, Ms. Joyce Wilkerson, Mr. Brian Lawlor, Mr.Miles Granderson, Ms. Brenda Breaux, Ms. Pura Basco, Ms. Kristin Illarmo, Mr. Winston Reid, Mr. David Lessinger, Mr. Justin Kray, and Ms. Tammy Johnson were in attendance.

Mr. Lessinger began the meeting with an announcement of the upcoming “Fight the Blight” day on December 10th. 10 am until 1 pm

The “Fight the Blight” day takes place in each council district. Here is what is happening in District A from the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization:

“Volunteers will fan out in a five-block radius from St. Patrick park (which effectively means towards the river and Canal Street, given the location of I-10). Volunteers can plant trees, clean storm drains and paint “No Dumping” on them, cart away abandoned tires, appliances, etc., cars, spray for rodents and then remove the debris, fill potholes, replace street signs, and more.”

Inspections
Ms. Basco indicated 445 inspections were done during the last two weeks. More emphasis is on re-inspections to move hearings along.

Mr. Wise noted the inspections backlog is beginning to creep back up. Overall the backlog has been reduced significantly and continues to be a focus of Code Enforcement.

Hearings
Ms. Illarmo noted the backlog has been reduced significantly. The strategic demo team (Tammy) is working diligently to research properties in need of demolition.

A discussion ensued about the hearings backlog. Ms. Illarmo continued the meeting noting that 235 hearings were completed over the last two weeks.

Much work has been done researching files and getting cases organized.
Mr. Wise again focused on the hearings backlog. A further discussion ensued.

Reset cases are down significantly. This may indicate significant efficiency measures have been implemented and are working.

Demolitions
Demolitions continue to rise. “Jason” indicated that 3 properties are ready for demolition with 6 properties waiting for utility disconnects.

FEMA
Demolished 3 residential structures and one large property on General Taylor.

Interim Nuisance Abatement Program
Mr. Ferrouillet indicated 9 properties were cut this two week period. Workers were off for the Thanksgiving holiday.

FEMA TRAILERS
5 Fema trailers remain. 1 is empty. 2 should be gone before the end of the year. 2 will likely remain for a while.

Sheriff Sales
Compliance continues to go up as properties go to Sheriff sale. (Liens paid or property sold). 15 had no bid. 1st round the property has a minimum. If no bid then the second time the property has a much lower price.

Dec 6 and Jan 10 Sheriff sale dates. Dec 15, 19, 26, and Jan 2 for foreclosure sales.

Over a million dollars has been collected so far from the lien foreclosure process.

Mr. Wise asked Mr. Lawlor about the “soft second” program. Mr. Lawlor indicated work continues to make properties available.

Ms. Wilkerson indicated 5 new NORA properties are available with two dozen properties closed this bi-weekly period.

More “lot next door” closing are getting done.

Mr. Lawlor answered a question from the audience concerning help for people trying to rebuild their homes. Mr. Lawlor indicated a visit to http://www.rtno.org and http://stbernardproject.org would be a good place to start.

More questions from the audience were answered and the meeting adjourned.
***

Click here to view a PDF of the City’s January 12, 2012 BlightStat presentation.

by Charlie London

BlightStat 29 | December 15, 2011

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A PDF of the CITY’s December 1, 2011 BlightStat presentation.

Click here to view a PDF of the City’s
January 12, 2012 BlightStat presentation.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A PDF of the
CITY’s December 1, 2011 BlightStat presentation.