With the courts shut down due to COVID, our block club partners needed to pressure to property owners to address vacancy at a time of housing shortage. At the same, they needed to take over the City’s data collection responsibilities so that properties could be written for court in anticipation of its reopening.
Monthly in-person community meetings used to be the primary way information on building conditions was spread throughout the community. In lieu of that, we used physical property tagging, social media messages, and online surveys to keep social pressure high on scofflaws. Our Fellows wrote tools to help automate tasks, such as submitting reports to the City, to keep pressure high and have cases written for court even if they would have to wait to be prosecuted.
Community members do not always share the same concerns, so collecting their individual opinions is critical to help triage community action
Ensuring that the government has the information it needs to act is complicated. Standardizing reports and other form greatly improves results.
There are an overwhelming number of slumlords. Using automation to nudge municipalities through the compliance process is critical to escalate claims against scofflaws.
It is tempting to fall back into old ways. Using computer vision to analyze scofflaw compliance greatly increases community moral through improved response times.
Ellen Harris Harvey of the Trinidad Community Association discussing her association’s participation in this Awesome Buffalo supported project
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