Covington attacks blight with grant

• Program's goal: get the best solutions to public safety issues.
• City working to demolish 'worse of the worst' properties.

COVINGTON – More than 3,000 vacant or abandoned properties litter Covington – eyesores that threaten quality of life, sometimes harbor drug addicts or mischievous teens, and lower the value of neighboring well-cared-for homes.

The city has been chipping away at the affliction, buying properties and demolishing them. The Center for Great Neighborhoods works to purchase and fix salvageable homes, and police have begun advising contractors on safety as houses are rehabilitated.

They're about to get help. Covington and just two other cities nationwide – Providence, Rhode Island, and Milwaukee – received grants in April from the U.S. Department of Justice and the national arm of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. to attack blight together. Their training and discoveries are expected to become a nationwide model.

"We are going to be a testing ground," said Kristen Baker, program officer for Greater Cincinnati LISC in Covington. "These sites will develop a curriculum in helping law enforcement work with community leaders to address vacant and nuisance properties."

A representative of LISC of New York City will meet for the first time with the local agencies Tuesday to discuss the grant, which comes directly as training rather than cash. The training opportunity falls under the Department of Justice's Community-Oriented Policing and Problem Solving, or COPPS program.

Police chief advocates community policing

Covington Police Chief Spike Jones is all for the effort. When he was a beat cop, he fostered his own relationship with the Center for Great Neighborhoods and since then has encouraged the same of his officers.

He's a fan of community-oriented policing, calling it "asymmetrical" policing. Police will always have to respond to crime, he said, but it's best if they can develop these relationships with residents and the agencies that serve people in the neighborhoods.

While police join city fire personnel to do meet-and-greets with citizens once a month, Jones says he's not talking about surface initiatives and cheer-leading sessions.

"This isn't about handing out stickers," Jones said. "You're getting to the root source of what's driving crime."

Police officers also can get a better appreciation for their community through the multi-agency approach. Lt. Col. Bryan Carter, an operations officer for the police department, encourages police officers to tour newly rehabilitated houses, so they can see the improvements to the city that come from the work.

"It's important to take patrol officers off of the street and say, 'Hey, walk through this house with me,' " Carter said. "It gives them fresh perspective on their everyday job."

Police work with Center for Great Neighborhoods

Police already have tried to help on the prevention side of the blight. Officers advised the Center for Great Neighborhoods of safety tips for a revitalization project on Orchard Street.

The center is heading up property rehabs on the street, and police pointed out places that could be sight-line problems that could put residents and police officers in danger, figured out where lighting should go to ward off prowlers and recommended grates on basement windows to keep out burglars.

Before the group got involved, vacant houses were a nuisance for residents and police. "We were at those places every day," Jones said.

Calls to police to disheveled, empty properties include drug use, juvenile mischief, open doors, break-ins, and theft of copper and aluminum, Jones said.

The thousands of uninhabited properties left are a continuing problem for the city.

The city spends more than $85,000 per year just cutting grass at the properties. The police department gets call after call about suspicious activity at vacant buildings. Even unfounded calls take up patrol officers' time that could be spent more productively, Jones said.

City focuses on eliminating blight

Police, the Center for Great Neighborhoods and the city economic development department have been chipping away at the blight each in their own way.

The Covington Community Development Department began in 2012 to focusing on ridding the city of its "worst of the worst" properties. In 2013, the city razed 55 vacant structures. City Commission has approved another 40 this year.

The city also has a lawyer under contract who focuses on foreclosures, title issues and other legal issues that prevent properties from being revitalized. City officials plan to foreclose on up to 25 properties this year to try to sell them for productive purposes or tear down buildings that can't be saved.

The training will help the police, city and community leaders including the city's neighborhood associations understand one another so they can expand on their relationships and get the best solutions to public safety issues.

Rachel Hastings, director of neighborhood and housing initiatives for CGN, said the training will spill over to other areas the groups can work together on for all kinds of community safety issues.

"It's about working in a collaborative manner, working on the best possible ways of communicating," Hastings said.

The national training will give Covington something else, too, Hastings said.

"It puts Covington on the national map as a progressive leader in communication and public safety."

City's aging housing stock

• Covington has more than 3,000 vacant or abandoned housing units.

• 43 percent of Covington's rental units fall under the HUD definition of substandard: They lack complete plumbing or kitchen facilities, and/or have no heat source.

• 64 percent of Covington's housing was built before 1950.

Sources: City of Covington, Center for Great Neighborhoods