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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Ellen Bromley, JD¹, Ronald Miller¹, Barbara Yantorno¹, and Yadira Abreu - Garcia, MS². (1) Department of Health and Social Services, City of Stamford, 888 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, CT 06904, 203-977-4029, ebromley@ci.stamford.ct.us, (2) Land Use Bureau, City of Stamford, 888 Washington Boulevard, Stamford, CT 06904

Since the Code Enforcement Initiative's inception six months ago, its multi-departmental team has:

1.      established a “housing hotline;”

2.      developed a protocol for culling complaint data from hotline calls/messages, and a program for electronically linking and tracking that data to and through the multiple city departments (fire, police, health, housing, relocation, zoning, building, tax) charged with code enforcement (and related) responsibilities, until compliance is achieved;

3.      authored bi-lingual educational materials; and

4.      conducted multi-lingual community and neighborhood meetings, providing information, answering questions, discussing, analyzing and/or providing strategic advice with respect to the interplay between the rights and responsibilities of tenants, landlords, homeowners, and the government, within the context of housing safety and land use regulations.

Internally, cross-code education is “breaking down silos” at monthly Initiative meetings.  By facilitating conceptual movement beyond departmentally distinct responsibilities, Initiative efforts have informed discussions within multiple regulatory contexts and enabled coordinated compliance strategies.

The following graphic illustrates one of several ways the Initiative is successfully using its database to track progress in addressing the 60+ complaints it's received since July.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to extrapolate from specific experiences of Stamford's Housing Safety and Zoning Code Enforcement Initiative to design education modules and implement cooperative methods, appropriately respectful of the multiple laws, customs and cultures that characterize their own communities, thereby overcoming barriers (institutional, community, etc.)and increasing compliance with health and safety codes which, when ignored and/or uninforced, may threaten basic human rights.

Keywords: Housing, Environmental Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered