Boarded up buildings, trash and crime. Activists said they're common signs of problem properties. But, how do residents get landlords to fix the problems?
NBC 30 took a look at two strategies used by two community groups.
On Lincoln Street in Hartford, there is a home that was abandoned until the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance bought it years ago as part of a project to rehabilitate abandoned and foreclosed homes.
Luis Caban of SINA said, “If it was available and inexpensive, we picked it up. We knew that if 50 percent of what we were trying to do was successful, that the property values would increase."
SINA is a partnership between Trinity College, Hartford Hospital and the Connecticut Children's Medical Center.
Each agency contributed cash to rehab properties in their neighborhood, and SINA is also able to tap into federal, state and local grants.
The renovations wrapped up last year, and SINA sold the home to an owner who agreed to live in it.
The group has also rehabbed 29 other homes that are owner-occupied.
Another group is taking a completely different approach, using technology to fight problem properties.
Students at Trinity College teamed up with a neighborhood group, Hartford Areas Rally Together, to map problem properties.
The maps not only point out abandoned properties but also list the names, addresses and phone numbers of the owners.
Realtors said rundown properties easily drag down the value of other nearby homes and businesses by 20 percent. On the flip side, properties that have been rehabilitated can greatly increase property values.
Trinity College is now working with HART to make a revised map of problem properties.
SINA is gearing up to start a new project involving the construction of 18 new houses in Hartford. Construction begins this spring.
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