Other stories on housing problems available from the IRE Resource Center:
Story#17226 New Times Los Angeles reported that "slum properties can be shuffled among a small cadre of co-conspirators, keeping law enforcement and housing activists at bay," revealing "how a slumlord managed to defy the best efforts of housing enforcement officials and his own tenants to bring a substandard building up to code, even when he was slapped with a $455,000 judgment."
Story#15948 The St. Paul Pioneer Press published a three-part report on "chronic problem properties" and the effect they have on the Twin Cities. "At the heart of the issue," the newspaper reported, "is a badly broken system, rife with legal loopholes, spotty enforcement and too few penalties for lawbreakers." The newspaper found that "more than 6,400 properties in St. Paul and another 22,000 in Minneapolis have failed to comply with housing codes for two years or longer," inspectors are unwilling to crack down on the offenders and "a small group of landlords account for a disproportionate number of complaints."
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