Danville to study housing stock to pinpoint problem areas

Danville’s aging housing stock has been blamed at different times for high utility bills, giving neighborhoods a reputation for blight and attracting crime.

While city programs — such as Building Blocks, which has worked to improve the Westmoreland neighborhood — have made some headway in combating the problems of blight, poorly insulated houses and criminal behavior that blooms in neighborhoods with abandoned homes, city officials now want to do a comprehensive, citywide study of homes in Danville.

Jerry Rigney, director of inspections, said the city has hired nine students who either attend local colleges — or will be attending one in the fall — to drive through every neighborhood and do a visual inspection of every house in Danville.

Rigney said the students are currently being trained on what to look for — boarded up windows, junk in the yards, certain structural issues — and to fill out a report that will let officials know whether the homes are in good or poor condition.

Rigney said these will be “windshield” surveys — the students will not be leaving the vehicles, just doing a visual inspection, comparing the existing home to photos the city has on file, so they can complete a report. Any homes that earn a poor rating will get a return visit from city staff, who will inspect those properties more closely and take new photos of any homes that have changed dramatically.

The vehicles the students use will be city-owned trucks, with flashing yellow lights and signage that will let residents know students are there to do the Citywide Building and Property Condition Analysis.

Rigney estimates it will take until December for the students to complete the survey.

The data assembled will be used for several purposes, Rigney said:

w to analyze the present housing situation in Danville;

w to project existing and future housing potential and expectations; and

w to provide a process for educating and energizing the leadership and neighborhood groups in the city to take a more active role in improving existing housing stock, whether market-rate and low-income homes.

Dianne Morris, the city’s director of housing and development, said the Building Blocks program has steadily improved the Westmoreland neighborhood, but it’s almost a matter of “winning a battle, but losing the war” — while the city has focused on one neighborhood, others have become more rundown, she said.

Morris will take the data the students gather and break it down into various analyses that will include neighborhood demographics — as the number of families living below the poverty level and the percentage of homes that are owner-occupied — criminal activity, the percentage of empty homes (according to census data updated in 2006 and 2008, 14.2 percent of Danville’s housing stock is currently empty, Morris said) and other factors.

Once that data is all assembled, it will be turned over to Danville City Manager Joe King, who said the data will allow the city to come up with a comprehensive plan to deal with deterioration during fiscal year 2012 — and to present that plan to Danville City Council for review before the budget process begins next year.

“It will give us accurate date on where the problem is and how big the problem is,” King said.