It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.GUEST COMMENTARY: The Value of Putting Housing Code Violations Online
Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 8:00 am - by Stephanie Marudas. Filed under: Uncategorized.
As a follow-up to our video about a suspended renters’ protection law in Philadelphia, we wanted to know what other cities do to protect renters. For fair comparison purposes, we thought Baltimore would be a good choice. After some research, we discovered that Baltimore gives renters the ability to find housing code violations online before they rent- something we think could benefit Philadelphia renters. So we invited Michael Braverman, Baltimore’s Deputy Commissioner for Code Enforcement, to tell us about the value of putting housing code violations online.
Click here to read Michael Braverman’s commentary
February 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
One deficiency we’ve found in the Baltimore Housing website — you can’t see what the actual violations were. The search results only bring up a violation notice number, and there’s no way to find out what the notice was issued for, and whether the problem was corrected.
Since housing code violations run from very minor to life-threatening, it would be helpful to know the seriousness of the violation right off the bat. Otherwise, you have to call the Housing Department’s office, and depending on who answers the phone, sometimes you don’t get the information you’re looking for. It would be great if they’d take it just one step further.