A report in the Times-Picayune provides an update on the progress of the City of New Orleans assesment of blighted properties within the city.

N.O. begins second phase of gutting law
It's reinspecting 3,400 buildings ordered to be cleaned, secured

Starting today, the city will begin reinspecting more than 3,000 blighted New Orleans buildings whose owners have been warned that their properties, most of them ravaged by Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, are public nuisances and must be cleaned up.

It's the start of the second phase of the city's campaign to enforce the requirement that foul-smelling and environmentally hazardous buildings must be cleaned, gutted and secured.

The city also will soon begin asking nonprofit organizations that offer free gutting services to low-income residents whether they want financial aid from the city for their efforts.

City housing official Tony Faciane said Wednesday that in the next month, inspectors will check on the houses and commercial buildings that have already received initial warnings.

If the building hasn't been remediated, the inspectors will post new notices on the properties and the city will send a registered or certified letter to informing the owner of the date of an administrative hearing on the case. The hearings will begin in early November.

The properties' addresses also will be listed on the city's Web site, www.cityofno.com, and displaced owners who fear the city does not have their current address can check that site.

Inspections move east

Faciane said 3,408 initial public-nuisance notices were posted through last week on buildings in City Council District A and part of District B. Of those, at least 187 have been gutted and cleaned since the notices went up, he said.

Mayor Ray Nagin's administration said months ago that it planned to begin enforcing the gutting ordinance in districts A and B, gradually working east to districts C, D and E.

District A includes Lakeview and other flood-ravaged neighborhoods as well as Carrollton and other relatively unscathed sections near the Mississippi River. District B includes badly damaged Central City and the relatively undamaged Central Business District, Warehouse District and Garden District.

Faciane, Nagin's deputy executive assistant for housing, said the initial inspection of District B buildings should be completed in about two weeks, after which officials will "put their full effort" into surveying districts C and D, or basically the rest of the city west of the Industrial Canal.

Besides homes left shattered and mold-covered by Katrina, other blighted buildings as well as properties where grass and weeds have not been cut will be cited.

Under the revised gutting ordinance passed by the council just before an Aug. 29 deadline, the initial notices give an owner 30 days to "bring this property into full compliance by undertaking mold remediation, cleaning, gutting and properly securing the premises, and removing all public nuisances and/or blight violations."

The notices also include a list of 19 community groups and agencies that offer free or low-cost gutting services to those who can't afford to pay for the work. Most of the groups have long waiting lists.

After the second inspection

If a reinspection after 30 days finds the property is still in violation, second notices will be mailed and posted informing the owner of the date and place of an administrative hearing and warning that if the problems are not corrected, the city "has the right to enter private property, gut and remediate the property and put a lien on it requiring the property owner to reimburse the city for the costs," plus other penalties.

An owner can ask the hearing officer for a hardship exemption. "Acceptable reasons for a hardship exemption" will include that the owner has made arrangements for demolition or remediation but the contractor or nonprofit agency has yet to do the job. In such a case, "a reasonable grace period of 60 days" will be allowed. Owners who have applied to the city to voluntarily demolish their buildings will also be exempted.

The hearing officer may find the owner in compliance with or in violation of the law, or may allow more time to comply because of hardship. If the owner is found in violation, the property can be ordered demolished. But even then, the owner will have 30 days to appeal the judgment to Civil District Court.

The community group ACORN and other nonprofits notified the city Friday that they have backlogs of between 3,000 and 5,000 properties awaiting gutting, suggesting that a 60-day grace period is unlikely to be long enough for them to get to all of those sites.

City to offer aid

Faciane and Brenda Breaux, a chief deputy city attorney in charge of housing programs, said the city recognizes the problem and will soon offer to help such nonprofits by providing them with supplies, equipment and meals for their volunteer workers.

They said the city will issue a request for proposals to such groups next week, asking them to demonstrate their capacity to take advantage of such assistance and to keep the sorts of records required of groups getting government aid.

In addition, the city eventually will hire certified contractors to take care of properties whose owners cannot be found or who are unable or unwilling to remediate them. The contractors will be chosen by competitive bid after all the administrative hearings are held and the city knows how many properties it must take care of itself, Faciane and Breaux said.

The contractors will be paid with federal Community Development Block Grant money, and liens will be placed against the properties, they said.

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