From 2017-2019, Hester Street partnered with the New York State Attorney General’s office to develop public education tools and materials to support municipal leaders in building equity into code enforcement policies and procedures.
In Phase One of the project, Hester Street worked to better understand the way equity choices play out in different code enforcement scenarios and city contexts, and how they affect the way in which the city addresses issues like foreclosure, abandonment and the disparate impacts of code enforcement on low-income communities of color.
In 2018, we embarked on Phase Two of the project in collaboration with Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the government technology firm Tolemi. We expanded our work to support 32 agencies across 10 upstate NY cities to build their capacity to engage communities and incorporate feedback into code enforcement practices in order to make them more equitable, just and inclusive, developing a toolkit to help cities have engaging conversations around code enforcement and housing. This toolkit includes a public education brochure, engagement tools and a manual to guide cities in putting together inclusive and effective community events.
In addition to the toolkit, Hester Street developed the following tools to support facilitators in leading community conversations on issues related to housing and code enforcement:
- Facilitation guide and engagement activities for prioritizing community needs;
- Facilitation guide and engagement activities for gathering community feedback on code enforcement issues