Clearing Baton Rouge's Blight Bottleneck
Hundreds of blighted properties are holding Baton Rouge back. Several BRAC-backed bills could move the region forward.
The US Census Bureau estimates there are more than 53,000 vacant homes across the Capital Region, about 14% of the regional housing stock. Not all vacancies are bad - hunting camps, for example, can be considered vacant if no one’s living in them full-time. Unoccupied homes for sale or rent can be considered vacant too. But even after removing these vacancies from consideration, more than 26,000 units in our region fall into the “other vacant” category, about one out of every fifteen houses. As it’s defined by the Census Bureau, “other vacant” includes homes that need extensive repairs, are abandoned, or are condemned.
Condemned or not, many of these properties have characteristics of blight. The term “blight” as it’s used today refers to physically neglected and dilapidated properties, but it also refers to a bureaucratic and political process. In East Baton Rouge, citizens can make service requests to the City-Parish through 311. Services requested may address junk removal on a property, missing windows or doors on a home, or the need to condemn or demolish a building due to serious physical neglect, all of which fall under the City-Parish’s definition of blight. These service requests make their way through the bureaucratic process by way of inspections and notices to property owners. Eventually, condemnation proceedings go in front of the Metro Council which has the final say whether to adopt a condemnation, defer it, or delete it from consideration.
Since 2016, there have been more than 64,000 calls for service in EBR for blight-related issues.1 That’s almost 19 calls per day, every day, for the last 3,400 days to address blight in our neighborhoods. All blight calls deserve attention, but we’re keenly focused on the more than 6,200 blight calls for properties that need to be condemned or torn down. These blighted structures make our communities less safe, lower property values, and strain our city’s resources.
What does the research say?
Blighted properties are directly associated with crime. Research in Baton Rouge has found that homicides are more likely to occur in locations where blighted properties are highly concentrated. It’s worth pointing out that blight specifically is associated with crime. This is important because, while lower income and disinvested neighborhoods are also associated with higher crime rates, blight specifically has been found to inspire criminal activity. One study found areas within 250 feet of a blighted property experienced a 19% increase in violent crime compared to areas between 250 and 350 feet away. Despite both areas being a part of the same neighborhood, it’s the physical neglect and abandonment of property that is associated with violent crime.
Blighted properties also have a direct, negative impact on nearby property values. One study published in 2006 found that homes within 150 feet of a boarded up, neglected property lost more than $7,000 in value while homes between 300 and 449 feet away lost $3,500 in value. It also found that a concentration of blighted properties - five or more on a block - reduced home values even further. Another study found that blight has significant impacts on home values within 500 feet and insignificant impacts beyond. These point to blight specifically driving down property values as opposed to the broader neighborhood.
One of the crime studies mentioned previously found that crime drops once an abandoned home is reoccupied. While reoccupation of an abandoned property is an important long-term goal, it may not be realistic in the short-term. Typically, the most realistic, immediate alternatives to blight are either 1) remediation of the issues by way of new windows, doors, or other renovations, or 2) demolition. Both strategies - remediation and demolition - have been found to be better alternatives for neighborhood wellness.
What’s East Baton Rouge doing about it?
East Baton Rouge Parish is not making enough progress. As of early April, there were more than 2,100 blight service requests that were “in progress” of being addressed. 476 of these were requests for properties to be condemned or torn down, 53% of which were initially made more than two years ago.
The Metro Council only hears up to 25 condemnation proceedings per meeting, but they don’t always hear 25. In the three Metro Council meetings between January 29 and February 26, there were 59 condemnation proceedings heard. 17% of the properties were deleted, meaning the structure won’t be condemned, and 39% were deferred for consideration at a later meeting.2 This means fewer than half of the proceedings led to condemnations. Deferrals also create a backlog of work for the City-Parish and has a tangible cost, as the deferred property must be inspected again before its next condemnation hearing.
There are some cases in which a deferral or deletion is warranted. The property owner may legitimately be making improvements, or the home was demolished by the property owner and no longer needs to be condemned. But too many condemnation proceedings are continually deferred or deleted-without-cause. Take this property as an example. The first complaint about this property was filed more than four years ago, yet it’s been allowed to exist in its deteriorated state since. At the February 26th Metro Council meeting, the condemnation proceeding was deleted despite no citizens speaking on its behalf.
Once the condemnation bottleneck is resolved, the next major hurdle for the new mayoral administration will be the cost of demolition. Due to legacy budgetary issues and a resulting hiring freeze, it is difficult for the City-Parish to sufficiently staff demolitions - whether performed in-house or contracted out. Compounding the challenge, many blighted structures contain asbestos, requiring costly remediation before demolition can proceed. To address these constraints, East Baton Rouge should partner with civically minded private-sector firms with demolition expertise to identify cost-effective solutions and reduce the backlog.
What’s BRAC doing about it?
This legislative session, BRAC is supporting several bills that will make significant improvements to the way East Baton Rouge Parish remediates blighted properties. These improvements will adopt rules similar to those in New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Opelousas, and Grambling that make it easier to revitalize abandoned properties and place them back into productive use. These changes have the potential to improve public safety, raise property values, and spur neighborhood redevelopment. In the coming weeks, BR By The Numbers will explore the blight reduction bills BRAC is championing and highlight the impact they could have on the Capital Region.
BRAC analysis of data from Open Data BR
BRAC analysis of East Baton Rouge Metro Council Meeting Minutes from January 29, February 12, and February 26, 2025