Neighborhood-by-Neighbor

The University of Memphis Center for Community Building and Neighborhood Action (CBANA) and the Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development (HCD) are pleased to announce the first city-wide problem property audit of Memphis. Neighborhood-by-Neighbor is an anti-blight project that brings the resources and technical assistance of an urban university to grassroots stakeholders, aiming to stabilize neighborhoods by demanding code compliance from owners of chronic problem properties. This initiative is an excellent example of how city and county efforts can collaborate with neighborhood action to create and reinstate viable, healthy neighborhoods in urban settings.

The goal of this project is to document blight and vacancy in our aging housing market through an organized inventory of all properties in violation of our city’s anti-blight housing code. The participation of our neighbors is the most crucial component of this project, and we need your help to make this project work. Data collection and volunteer recruitment will be coordinated by CBANA and the Problem Properties Collaborative (PPC), a grass-roots organization whose membership is open to all community based organizations interested in eradicating residential and commercial blight.

Beginning March 1st, 2008, interested volunteers in teams of two or more will drive down each street and document each blighted property using portable tablet PCs with built-in digital cameras running GIS (Geographic Information System) software. Your knowledge of the properties, neighborhoods, and its resources is important. The day of the survey, CBANA will train volunteers on common housing code violations and use of the GIS handheld computers.

Once data collection is complete, information about these blighted properties will be analyzed by CBANA and then distributed back to neighborhoods in the forms of maps and statistics. All community volunteers will be able to maximize this data in planning neighborhood projects. We are currently attending neighborhood associations, block club meetings, and requesting the assistance of volunteer agencies. The Neighborhood-by-Neighbor project provides an excellent opportunity for community members to use technical resources and community knowledge to strengthen neighborhoods from the ground up. If you are interested in volunteering for one five hour shift or more, click here to register as individuals, teams or organizations (Phone and mail registry is also available.)