As Stonecrest Mall filled with holiday shoppers and I-20 hummed with commuters Friday morning, DeKalb County code enforcement officers swarmed a nearby neighborhood.
Moving house to house in east DeKalb, nearly two dozen officers inspected thousands of properties on 28 streets. No citations were given, but warnings will be mailed out for every dilapidated house, untagged car and overgrown yard.
“This is all hands on deck, all feet on the ground to show we care what our community looks like,” Code Compliance Manager Marcus Kellum said of the sweep that also included a neighborhood off Fayetteville Road near Atlanta.
Faced with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, DeKalb has heard a steady stream of resident complaints for years about houses in disrepair and other code problems.
The code sweeps, which will become a regular event in random county neighborhoods, is the latest effort to help address the problem.
Past efforts included changing how the county notifies violators so that more cases can be handled in court and setting up a Neighborhood Ambassador program to encourage residents to help spot problems.
The volume of resident complaints led officials to prioritize the two neighborhoods for Friday’s sweep. Even some people given warnings acknowledged that the focus was warranted.
Among them: Ivory Shumake, a retired brick mason told to move his uncle’s three cars off a grassy median and into his driveway.
“Probably eight years ago, the county bypassed a bunch of violators to get to me, saying they had a complaint,” Shumake said. “If you’re going to do it, do it to everybody.”
They did, also giving warnings to Shumake’s uncle John T. Shumake. His problems included allowing junk vehicles to take root in his Conyers Street yard and also letting scaffolding, pallets and other supplies clutter the property.
But the file will also include the note that fire damaged the retired construction worker’s home on Thanksgiving, making it unlivable.
“We will work with him,” said Darryl Lee, a code enforcement officer.
Officers, after all, know something about being overwhelmed. DeKalb has just 24 officers to inspect and evaluate more than 200,000 homes belonging to 700,000 people.
Kellum said the sweeps are designed to help make inspections more manageable by creating teams looking for problems such as electrical hazards or chipped paint.
That system worked when Kellum oversaw code enforcement in Sandy Springs before DeKalb hired him earlier this year. Random sweeps of apartment complexes — home to almost half of the city’s residents — encouraged landlords to boost compliance, just in case their property was among the next area targeted, he said.
DeKalb will issue citations only if there is an immediate public or health threat, or when owners refuse to comply with code after being given time to make necessary fixes. Most violations carry a $1,000 court fine.
Kellum expects the warnings will be enough to get the work done. By giving owners time to make repairs, DeKalb brought 23,000 properties into compliance last year.
“Compliance is the goal,” he said, “and enforcement is the tool.”
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