Atlanta City Council members have begun to see blight as one of the biggest problems facing the city, now that a survey has found that more than one in five of its residential structures are in need of repair or outright falling apart.
But to make major changes, the council will have to reach outside City Hall for help. It lacks the authority to make those reforms on its own.
Councilman Ivory Young is backing a proposal that would allow neighbors, the government and certain non-profits to rehab a property that a judge finds to be dangerous and neglected.
After the property is renovated, it would first be offered to the owner in exchange for payment of all rehab costs. The owner would remain on the hook for any debts such as taxes, mortgages or private liens.
If the owner turns it down, the rehabber would be allowed to sell it with a judge’s approval, and the liabilities would stay with the original owner.
If enacted, the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Program would allow the city to remake entire blocks at a time and give officials real leverage against the city's worst property owners, Young said.
But state property law would have to change to make conservatorship legal. And the Republican-controlled state legislature tends to be wary of proposals from the Democratic stronghold.
“We want to take it slow,” Young said. “Our record of actually changing state law is not good.”
Councilmembers tabled the proposal as they consult with the city’s liaison to the state legislature and seek support from elected officials across the state.
In another initiative, members of the city’s Code Enforcement Commission are asking for Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand’s help with foreclosing on blighted properties with overdue taxes. But Ferdinand said he needs the city’s help to ensure that it or another buyer would be in line to purchase the properties. Otherwise, they would go back to their tax-delinquent owners.
“It’s such a technical issue,” said commission co-chair Councilwoman Mary Norwood.
The 26-member group, created in June to recommend anti-blight proposals, is so large partly because many different agencies are involved in policing blight. It has 12 months to make recommendations.
Meanwhile, many options to fight blight rest squarely in the city’s hands.
Councilmembers could boost funding for code enforcement and demolition and are floating the idea of increasing penalties for landlords whose properties violate city housing code.
Other initiatives already under way didn’t require council action. In the past 18 months, Atlanta police’s narcotics officers started to coordinate more closely with code enforcement to report violations, and now they routinely look up water bills to see if they are overdue, which helps city officials get leverage against a neglectful landlord.
Any set of solutions will require efforts across layers of government, Norwood said.
“The city is working feverishly to institute new policies,” she said. “We need multiple tools in our toolkit.”
About the Author
