Building Development Services Director Chris Straw in February presented to City Council the findings of the Safe Housing Inspection Pilot Program, a 90-day pilot project studying potential action for addressing the City’s chronic nuisance properties to find better ways to ensure public safety against life-safety-housing issues, such as electrical, plumbing, and structural issues; roof and window problems and trash.
“The volume of service requests for dangerous and nuisance properties and the severity of the cases reported, have increased,” Straw explained in October 2016.
Increased awareness about the issue, following a nine-neighborhood Community Listen tour in Springfield’s Zone 1 neighborhoods in 2015, is one reason Straw cited for the increase in reporting.
Chronic nuisance properties are defined as those properties in which repeated complaint calls are received and responded to, including from the City’s Building Development Services, Police and Fire departments, as well as other calls for service. Certain properties in Springfield have had upwards of 70 complaint calls in a single year.
[pullquote]The issue is such that “chronic nuisance properties” rose to the top of the list of concerns in seven of the nine listening sessions and remained a clear “number one” priority throughout a follow-up process with residents participating in Zone Blitz brainstorming sessions.[/pullquote]
Council approved the pilot project in October 2016. Voluntary inspections by BDS inspectors began the following month and concluded in January.
The project involved inspectors visiting homes in the West Central neighborhood – whose neighborhood association leadership vied for the opportunity to participate in the pilot project – to identify life-safety issues (mostly within the interior living space, but including some exterior life-safety issues). The study area’s boundaries were Grand Street to the south and State Street to the north, Campbell Avenue to the east and Grant Avenue to the west.
Life-safety complaints to initiate the inspections could be made on rentals or owner-occupied dwellings. Allowing inspectors entry to homes was voluntary.
Nine inspections were performed from November 2016 through January. Three minor issues were identified and corrected in a matter of minutes. The only Tier 1 issue identified was a missing smoke detector.
“As a result of the information presented, numerous options were presented to City Council for further consideration,” Straw said.