Page 19 - Novem December 2016

Elite Investigative Journal
Applying the Broken Windows Theory to Code Enforcement in Urban Communities, pg 19-27
©2014-2016 SYT Global, Inc.
Applying the Broken Windows Theory to Code

Enforcement in Urban Communities By Gerald Henry

Photo Courtesy of image.slidesharecdn.com/brokenwindowtheory
The 2008 to 2012 global recession resulted in a landscape of abandoned homes
in many neighborhoods across the United States due to the crisis that severely
impacted the real estate and financial markets. Although very few communities

were spared the negative effect of scattered vacant and unmaintained homes, this
large spread dilemma impacted many urban areas more significantly as residential

property values and socio-economic conditions were already compressed by limited
personal household and public resources. But this rise in properties that once were
homes to families known and seen to neighbors that now had become edifices of

visual neglect, unsafe locations, and prime targets for eventual squatting, created
an environment for widespread concern and reaction from all levels of government.

At the local government level, one by one, each jurisdiction began adopting new
policies and implementing programs in an effort to curtail the problems associated
with extended periods of property maintenance neglect caused by the abandonment

by owners, and seemingly lackadaisical response by the financial institutions that
became responsible for those assets.

Control in a Changing Neighborhood Environment

Code Enforcement agencies immediately responded to the distress calls and
complaints from neighbors and community leaders that had become desperate to
try to eradicate the problems associated with the conditions of these abandoned

homes, but quickly became overwhelmed both by demand for services and funding
necessary to provide adequate property maintenance and nuisance abatement.

Vacant property registration programs quickly found their way into local

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