The city controller of Philadelphia is calling the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspection “understaffed and under resourced.” The controller released the findings from an investigation into the city’s thousands of unsafe and dangerous properties in Philadelphia. NBC10’s investigative reporter Claudia Vargas has the latest.
A newly published report from City Controller, Christy Brady, has found that more than 100 properties throughout Philadelphia -- that have been considered "imminently dangerous" -- have languished for years as costs to have these buildings demolished have proved prohibitive, court actions have delayed demolitions and the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections just doesn't have the manpower needed to keep up with demand.
In the report released Wednesday, the controller's office noted that the city has about 120 properties listed as "imminently dangerous," and are waiting for demolition or significant repairs.
However, it says, the average costs of demolition are preventative -- upwards of $30,000 -- and the city only recovers about 3% of the total costs from property owners leaving taxpayers to cover millions in funding spent to maintain dangerous properties.
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Also, as noted in the report, the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections only has 15 inspectors in its contractual services unit, making the department unable to keep up with the demand to inspect the 120 "imminently dangerous" properties in need of demolition or significant repair or address the additional 4,000 properties in the city that are deemed unsafe.
A program intended to act as a database for all city properties cannot produce a listing of all "imminently dangerous" properties in the city and cannot designate priority levels of structural deficiencies for demolition, the controller's office found.
And, finally, the report claims that long court delays make L&I inspectors unable to reinspect "imminently dangerous" properties every 10 days, due to a lack of resources.
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These findings come on the heels of NBC10 investigative reporter Claudia Vargas' reporting that found thousands of dangerous properties across the city have sat untouched for years -- in one case, a property was found to be inhabited at least three years after it was deemed "imminently dangerous."
According to the Philadelphia Property Maintenance Code, it is unlawful to enter an imminently dangerous property-- unless it is to repair or demolish it.
To address these issues, the controller's office suggests that the city create a program to hire more investigators for L&I, create a program to recover more demolition costs from property owners, improve its systems to allow investigators prioritize demolitions for "imminently dangerous" properties and collaborate with courts to reduce delays.
When asked what's different about this report and recommendations than all the others, this is what Brady had to say.
"I believe I have a commissioner and we have a mayor who's willing to make these changes. And I believe change will happen when we're working together with the commissioner. And he welcomed these recommendations, and he wants to act on them," she said. "“I think they have the support of the mayor. I think, even city council, I mean, I ran alongside with them. They were hearing the same concerns that I've been hearing.”
Records pulled from OpenDataPhilly show that 277 properties have open violations for being imminently dangerous, the investigative team found. According to Philly's building code, those structures need to be repaired or demolished immediately due to risk of collapse.
The controller said she would include enforcement of dangerous properties in her investigation.
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