The attached PDF titled "Cleveland at the Crossroads" is an assessment report prepared for the city of Cleveland by the National Vacant Properties Campaign (NVPC).  Key contributor Joseph Schilling reportedly will be in attendance at the City of Dayton's "Reinventing Dayton and the Miami Valley through Vacant Property Revitalization and Reclamation" Seminar this July  13, 2005.
 
The report begins by identifying several ways that vacant properties discourage investment in communities:
- Abandoned properties reduce the market value of nearby homes
- Streets with vacant houses have been shown to have crime rates twice as high as street without vacant houses
- Schools and city services suffer from the lost revenue associated with tax-delinquent vacant houses, discouraging people from buying and moving into those neighborhoods
 
The report goes on to say that vacant properties must be viewed not only as both a cause and effect of population loss, but also as an opportunity for revitalization, in that they represent raw material for building new housing, retail centers, green space, and public amenities.  The assessment report therefore discusses the problems contributing to and arising from vacant properties and reviews a number of recommendations and national best practices for the reclamation of abandoned properties and revitalization of neighborhoods and communities.
 
The city of Cleveland's recently announced Zero Blight Initiative (ZBI) is based at least in part on this assessment and its recommendations.  Safeguard Properties recently established contact with ZBI Coordinator Edward Rybka and enjoyed some preliminary discussions about how Safeguard might be in a position to cooperate or assist with the ZBI.  
 
While many of the recommendations involve programs to aid homeowners, develop outreach initiatives for property owners and/or properties at risk, and change legislation and city practices with respect to prosecuting violators and taking possession of vacant properties, some of the Campaign's suggestions do create areas of opportunity where Safeguard could present the company's services (as an experienced, connected resource in the property preservation industry) to the city of Cleveland and/or other cities adopting similar plans to eliminate urban blight. 
 
Following is a summary of some of the recommendations in the report that may provide opportunities for Safeguard to support the city's efforts in this respect. 
Note: A number of the recommendations mentioned below appear in the NVPC assessment report but are not specifically mentioned in Cleveland's ZBI, so we can't know the city's level of interest in some of these suggestions.
 
The report notes that Cleveland spends roughly $2 million annually to board, clean-up, and demolish abandoned properties.  This is in addition to "untold millions" in legal services, enforcement actions, court hearings, inspections, and police and fire calls.  The report also notes that abandoned properties lower property values in surrounding communities, draw criminal activity and fires (accidental and deliberate), and accumulate dust, debris, and vermin that contribute to community health problems.
 
Safeguard is obviously equipped to offer services to the city that can address each of the above issues.  The company can provide boarding and clean-up services, demolition where required, property securing, regular maintenance and monitoring to discourage criminal activity, and extermination services where neglect has led to infestation.
 
The report recommends that vacant properties should undergo "a thorough interior and exterior inspection to document the condition of the property."  Assuming that the suggested inspection is intended to provide a property condition report and not all the details of a certified home inspection, this is an area where Safeguard could likely offer a very affordable and reliable product.
 
Safeguard could also provide technical assistance to the city with the development of a Vacant Property Owner Responsibility Code, which would set forth the standards for cleaning and boarding vacant properties.
 
The report includes a recommendation for the establishment of a vacant property registration system that would include a requirement that out-of-county owners designate a local agent--obviously another area where SPI has had experience.
 
Safeguard could participate in either the development or the implementation (or both) of suggested risk management practices such as protocols for regular cleaning, boarding, and other routine property maintenance at vacant properties.
 
Safeguard has a growing database of professional environmental remediation experts that may be of use to the city, either for technical assistance or the performance of work.
 
The report also recommends the "establishment of programs or contractual arrangements with CDCs and others to clean, maintain, repair, or otherwise deal with vacant properties being held for future development."  This suggests the possibility of exploring new relationships with community development councils in areas where the city is actively working to promote reclamation and revitalization.
 
There is some discussion of the city's lack of a reliable resource for parcel-by-parcel information about vacant properties and the need for the development of a parcel-based database.  There may be an opportunity for Safeguard to offer support in the form of property inspections or other research/investigation that would yield real on-the-ground information to develop that database.
 
Finally, the city is urged to develop an early-warning system for developing problems at properties at risk of abandonment.  This could include review of records to look for recurrent code violations, recurrent criminal complaints/activities at a property, accumulation of liens, increases in tax delinquencies in the surrounding community, utility shut-offs, or evictions.  The majority of the above information is public record, and searches that are no more complicated than routine title searches, which service Safeguard does provide, could produce ample information for the city to develop plans of action for intervention and outreach efforts with these properties in jeopardy.

 Cleveland at the Crossroads21.pdf