Blight Survey: What Is It & How To Do One

A blight survey is the process of inventorying municipal housing stock to understand what percentage or number of residential and commercial structures are in a state of disrepair or decay. Because there is no single, universal definition of ‘blight’ and no single, universal method of surveying, the results of blight surveys vary across city lines. In this blog post, we discuss how to define the scope of a blight survey, how to define the evaluation criteria and different methods to collect and evaluate blight in your municipality.

Defining the Scope of a Blight Survey

The scope of a blight survey should be directly related to and driven by the purpose. A blight survey can be performed on an entire municipality. However, it is often performed in a specific geographic area or neighborhood for a specific purpose. For example, Choice Neighborhood and ARPA funds can be used to revitalize and rehab blighted properties and require substantial data to compile a competitive funding proposal.

Learning more about leveraging Choice Neighborhood grants to fund redevelopment and using ARPA funds to fight blight.

A blight survey that is performed on an entire municipality and includes every structure is considered “complete coverage” and is best done coinciding with decennial US Census surveys or integrated into regular code enforcement activities. The baseline data gathered from this kind of large-scale effort will be useful for years. A complete coverage blight survey will provide data that can inform public health initiatives, infrastructure investments, grant applications, beautification projects, and more. While the value of this baseline data is undeniable, the budget and personnel needed to set aside normal operations can be daunting….in fact, comprehensive blight surveys have historically been unfeasible, significantly limiting data-driven urban planning decisions. 

City Detect’s AI-powered technology can provide near-real-time, complete coverage of your municipality’s infrastructure in days. See how here.

Defining Blight Evaluation Criteria

Unfortunately, there is no universal definition or criteria for blight. Often “we know it when we see it” is the approach to identifying and prioritizing blighted structures. Alternatively, blighted structures become neighborhood nuisances, and residents complain. While citizen engagement and grassroots organizing are incredibly powerful catalysts for change (check out the work of Refuse Refuse), the squeaky wheel gets the grease. This reactive approach can lead to biased implementation of code enforcement. While these approaches are intuitive, they lack the rigorous data required to obtain internal and external funding for large-scale change.

Municipal Code & Community Informed Blight Survey Criteria

Start with the existing municipal code to identify the legally enforceable criteria of blight. Next, evaluate 311 calls and requests for service or engage community members in defining and prioritizing what blight means to your community. For example, in 2014, Hudson, MA, sent a paper survey to residents asking them to define blight.1

Hudson’s paper blight survey

The Hudson, MA paper survey included questions like

• Do you feel Hudson has a blight problem?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Unsure

  • Decline to answer

• What do you consider blight? (Check all that apply.)

  • Safety, fire and/or health hazards

  • Visual appeal/attractiveness

  • Abandoned buildings

  • None of the above

  • Don’t know

  • Decline to answer

  • Other____________

• To what degree do the following conditions contribute to blight? (1 = no impact; 5= very high impact; D/K = Don’t Know)

  • Bikes

  • Broken windows

  • Building Materials visible from street & abutters

  • Car parts visible from the street & abutters

  • Cracked asphalt

  • Landscaping materials visible from street & abutters

  • Neglected fencing

  • Over-full garbage cans or dumpsters

  • Overgrown, neglected lawn & vegetation

  • Peeling paint

  • Roof in disrepair

  • Rusted items

  • Tarps

  • Tools visible from street & abutters

  • Toys

  • Uncontained garbage & disposal of trash

  • Yard equipment (lawnmowers, snow blowers, etc)

  • Old yard sale signs

  • Holiday decorations out-of-season

  • Other_________

• In your opinion, how many pieces of property do you consider to be “blighted” in Hudson? (Check one.)

  • Zero “blighted” properties

  • 1 – 5 pieces of property

  • 6 – 10 pieces of property

  • 11 – 25 pieces of property

  • 26 – 50 pieces of property

  • 51 – 100 pieces of property

  • Over 100 pieces of property

  • Don’t know

  • Decline to answer

• In your opinion, how many pieces of property does it take for blight to be a town-wide problem (Check one.)

  • 1 – 10 pieces of property

  • 11 – 25 pieces of property

  • 26 – 50 pieces of property

  • 51-100 pieces of property

  • Over 100 pieces of property

  • Don’t know

  • Decline to answer

These questions are a great way to gather community input and prioritize your municipality’s blight survey.

Methods to Collect and Measure Blight

There are various ways to capture the state of housing infrastructure in your municipality, from paper to AI-powered.

Method 1: Community Response Blight Surveys

A community survey, like the Hudson, MA survey above, is a low-cost method to evaluate the blighted structures in a municipality. Surveys can be done online via computer or mobile devices or on paper. Local university researchers may be able to assist in the study design and survey design. Interns, grassroots organizations, and community volunteers are ideal for helping to spread the word and getting responses. Consider setting up a booth at the local farmers market or sports event. Add the survey link to social media, local news channels, and screens in government offices where residents tend to wait like DMVs, public health clinics, and public utility offices.

Method 2: Code Enforcement Officer Manual Surveys

For most municipalities, code enforcement officers, building inspectors and related professionals are the natural and obvious professionals to collect information on blighted properties. Experts such as code enforcement officers and building inspectors are trained on municipal codes, respond to community requests, and receive extensive annual professional development training on International Property Maintenance Codes. Their well-trained eyes and evaluation tools provide the highest level of human evaluation. These sworn officers interact with the homeowners/ residents to help preserve the integrity of the housing stock and share resources available in the community to bring housing situations up to standards.

Code enforcement officers regularly survey community neighborhoods for blighted structures. The data and results of these officers’ work can be compiled, analyzed, and used to generate reports. These manual surveys and reports are ideal for small geographic areas proportional to the human power available and taking into account the many important aspects of code enforcement operations.

Method 3: Leverage Social Media

Most social media platforms have geo-tagging capabilities. The City of Mobile, Alabama, took an innovative approach in a recent pilot study leveraging Instagram.

Interactive blight map of Mobile from the 2020 Blight Survey

“For decades, blighted homes have slowly affected the surrounding properties, dragging property values down and creating safety concerns in their wake. Even so, a true blight survey had never been conducted before this i-team project kicked off. In order to understand how deep a problem runs, you have to understand its extent, so we sought to create Mobile’s first inventory of blight. We used Instagram as a pilot, utilizing its mapping feature to take photos of blighted properties and map their locations.”

–Mobile Office of Strategic Initiatives

The resulting map indicates blighted properties in purple. Mobile’s goal of reducing blighted properties is focused on the following SMART goals: By 2025, the Downtown Mobile Business Improvement District Management Plan aims to

2022 Blight Survey of Toulminville, a neighborhood in Mobile.

• reduce empty, derelict buildings by 50%

• decrease office vacancy by 10%

• increase the number of Downtown workers by 15%

• increase new housing units downtown by 500 units

Mobile’s code enforcement officers performed the blight survey via Instagram, and Mobile’s GIS department created the map. In 2022, Mobile performed another survey. This time, the survey results contained more information, including the number of infractions associated with a property and the extent of the blight.

This technology-enhanced approach has allowed Mobile to provide residents and stakeholders a deeper understanding of the extent of blight in Mobile. See photos of the structures in this blight survey in this report.

While the 2020 blight survey provided complete coverage, the 2022 blight study and the 2022 Downtown Mobile Baseline Property Survey focused on specific downtown areas.

Method 4: Google Street View

Municipalities can get near-complete coverage using a tool like Google Street View. Compared to manual survey collections, this blight survey method is doable in a fraction of the time. The downside is that the evaluation of images is still a very manual process, taking hours of scrolling through images. The major downside of this method is that old images result in inaccurate blight survey results., Older Google Street View images may not capture recent repairs or recent damage to properties.

Method 5: City Detect’s Blight Survey and Report

City Detect’s AI-powered, near-real-time blight surveys and reports are at the cutting edge of  of blight survey data collection and analysis. City Detect’s blight survey is better across the board. Here’s how:

• Near-real-time data collection and live dashboard of blight survey results that transforms data into actionable insights.

• Intuitive & up-to-date blight reports at your fingertips.

• City Detect trains its AI across a wide variety of cross-jurisdictional contexts and settings, ensuring more accurate reports in a dynamic and changing environment.

• Out-of-the-box solution: City Detect has built, trained, and prepared the technology for deployment.

• Turn-key support: City Detect includes support, training, and grant specialists.

• Rapid response: City Detect deploys innovations and new feature requests in weeks, bypassing budgetary or legislative cycles.

• Allow for updated issue tracking and progress monitoring over time, enabling stakeholders to prioritize interventions towards the most significant issues. 

While every blight survey method has pros and cons, spending weeks or months manually collecting data will leave your city and residents reacting to crises rather than proactively addressing problems. City Detect is your municipality’s one-stop shop for blight surveys and reports.

Schedule a demo today to learn how City Detect can help.

1. https://www.townofhudson.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif3281/f/uploads/blight_survey.pdf ↩︎