Fighting Blight Across Our State with the Housing Alliance of PA

Graphic courtesy of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania

Regional Housing Legal Services co-sponsored the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania’s Philadelphia Blight to Bright Release and Local Code Enforcement Update on September 29th.

Philadelphia’s “From Blight to Bright” included presentations by the Data Collaborative which includes RHLS, Philadelphia LISC, the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, and The Reinvestment Fund.

The Data Collaborative presented research on how Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections and Pennsylvania’s First Judicial District implemented blight remediation tools to strategically target code enforcement and efficiently and fairly hear cases resulting from code citations, as well as information for plans moving forward.

The event also included a release of the Housing Alliance’s new Bright to Blight Toolkit, which provides a framework for tackling blight and supporting community driven revitalization that can improve the lives of all Pennsylvanians.

The final report from The Reinvestment Fund for the Data Collaborative discussing targeted blight enforcement efforts in Philadelphia.  Strategic Property Code Enforcement and its Impacts on Surrounding Markets, was released August 2014 and distributed at the event.

Additional documents distributed include: the Housing Alliance’s Conservatorship Handbook, a resource for community leaders looking to restore neglected properties in their neighborhood, for which RHLS Associate Director, Rachel Blake, was a contributing author.

Interested in finding out more about Blight to Bright? Register for one of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania’s summits across the state or check out the links to the publications above!

Liz Hersh, Executive Director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania welcomes summit participants
Liz Hersh, Executive Director of the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania welcomes summit participants